The news that we had signed Robin van Persie last summer took me back to almost 20 years ago when I found we'd bought Andy Cole. Having scored 41 goals in 45 games the season before for Newcastle and 15 goals in 27 games by January of 1994-1995, he was the most exciting striker in the league, and he was ours.
This article titled "Euro 2012 special, part two: when did Holland last play without a 'van'?"
was written by Barry Glendenning, James Dart and Rob Smyth, for guardian.co.uk on Wednesday 13th
June 2012 08.35 UTC
"When was the last time Holland played an international fixture without any players with
'van' in their name on the pitch or substitutes' bench?
As a manager, Sir Alex Ferguson was known for his menacing glare, barking at referees and violent gum chewing during matches. Now that he's retired, he must find activities to keep him busy during games and at a charity match between the Man United legends and Real Madrid legends, he might've found one: doing the wave.
Here is a look at the top La Liga players available on Bosman transfers this summer.
With the financial crisis that is engulfing La Liga, many teams will be working on a shoestring
transfer budget this summer. The good news, though, is that there are plenty of bargains to be had
as every club in La Liga, bar Real Madrid and Barcelona, will be releasing players for free this
summer.
Big spending Malaga are set to splash the money this season with Manchester City strikers
Emmanuel Adebayor and Edin Dzeko reportedly high on their wish list
Manager Manuel Pellegrini has told the club that he wants to bring in a quality striker to
replace the retiring Ruud Van Nistelrooy and has targeted one of the two out of favor Man City
strikers.
Feel free to cross Raul off the last of potential summer MLS arrivals.
The Spanish striker signed a one-year deal with Al Sadd in Qatar, signalling the next move in
his legendary career. Raul, who turns 35 next month, played two seasons with German club Schalke,
with his final match with the team coming at PPL Park in a friendly against the Philadelphia Union
last week.
Sad news today coming from Malaga with the news that Ruud Van Nistelrooy has retired from
football aged 35. Ruud helped Malaga to qualify for Champions League football in his final game for
the club, but now he feels that he physically can't play at the level that he wants to, and as much
as he'd love to play in the Champions League next year he can't afford to do so.
Barcelona will be hoping Atletico Madrid will do them a favour in the Madrid derby as La Liga
packs in a full round of games midweek.
Atletico host Real Madrid on Wednesday but in bad news for Barcelona, Atletico have failed to
defeat their local rivals in 20-straight clashes.
A win for Atletico would be their first since the 1999/2000 season and would give Barcelona a
chance to move within one point of Real Madrid at the top of the table.
Sir Alex Ferguson was one of the greatest football managers of all time. In over 26 years in charge of Manchester United, his passion for winning and tactical flair made them the most successful club in the Premier League. Under his guidance, United won an eye-watering 38 trophies, including 13 league championships.
Sir Alex Ferguson's Greatest XI - originally posted on Soccerlens.com
Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson takes charge of his last ever game at the club against West Brom next Sunday, after over 26 years at Old Trafford.
Alex Ferguson and his grandchildren celebrating Manchester United's 20th title
Here is Alex Ferguson's all-time greatest XI in his time at Old Trafford:
GK Peter Schmeichel
Signed in 1991, Peter Schmeichel became one of the greatest 'keepers of all time by the end of his illustrious career.
Ruud van Nistelrooy never really had any interest in management during his playing days at Manchester United. But after ending his career at Malaga, he has had plenty of time to contemplate his future plans, and now he wants to get into management! Come September and Ruud will be starting his coaching badges with PSV in Holland to get some coaching experience with them.
Manchester United manager, Sir Alex Ferguson, is often praised for his shrewd transfer dealings that have brought so much success to Old Trafford over his 26-year tenure. Rio Ferdinand, Eric Cantona, Ruud van Nistelrooy, and a young Cristiano Ronaldo all arrived under various levels of scrutiny but rose to become title winners for Ferguson and his Red Devils.
Former Manchester United striker Ruud van Nistelrooy has backed his fellow countryman Robin van Persie to succeed at Old Trafford after witnessing the striker's red hot start to his United career. van Nistelrooy returned to Old Trafford a week ago for the unveiling of Sir Alex Ferguson's statue outside the North Stand, and was delighted to see another Dutchman maintaining such an impressive goals per game ratio.
Along with the entire first-team squad and around 2,500 fans, a smattering of former Manchester United luminaries were present last night as Sir Alex Ferguson's long-overdue statue was unveiled outside Old Trafford, withEric Cantona, Edwin van der Sar, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Peter Schmeichel and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer all turning out for the occassion.
Ryan Giggs: slightly overrated? - originally posted on Soccerlens.com
Ryan Giggs made his Manchester United debut in 1991, and 21 years later he is still an integral part of Sir Alex Ferguson's squad. He is the most decorated player in the history of English football, including an astonishing 12 Premier League titles, and he is United's all time record appearance holder.
Hello!: The difficulty in attempting a series such as this is that nothing is ever definitive; and that probably, alljudgementsare instinctive. The deadly sins overlap, where someone's idea of ‘wrath' could conceivably be filed under ‘pride' by another, ‘lust' for ‘greed', ‘greed' for ‘envy' or ‘gluttony' and so forth.
Park Ji-Sung has enjoyed a very successful career at Manchester United but the South Korea
international has revealed some of the cultural challenges that made his journey very challenging
at times.
The 31-year old midfielder spent time in Japan and Holland before venturing into the English top
flight seven years ago.
