Five months ago, when Leicester City were seeking a successor to Enzo Maresca, Ruud van Nistelrooy was not under consideration.
City would have known of his keenness to get back into management a year on from his season at PSV. But he was not thought about as a contender for the job. Graham Potter, Carlos Corberan and Steve Cooper were the managers more closely contemplated, the latter eventually winning out.
So, in those five months, what has changed? Firstly, Van Nistelrooy has spent some time coaching in the Premier League. Since taking charge, King Power have never appointed a manager who didn’t have at least some coaching experience in England.
Van Nistelrooy now has that. Three months alongside Erik ten Hag and then a couple of weeks as interim boss have thrust him into the limelight and given him a taste of being in a Premier League dugout.
Maybe City’s thoughts have changed too. Perhaps, because of the concerns they had with the direction under Cooper, they are looking for different qualities. Maybe Premier League experience, of which Van Nistelrooy only has a smidgen, is no longer a key factor, although Graham Potter and David Moyes were asked the question in the immediate wake of Cooper’s sacking.
Maybe finding someone who can connect with the squad is a greater consideration, given the struggle Cooper had in getting full buy-in from the players. Van Nistelrooy has a reputation as one of the greatest goalscorers of his generation and as someone who made an instant impact on the United players. He should get immediate respect.
But, despite his standing in the game, he’s not one of these managers who has been promoted straight to the top just because of their quality on the pitch. Van Nistelrooy has done the hard yards, his coaching career beginning more than a decade ago, the former striker working his way up from PSV Under-17s.
Once he took charge of the first team at PSV, he did well, all things considered. Yes, they are expected to compete at the top of the Eredivisie. They finished second, seven points behind Arne Slot’s Feyenoord, and won the Dutch Cup.
Van Nistelrooy also built himself a reputation for strong attacking play, PSV finishing as the top scorers in the division. That is in stark contrast to Cooper, who, in his time at Nottingham Forest in the Premier League, played defence-first football.
But that’s probably not a fair comparison to make. One team were competing at the bottom, the other were at the top. That leads to one of the question marks over Van Nistelrooy.
His whole career, both when playing and when coaching, has been with teams competing at the top end, working alongside the best in the division and vying for titles. That is not the position City are in. For Van Nistelrooy, a relegation battle is unknown territory, something he's never been involved in.
It may be that the expectation for victory, as is the case at United, Real Madrid and PSV, can transfer well to City. But they won’t be able to clinch three points most weeks and that’s going to be something new for Van Nistelrooy to deal with.
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Intriguingly, his set-up during his season with PSV alternating between that used by Enzo Maresca and that used by Cooper, with the latter appearing to be his preference. There are two ways of viewing that. It could ease the transition for the City players, but equally may not feel like enough of a change from a system that wasn’t producing results.
Perhaps the biggest concern will be how Van Nistelrooy’s PSV spell ended. Officially, he resigned, with the club saying he felt there was a lack of support. Selling the club’s two leading attackers in Cody Gakpo and Noni Madueke in January won’t have helped.
But equally, there were reports of fall-outs with players and his assistant managers. City can’t afford any internal turmoil as they look to maintain their Premier League status.
For now, there is excitement. Van Nistelrooy is different enough to Cooper to feel like a clean break for City, and that helps with the mood around the club. If that goodwill can be channelled into performances, City should be fine come May.
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