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Van Hanegem: Van Nistelrooy deserves respect from Madrid!

August 13th, 2009 | By: Jan | 22 Comments »

Willem’s column in the AD:

I’m glad that Klaas Jan Huntelaar found a good club in AC Milan. Not that I ever worried about him, in the last weeks. A striker like Huntelaar will always find a good club, but I think Italy and Milan are better suited to him than Stuttgart. The latter is a fine club, but AC Milan is a football temple and most players can only dream of playing there.

The same can be said of Real Madrid, his old club. But, in Spain, they seemd to have lost the plot a bit. I’ve been following the news with a growing feeling of dread. All that chucking money around is madness. And the Dutch players there seem to cop the negative side-effects. No one can explain to me that suddenly Van der Vaart, Sneijder and Robben aren’t good enough anymore. Only Royston Drenthe seems to do well in Madrid at the moment. For as long as it takes.

I’ve learned to create balance in teams and in clubs as a whole. Sure, you’d like to have big name players. They’re not big name for nothing. The fans love them and identify with them, the sponsors want them to sell their product, they can push the level of the team up, most of the times… Makes sense. But to have three or four of those big signings in one season, while you already have players like Raul, Robben, Sneijder and Higuain is utter madness. As a coach, you want to manage the hierarchy and group dynamics as well. For one, if the president determines who gets signed, I would advice the coach – whoever it is – to walk away. And for the future of the club, it would be really good – look at Barcelona – to develop your own talent. It’s cheaper, it’s a better investment for the future and it’s a clear signal to any talent in Spain: come to Madrid, we’ll take care of you. Today, any big talent in Spain will most probably want to move to Barcelona or even Valencia or Villareal. But not to Madrid!

They did it before in Madrid: buy all the big names in Europe and the silverware will follow. Well, it doesn’t work that way in football. Otherwise all the rich clubs in Europe (Juventus, AC Milan, Inter Milan, Man United, Bayern Munich, Liverpool) would work this way. And they don’t. And in the meantime, good and adventurous coaches found their grave – symbolically of course – in Madrid. Names like Guus Hiddink, Fabio Capello and Bernd Schuster, to name but a few.

Which brings me to Ruud van Nistelrooy. I sincerely hope that within the reigning madness in Madrid, they will treat Ruud with respect. It would be a downright disgrace if Madrid would brush him aside. I can’t imagine an institute like Real Madrid to act this way, but anything goes in football nowadays, and most certainly in Madrid.

Ruud should be beyond questioning. Beyond debate. If he’s fit – which is still a questionmark for now – Ruud delivers. He scores where ever he plays. Den Bosch, Heerenveen, PSV, Oranje, Manchester United, Real Madrid…check his stats. It’s goals goals goals. And as a player, not many people have actually seen this, but has developed tremendously over the last years. He does more than scoring. He allows others to play better, he coaches and leads and he sets attacks up, for others to finish. A big player with a big heart. Most people thought Wesley Sneijder was the big man of the EC2008, for me, it was Ruud. He played as a deep playmaker. Constantly fighting and pushing forward and I vividly remember his trickery against France, setting up the second goal – I believe – of Van Persie against France. He did it with a Zidane like pirouette. Van Nistelrooy was never lauded for his technical skills, even Johan had to mention this once on TV – saying Ruud was limited… But he isn’t. He never was. If you can score goals the way he does, you’re a total football player. Check the clips on YouTube: Ruud can do them all… Lobs, chips, rockets, tap-ins, headers, inside foot, outside foot, he has the footwork, he has the eye and vision but most of all, he has the work rate.

Ruud deserves a real chance in Real Madrid. As a player and as a human being. He fought through two major injuries. Some players can’t make it through one. I highly admire him. He keeps on fighting for his come back, day in day out. And he’s always positive. And why? He doesn’t need to do it for the money, not for his ego… What else does he have to prove to the world? Nothing. But this is a player with that old fashioned mentality. Wanting to be the best and to give it his all.

To be honest, I don’t know if I would have the strength and mentality to do what he did.

When we discuss the best players of the nation, it’s always the same list. Cruyff, Keizer, Van Basten, Bergkamp and now Sneijder and Van Persie. And these names belong on that list. But Ruud van Nistelrooy is up there with the best of them, for me.