We not totally distracted by the tongue. We're suckers for sad, teary eyes to0. Image:Â REUTERS/Jon
Nazca.
Having spent several years titillating us with various protruding body parts, it seems fitting
that Ruud van Nistelrooy should sign off his illustrious career with a cheeky tongue pop.
After a successful career that included stints at Manchester United and Real Madrid, Ruud van
Nistelrooy has announced his retirement. Nistelrooy will likely be considered one of the greatest
strikers ever with over 300 goals scored and top goalscorer awards in multiple leagues. He recently
finished this past season playing for Malaga and helped them finish in fourth to earn a UEFA
Champions League spot.
10 of the best Dutch footballers in recent years - originally posted on Soccerlens.com
The Netherlands international team go into this summer's Euro 2012 tournament as one of the
favourites and frontrunners, with quality throughout Bert van Marwijk's side.
However, unfortunately the Eredivisie has lost its ability to keep the best homegrown players in
the country and Ajax's UEFA Champions League glory of 1995 seems like an eternity ago.
As mentioned in the last section, Ferguson's long transition to a system that would work in Europe was one of the greatest challenges of his career, but he was wise that he had taken the time before to make himself untouchable. For it was a return to the bad old days of ta-ra Fergie the two things that individually are acceptable but together United fans will not tolerate.
When Chelsea won their first league title in 1955, Sir Matt Busby paid them the respect of a guard of honour, with our players applauding the new champions on to the pitch. It was the final day of the season and United beat the newly crowned champions 2-1 thanks to goals from Albert Scanlon and Tommy Taylor.
Soooo, Ruud van Nistelrooy turned up to the annual 'Parade of the Three Kings' in Marbella, Spain dressed like this...
'Belshazzar, King of Babylon' if you were wondering. Apparently Ruud, along with the other two kings, rode through the streets of Marbella in an open-top car before visiting a local hospital and handing out gifts to the staff and sweets to the children.
Malaga are reportedly preparing an offer for Arsenal forward Nicklas Bendtner.
The 24-year-old Denmark international, who has two years remaining on his Gunners contract, is
looking to move away from the Emirates Stadium this summer after Arsenal signed forwards Lukas
Podoski and Olivier Giroud this summer.
Malaga's Champions League gets even bigger as they managed to sneak into third place, surpassing
Valencia after Manuel Pellegrini's boys convincingly defeated 10 men Racing Santander 3-0.
Despite missing a penalty in the early minutes, goals from Isco, Santi Cazorla and Ruud Van
Nistelrooy were more than enough to lift them up a place, giving more hope on their European dream
by the end of season.
Manchester United's first home game of the brilliant 2006/2007 season was that 5-1 stuffing of
Fulham. We sold our top scorer, Ruud van Nistelrooy and didn't buy a replacement. We brought in
Michael Carrick as our new number 16 but there weren't many who had him as their first choice to
replace Roy Keane.
"What the fuck were you doing?" Arsene Wenger shouted at Robin van Persie as he trudged off the
field, following his second yellow card, soon after the second half kicked off with Arsenal a goal
down against Southampton. It was the end of February and van Persie's sixth ever start in the
league, after usually being kept on the bench late in to the game before replacing Robert Pires or
Freddie Ljungberg.
"What the fuck were you doing?" Arsene Wenger shouted at Robin van Persie as he trudged off the
field, following his second yellow card, soon after the second half kicked off with Arsenal a goal
down against Southampton. It was the end of February and van Persie's sixth ever start in the
league, after usually being kept on the bench late in to the game before replacing Robert Pires or
Freddie Ljungberg.
Arsenal captain Robin Van Persie was yesterday named the PFA Player of the Year after an amazing
12 months that has seen him break and establish new records with the Gunners.
Van Persie pipped Manchester players Wayne Rooney, Sergio Aguero, David Silva and Joe Hart to
win the award. The 28 year old striker is currently the league's top scorer with 27 goals.
Ruud van Nistelrooy is resting. He's kicking the pro footballer life. But the fan in him wakes
up. "I won't miss a minute of this EC. Whenever I had to watch a tournament at home I was grumpy
but this time I will enjoy. Like a supporter."
Football Injuries and Modern Footballers [INFOGRAPHIC] - originally posted on Soccerlens.com
It's the bane of a footballer's life. Not a salary cap, not kiss-and-tell scandals or even the
dreaded, and eternally-blamed Credit Crunch (always a capital C for Credit Crunch). No, for any
footballer- amateur or professional- the fear of injury is the biggest of all.
Van Nistelrooy sustained an injury in a friendly match with Danish side Silkeborg, tearing the
medial ligament in his right knee and he had his leg placed in a cast.
April 9th 2000 No to Rangers
Ruud turns down a move to Rangers after the Scottish club put in a £15m bid for him.
This pic sums up Van Nistelrooy: committed, strong-willed, successful and focused.
Yesterday, Bert van Marwijk did the decent thing. He called former Oranje striker Ruud van
Nistelrooy. While every normal person in Holland is considering where to go on a summer's break,
Bert knew Ruud was telling his kids they'd probably [read more]
Dutch legend Ruud van Nistelrooy along with two other former PSV stars are featured in a new PSV/Nike promotional video to promote the club's new home shirt and to celebrate PSV Eindhoven's 100-year anniversary as a soccer club.
Van Nistelrooy played for PSV from 1998 to 2001 before joining Manchester United.
