Van Nistelrooy future lies away from Man Utd as Wolves, West Ham eyes on three-game audition

Ruud van Nistelrooy staying at Manchester United makes even less sense than him joining. He should be treating the next three games as an audition for Wolves or West Ham.

“I’m here to serve” isn’t a line typical of your fearless, authoritative Big Club manager and there would be some concern among the Manchester United fanbase should Ruben Amorim give such a subservient response in an opening press conference when we suspect they’re hoping for closer to the Jose Mourinho end of the Billy Big Bollocks spectrum.

Ruud van Nistelrooy will hope his reply to being asked about working under Amorim would showcase his commitment and love of the football club while also letting the manager-elect know that he will bow to his supremacy and not step on toes despite reports suggesting he was also in line for the permanent position.

But if Van Nistelrooy’s appointment as Ten Hag’s assistant made little sense, remaining at the club now he’s gone makes none whatsoever.

We’re still not sure how he came to be on United’s coaching staff in the first place. Having earned heft and respect through his work at PSV Eindhoven it was considered quite the coup by the Old Trafford chiefs to lure him to the club in the summer in a doomed bid to suddenly turn Ten Hag into a suitable manager from below, with many assuming he arrived on the proviso that if (when) his compatriot was sacked he would be handed the reins.

Whether that was the plan and that changed because of Ten Hag’s expedited departure or perhaps Van Nistelrooy’s lack of impact as his assistant we don’t and probably won’t know, but he’s now left in a position where he either walks (or is walked) away from Manchester United or works under a manager who a) probably doesn’t want or need him and b) is nine years his junior and has four years’ less coaching experience.

Huge respect if he can take what could be construed as something at least approaching humiliation on the chin, but we would advise against Van Nistelrooy accepting what would presumably be the role of assistant to Amorim’s assistants and leave when the new boss arrives, either with his head held high and his reputation bolstered or with his ego bruised, depending on how his three-game audition for a Premier League top job goes.

It would have been an incredibly bold move for Van Nistelrooy not to take interim charge out of loyalty to Ten Hag and he’s off to a good start with a 5-2 win over Leicester in the Carabao Cup, and the next three games he’s set to manage thanks to Sporting digging their heels in over Amorim’s 30-day notice period are unlikely to break his career thanks to this extreme narrative built under Ten Hag that this is a squad entirely unworthy of the Manchester United name, these games against Chelsea, PAOK and Leicester may well make it.

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A beneficial quirk of the fixture list means all four of Van Nistelrooy’s games in interim charge are at Old Trafford, where he enjoyed the return of ‘attack, attack, attack’ chants on Wednesday as the crowd experienced some of the “passion and energy” he demanded ahead of the game from a team that let out a 90-minute sigh of relief.

There wasn’t a notable change in tactics, which would have been a stretch given his limited time in charge of the squad, but clear signs of greater togetherness from a team that’s looked fractured at best this season and for most of last.

We may see slight alterations in style and some of the Van Nistelrooy ethos shining through in the next couple of weeks, but the attitude of the players, the way in which he deals with the media and the general vibe around Manchester United will be the metrics piquing the interest of club owners, with his tactical nous evident from his season with PSV Eindhoven.

His work with the Eredivisie club put him at the top of Burnley’s shortlist before Manchester United came calling and Premier League owners who were unsure about pursuing Van Nistelrooy will only warm to the Dutchman as a result of what only really need to be half-decent displays from the Red Devils to prove himself worthy of a top-flight job.

Gary O’Neil, Julen Lopetegui and Russell Martin will be chief among the wary Premier League managers hoping Van Nistelrooy either has a nightmare in the next fortnight or makes the ill-informed decision to remain at Old Trafford out of misplaced loyalty to a club he owes nothing.

Van Nistelrooy may be the Manchester United manager one day but his future is very clearly elsewhere for now.