Ruud van Nistelrooy

Probably my favourite United player ever. Villa away in the cup.

I didn't like his attitude towards the end, absolutely stunk up the place. Before that remember he flirted with other clubs (notably barcelona) for a couple of seasons and asked Fergie if he could leave...
Not the kind of player you would want when things are going against you. Questionable character.

Later on he also slowed down our play with his lumbering style.

I celebrated when he left it meant we could regularly play our quick counter-attacking football with our fast three pronged attack in Rooney, ronaldo and Saha..(later Tevez)

Originally Posted by Red Santos

I didn't like his attitude towards the end, absolutely stunk up the place. Before that remember he flirted with other clubs (notably barcelona) for a couple of seasons and asked Fergie if he could leave...
Not the kind of player you would want when things are going against you. Questionable character.

Later on he also slowed down our play with his lumbering style.

I celebrated when he left it meant we could regularly play our quick counter-attacking football with our fast three pronged attack in Rooney, ronaldo and Saha..(later Tevez)

Agree it was the right time for him to go & Saha was by far the better option. Also agree about him wanting to leave far earlier than he did.

He had bottle though; probably the only player who didn't bottle it in the 3-1 defeat in The Bernabeu.

Originally Posted by Red Santos

I didn't like his attitude towards the end, absolutely stunk up the place. Before that remember he flirted with other clubs (notably barcelona) for a couple of seasons and asked Fergie if he could leave...
Not the kind of player you would want when things are going against you. Questionable character.

Later on he also slowed down our play with his lumbering style.

I celebrated when he left it meant we could regularly play our quick counter-attacking football with our fast three pronged attack in Rooney, ronaldo and Saha..(later Tevez)

This. Was £#%&!ing awesome for the first 2 seasons, then he had that injury and never quite reached the same level of performance, or investment tbh. Wanted shut of him for 18 months before he went. Wanted him replaced with a little known striker from France at the time as well, Didier Drogba

superbly instinctive striker and, as others have said, he had that sense of what united are about. the villa game was a classic.

still wish he'd stuck that £#%&!ing penalty away though. i always come back to it with him. also leverkusen away and the 2005 cup final.

Originally Posted by andyroo

http://youtu.be/PvMWDVRenCU

I was in the Caribbean when that game took place, didn't see any of it until I got home some weeks later, as a result it doesn't seem real and is always absent from my memory because I didn't see it live

Originally Posted by Buck

Can throw Falcao in there. Atletico finished 5th and 3rd in his two seasons and never in the Champions League. They won Europa but that's a bit meh.

Falcao leaves and they become league champions and CL runners up and they were only a minute off from doing the unthinkable tbf.

Falcao joins the champions of England this season and now they're languishing close to the relegation zone

Didn't know it was rio that ruud tried to punch after rio protested about an ugly tackle by rvn on ronaldo in training.

Ruud seemed like a bit of a balotelli in training, just lucky theres never been pics of it happening.

Originally Posted by Grimson

Not so much coincidental as incidental - many other factors played into results.

Look the goalscoring records in title-winning seasons of the likes of Teddy, Shearer, Henry, Yorke, Cole, Ronaldo, Drogba, Berbatov, RVP, Aguero, and of course Ruud, for some balance.

Miss my point - the examples I gave showed teams who were successful (before and after) without those individual goalscorers - but had lean periods (in comparison) when those players were there and breaking individual records.

best finisher I've ever seen

Originally Posted by armchair

best finisher I've ever seen

Agreed.

Outstanding.

ruud was superb at his best.

watching that vid, though, just makes me want to cry. the concept of only needing one man in or near the box if you actually pick him out. the runners taking men on. the times we had five men in the box anyway.

Originally Posted by wee man

Miss my point - the examples I gave showed teams who were successful (before and after) without those individual goalscorers - but had lean periods (in comparison) when those players were there and breaking individual records.

They are still just isolated examples.

There are other examples of teams who were successful without individual goalscorers, and still successful with them.

Originally Posted by wee man

Miss my point - the examples I gave showed teams who were successful (before and after) without those individual goalscorers - but had lean periods (in comparison) when those players were there and breaking individual records.

I got it. You asked if it was coincidence (presumably suggesting it was not?), and I said in my view, it was something close to that. In all those cases, there are many reasons for why the teams finished where they did, apart from one player.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPkU3ers148

Originally Posted by Mr Kaboom

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPkU3ers148

Wonderful.

Seems a lifetime ago

Originally Posted by silv

Seems a lifetime ago

Yeah cos its been absolute dogshit ever since.

The guy was a machine, we got our goals out of him and cast him aside like a really bad turtleneck on antiques roadshow

Originally Posted by waynes ear's

Yeah cos its been absolute dogshit ever since.

The guy was a machine, we got our goals out of him and cast him aside like a really bad turtleneck on antiques roadshow

Originally Posted by silv

Seems a lifetime ago

Its actually just nine years since he left. Seems longer because the subsequent time has been so.........eventful.

Originally Posted by waynes ear's

Yeah cos its been absolute dogshit ever since.

Yeah cos the 3 titles we won in a row, the champions league win in 2008, the title again in 2010 and 2013 was horrible.

What a £#%&!ing #@&%! you really are.