This from Clive Tyldesley in the Torygraph
If it's true what they say about nice guys finishing last, Ruud van Nistelrooy must be a right nasty piece of work.
Manchester United's serial goalscorer has been accused of all sorts of things
during his three headline years in English football. But whether he is breaking
records or breaking the peace, nobody can deny he is simply the best at what he does. A club with United's profile need a centre-forward who gets himself talked about. They've been talking of nothing else in north London just lately.
Van Nistelrooy is a team man, a wonderful player for others to play with. But he knows how to look after himself first and foremost. He has to. There is an
unwritten law for the jungle in which strikers prowl. Roughly translated, it reads
"get your retaliation in first".
Van Nistelrooy's successor as the recipient of the ugliest foul of the week award is not a Machiavellian defender but Italy's most talented forward, Francesco Totti. His two-footed stamp in Roma's game in Leverkusen on Wednesday would have made the Springbok pack wince.
I recently asked a former professional player to name his top five "good guys off the pitch but bad baskets on it". The words "Mark Hughes" spilled out of his
mouth before I had finished the question. The Blackburn manager remains the
honorary life president of the Self Preservation Society of Premiership forwards.
Their weapons of self-defence may be becoming more disguised and distasteful. Clever forwards push and pull and pinch opponents as expertly as their man-
markers, they work referees and linesmen like puppeteers, they practise innocent looks in the dressing-room mirror.
They are also developing memories as long as the most vengeful defenders. Van Nistelrooy's challenge on Ashley Cole was outrageous. Every bit as outrageous as the Arsenal pack's hounding of him last year. Touché.
Nothing excuses such damning incidents. The Manchester United tunnel dossier
could uncover a plot to overthrow the monarchy but it won't make Van
Nistelrooy's foul any more palatable. Even in football, a faint whisper of right and wrong can still be heard through the din of childish counter claims.
But the reality of Premiership parklife is that the players accept their punishments so they can return to the business of exacting their own justice. Van Nistelrooy took the three-match rap quickly enough to somehow swallow the disappointment of missing United's Carling Cup trip to Crewe. He vented his frustration at sitting out this weekend's Manchester derby on Sparta Prague.
Forty-one goals in 45 Champions League games is an irrefutable case for
greatness. It is a strike rate from a bygone era against state of the art defences and tactics. High scoring at the highest level. Earlier this season, he single-
handedly dragged United back into a match in Lyons. He is both workhorse and
thoroughbred, target man and hit man, a one-man forward line or a perfect strike partner, a player appreciated by coaches and fans alike.
Always amiable and cooperative in interviews, he is not paid for his
ambassadorial qualities. Van Nistelrooy is paid to break hearts. His lifestyle is a
model, his recovery from serious injury an inspiration, his achievements a matter of record. If the picture of innocence is sometimes stained by images of dark and devious blots, start counting contemporary world-class strikers without a case to answer. No more Mr. Nice Guys.