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Ruud van Nistelrooy has fast-track pass to managing Manchester United

Ruud van Nistelrooy finally gets to manage a club that has won the Premier League title in the last decade. His dreams have come true. All that hard work has paid off.

He would undoubtedly prefer that team to play in red, but he now has a fast-track pass to the Old Trafford hot seat.

Leicester are the second favourites to be relegated with the bookies, despite the table saying four clubs are worse than them. That shows the gravity of the task at hand.

If Van Nistelrooy keeps them up he will have proven his pedigree to manage in the English top flight on a full-time basis.

But if the Foxes go down, the players, who showed their true colours by turning on Steve Cooper with an Enzo Maresca banner at their Christmas party, should rightfully take the brunt of the criticism. It's a win-win for Van Nistelrooy.

It also would have been difficult to say 'nein' to managing one of the greatest No. 9s, nine years after his record of scoring in consecutive Premier League matches was broken.

There is still life in old dog Jamie Vardy, even without his blistering pace.

And the wise head of Van Nistelrooy will help the 37-year-old sniff out even more chances and extend his career as a fox in the box.

Guardiola nail file

PEP GUARDIOLA should pack a nail file for his trip to Liverpool - not for style, but survival.

After scratching himself raw against Feyenoord, he'll be desperate to avoid Manchester City's wings being clipped any further.

Anything less than a win and City's title ambitions will be filed down to dangerous levels.

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