And if Real Madrid feels they don’t need Huntelaar or Van der Vaart, they should allow them to leave at reasonable conditions. But Ruud van Nistelrooy deserves more than that. Van Nistelrooy deserves the chance to show the new signings what it means to be a class act.

Tags: Drenthe, Group C, Real Madrid, Robben, Sneijder, Van Hanegem, van Nistelrooy

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Comments

By Kevin | August 13th, 2009 at 12:04 pm

Agree

Posted from United States

By Thang | August 13th, 2009 at 12:45 pm

Very good reading.

Posted from United States

By Bart | August 13th, 2009 at 12:58 pm

Van Nistelrooy was one of the main reasons they even got those last two Liga cups.

Posted from Canada

By David | August 13th, 2009 at 1:13 pm

brilliant. also interesting fact in the past 3 years at madrid ruud has 58 goals in 84 apps while raul had 59 in 127 apps. just interesting nobody gives ruud much credit for his hand in madrids two la liga titles. Ruud van Goal best forward of this century

Posted from United States

By Jeff | August 13th, 2009 at 1:52 pm

Jan great article. I agree 100% with you. Ruud is top class. We will miss him at the WC unless he decides to come back. It never ceases to amaze me how underrated Dutch players are in general. Even a guy like Seedorf at his prime was never recognized. Bergkamp never won the Ballon d”or or the FIFA player of the year. Look at the Goal.com list of the top 50 players for the year and only Robben and VDS are in it. Truly amazing.

David, thanks for pointing this fact about Ruud and Raul. Most people including me didn’t know that.

Posted from United States

By Paul | August 13th, 2009 at 2:01 pm

Ha that almost made me sad…the end of an era of a true great, Dutch or not, EVERYONE respects Ruud. And i remember him setting up the goal against France…beautiful. Ruud is such a class act, Sneijder cannot be mentioned in the same breath…Sneijder? Most important to him seems to be his love life, hes a complete mess right now, and inconsistent. Ruud has always been consistitently consistent at scoring goals at an amazing rate…

Should also be remembered his best years did not come until after 25…so huntelaar has time to develop into another true great. LEts see what happens, but Ruud…we will always love you.

By Mario | August 13th, 2009 at 2:43 pm

Totally agree with van Hanegem. Ruud´s is more dangerous than Benzema, Raúl and Higuain all together. Romario and Batistuta-just to mention two famous strikers- played until their late 30´s and they did very well, of course not at their best but they still delivered.

I understand Madrid´s worry about Ruud´s age and that he had a major injury but they could show some respect to a player who has won the goalscorer title in 3 different countries: Netherlands, England and Spain. What an asshole is Florentino Perez.

Jeff, Dutch players are underrated because they need to win more trophies and specially with the National Team. I remember when Holland was European Champion in 1988 how van Basten and Gullit were winning the Balon D´Oro and with Milan they continued winning titles and that´s why van Basten managed to be selected as the best European player for 3 times. If Holland wins next year´s World Cup the chances that a Dutch player can win an important prize will increase dramatically. What Holland needs is to win the World Cup, now Dutch players have good recognition and image Worldwide but if Oranje wins a World Cup then the Dutch players will be even more valuable and have a better reputation everywhere they go.

By Jason | August 13th, 2009 at 2:45 pm

The year Ruud tranferred to RM he was the Pichichi and RM would NOT have won the title without him. No other superstar of football can make as big an impact on a team as Ruud. He grabbed the Spanish competition by the scruff of the neck whie everyone else in Madrid was sucking. If they bench him this year, Real Madrid will be dead to me.

Posted from Canada

By Jason | August 13th, 2009 at 2:47 pm

I named my fighting fish Ruud Van Nistlerooy. Sadly he passed away but the real Ruud lives on and scores goals in my fishes memory!

Posted from Canada

By susanne | August 13th, 2009 at 3:57 pm

A fish called Ruud

Posted from Netherlands

By Jeff | August 13th, 2009 at 4:09 pm

Good point Mario. You are right on. Look at everyone jumping on the bandwagon after Barca and Spain won the CL and the euro respectively. Before that nobody really cared about Spanish players. Let’s hope Ajax and Holland win.

