Ruud van Nistelrooy: Manchester United interim head coach leaves club as Ruben Amorim takes charge

Ruud van Nistelrooy will not be part of Ruben Amorim’s coaching staff and has left Manchester United.

Van Nistelrooy was appointed as assistant manager in the summer and became interim head coach when former United boss Erik ten Hag was sacked last month.

He signed off in style by beating Leicester 3-0 at Old Trafford on Sunday to stay unbeaten in his four games in charge, but the club confirmed his departure on Monday as Amorim arrived to begin his time at the helm.

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Highlights from the Premier League match between Manchester United and Leicester

“Ruud is and always will be a Manchester United legend,” the club said. “We are grateful for his contribution and the way in which he approached his role throughout his time with the club. He will always be very welcome at Old Trafford.”

Assistant manager Rene Hake, goalkeeping coach Jelle ten Rouwelaar and analyst Pieter Morel have also left the club.

Analysis: Amorim acts decisively with first big call

Image:
Ruud van Nistelrooy, Ruben Amorim

Sky Sports’ Zinny Boswell:

This was the first big call for Amorim to make as United boss and he acted decisively.

Van Nistelrooy made it clear he would like to continue helping at Old Trafford and had the backing of the players, but Amorim wasted no time in jettisoning a club legend.

It was always going to be difficult for Van Nistelrooy to be kept on after saying he would one day like the job that Amorim has just taken up.

We saw under Ten Hag that the presence of Van Nistelrooy in the dugout always felt ominous. This was the man in charge of PSV, one of Netherlands’ biggest clubs, as recently as last year. Van Nistelrooy feels like a head coach.

His impressive handling of the situation he inherited from Ten Hag had only added to his plausibility as such. Van Nistelrooy, particularly in his dealings with the media, almost did too well. Keeping him on may have brought added pressure for Amorim.

Amorim is also expected to bring a whole team of his own people from Sporting, leaving it unclear where Van Nistelrooy would have fitted had he stayed. The Dutchman wanted to help, but would he have been happy on the periphery?

There is, of course, the argument Van Nistelrooy knows the club well and has had a first-hand view of the squad since the summer, so could have been invaluable to Amorim, at the very least in the short-term.

But Darren Fletcher remains embedded in the set-up at United and serves a similar purpose without bringing the baggage of being a threat to his job if results go south.

Amorim’s first day at Carrington

Amorim arrived at Man Utd’s Carrington training complex on Monday afternoon.

The 39-year-old boarded a flight from Beja airport in Portugal to Manchester in the morning.

Amorim was greeted outside the men’s first-team building with a hug from chief executive Omar Berrada, and was also welcomed by sporting director Dan Ashworth and technical director Jason Wilcox.