Ruud van Nistelrooy has lost a relegation battle but he could still win Manchester United’s manager of the year award. At least if Ruben Amorim does not bring silverware in the Europa League, anyway, because Van Nistelrooy’s record at Old Trafford – three wins from four, unbeaten – stands out in a year of underachievement. So does his record at Leicester, though in another respect: Van Nistelrooy averaged two points per game at United, a mere 0.4 with Leicester.
A strange season for him has been a dreadful one for Leicester. Relegation went from probability to inevitability, the respectability of their performance against Liverpool, as their fate was sealed, coming amid a wretched run of form. He hinted he wants to stay – Foxes never quit, after all – and may need to, his reputation sufficiently dented by the last five months that few others may be in a rush to appoint him but it would seem implausible if, when he holds talks with the club, they are keen to keep him.
“I expected to bring more points to the table,” said Van Nistelrooy. He brought a mere eight. He had never been in a relegation battle before as either player or manager. He seemed unsuited to it. Van Nistelrooy and Leicester, each on the rebound, rushed into a relationship with each other. He claimed he had “no regrets” about his time in charge. Privately, he should harbour plenty.
Leicester have lost 16 of their last 18 games under Van Nistelrooy. A man with many goalscoring records has a team with one of their own: nine consecutive home league games without a goal, none in more than five months. Since the middle of December, 22 Premier League goals have been scored at the King Power Stadium, none by Leicester.
There is an explanation of relegation there. Perhaps Leicester did not need Van Nistelrooy the manager as much as Van Nistelrooy the forward. Their other ageing but talismanic striker, Jamie Vardy, has been stuck on 198 Leicester goals for 10 games, his pace blunted by his 38 years. Vardy, the perpetual pest, has been sadly anonymous. However, two years ago, he started 19 Premier League games. In promotion from the Championship, it was 18. This year, in the top flight, it was 31. It is not Leicester’s fault, but somehow they became more reliant on Vardy. That, too, is revealing and damning.
There is mitigation. When Leicester went down two years ago, it was with a squad tipped for the top 10, with the seventh highest wage bill, with a team billed as too good to go down. James Maddison, Harvey Barnes and Youri Tielemans were promptly snaffled by top clubs. Now? There should be a top-flight taker for Mads Hermansen, who had a fine start to the season. Maybe for Wilfred Ndidi and Bilal El Khannouss, too, but not too many others. There will be few offers for a defence with a lone clean sheet and who have conceded 73 goals. “The difference is in the two boxes,” lamented Van Nistelrooy.
He had a point and there was some truth in his analysis of the macro footballing landscape. “Over 32, 33 games, the level of the three promoted sides, it is clear the difference in quality is there,” added the Dutchman. “The gap appears to be too big for promoted sides.”
For the second successive year, the three clubs that came up will go back down. And yet, if it is an inevitability, why take the job at all? Van Nistelrooy was not powerless, just as Leicester’s failings compounded a difficult context. This season should not have been so bad; their centre-back admitted as much. “Have we done enough this year? The answer is no,” said Conor Coady. “I think it is about how clubs prepare to play in the Premier League.”
Leicester prepared badly. Losing Enzo Maresca, their promotion-winning manager, and their best player, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, was far from ideal. But Leicester went from Maresca to Steve Cooper to Van Nistelrooy, three very different managers with different styles of play. They were not in the relegation zone when they sacked Cooper, which is not to say they would have stayed up under him. He felt a poor fit. He surely would have taken more than eight points from the last 20 games, though.
Van Nistelrooy has been shielded from the fans’ anger, which has been directed at Jon Rudkin, the director of football. They had few successes in recruitment, needing to sell Dewsbury-Hall for PSR but spending £20m on Oliver Skipp, who started just seven league games, proved disastrous. Van Nistelrooy was limited to one signing, the little-seen right-back Woyo Coulibaly. “In the winter window, there wasn't anything possible to strengthen, and that’s what the team really needed,” he rued.
Once again, the job wasn’t quite what he realised. Should he keep it, the circumstances could provide further problems. Leicester’s status shifts regularly, from surprise champions to top-four challengers back to a yo-yo club. Now, there could be a threat, an issue that could make it harder to bounce back up. It remains to be seen if, when they are back under the auspices of the EFL, they are charged with breaching Financial Fair Play for their past overspending.
Other numbers have caused concern. They have a mere 18 points and could end with the lowest points tally in their history. They have no league goal at the King Power in 2025, setting a Premier League record for most home games without finding the net. They had a team who couldn’t score or win, dissent in the stands and disappointment on the pitch. For Van Nistelrooy, as for Leicester, it could scarcely have gone much worse.