Posted from United States

By Mario | August 13th, 2009 at 4:42 pm

Yes Jeff. It´s what happens when you have success…suddenly everybody likes you and you are the best in the world but if you fail nobody will remember you. It´s a pity that the world moves that wat but that happens in life, business and of course in football.

About Oranje…I highlight some things after the game vs. England:

A) Holland needs to change their defence.
B) Players like Braafheid and Schaars are gaining more and more experiencie with Holland.
C) Van Marwijk understood that the team needs to grow more because the qualifications were pretty easy and the teams we played were mediocre and against teams like England we need more concentration and a tougher defence.
D) Kuyt is a national team player. He performs every time he has a chance but his best place to shine is on the right wing. Van Persie needs to increase his level at Oranje.
E) Heitinga is no right back and he can be the new leader of central defence replacing old Ooijer.
F) Sneijder and van der Vaart can lose their place in the starting eleven if they don´t find a decent club right now.
G) Without a killer like Huntelaar Holland lacks danger in the rival area. He needs to prove what he is made of at Milan.
H) Dutch fans around the world make this blog a fascinating space to share views and opinions with a lot of passion but also with respect for everybody´s ideas. It´s amazing how just after the game ended there were more than 50 comments in the Dennis Bergkamp article.

By Mario | August 13th, 2009 at 4:44 pm

I meant: It´s a pity that the world moves like that but that happens in life, business and of course in football.

By Jeff | August 13th, 2009 at 5:10 pm

Again I totally agree with every point you make Mario. Nice to see that as passionate as we all are about Holland we can find common ground. I think the reason we are also so passionate is that we have been starved of success for so long.

Posted from United States

By Carlos | August 13th, 2009 at 7:26 pm

The best part of this blog (apart from Jan) is that we can all agree to disagree without trading insults (except in fun, especially to my drunken womanizing Viking friend !) This is typical Dutch style…lots of arguments and discussions on what should and should not be done. For those of you who thought de Jong was GREAT (and I am a big fan), he did lose the ball quite a few times in the game as did Schaars (am an even bigger fan of his). All of a sudden Bommel looks like the missing anchor again. Bommel/Vlaar at the centre back perhaps ??

Posted from Singapore

By Jeroen | August 13th, 2009 at 8:58 pm

Don’t know if this has been posted in another thread, but RM is making another move for Ribery: Sneijder + Robben + money to Bayern for Ribery. I would be very happy if this happened. All dutch out of RM plz. I want to be able to boo them without inhibition.

I think VDV will go to Inter. Mourinho is looked for a CAM and VDV will be very cheap.

By Miguel Rosado | August 13th, 2009 at 10:01 pm

Emanuelson can be a very good option as left back or as midfielder.

By Michel-Olivier | August 13th, 2009 at 10:13 pm

2 gulden = 1 franc

Posted from United States

By Ayl | August 13th, 2009 at 10:54 pm

I cannot understand how Real would not want Robben in their starting 11. He is so much more than a bit-part player, even with their new signings. It frustrates me that the average punter can see it, but politics and greed seem to blind Real. Arrggghhh.

By Mario | August 13th, 2009 at 11:45 pm

Ayl:

Don´t gey mad. Raúl occupies a place in the team no matter what happens and that means than an offensive midfielder like Robben will have to sit in the bench. Ask what happened to Owen, Morientes, Ronaldo, Mc Manaman and many others. It´s true Robben must be in their starting eleven but sometimes politics are stronger than quality. But if Robben manages to stay fit he will surely grab a place in the team because he has so much talent that not even politics can eliminate him but as we know his problem is that he gets injured every other week.

Staying fit is his only option to have success this year at Madrid-if he stays of course-.

By Andrew | August 13th, 2009 at 11:47 pm

Somewhere in Madrid, attorneys are drawing up conservatorship papers…the deal Jeroen reports is proof the powers that be at RM are insane

Posted from United States

By Ayl | August 14th, 2009 at 3:47 am

“Don´t gey mad”

Haha, i’m not actually mad, i just feel a little sorry for the boys who are in that, and similar positions.

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