It took only a gesture – Ruud van Nistelrooy’s first gesture – to remind Old Trafford of the place it has been and will be once more. When he marched out into the arena last night and immediately turned back to flash a fist at the Stretford End, it transported us back to the days when fight and style and indomitability walked this stadium.
It was not the kind of gesture you would ever have seen from Erik ten Hag and it set the tone for a night which provided a real sense that a decent run in the job for Van Nistelrooy really might not have been the worst idea in the world.
He punched the air and wore a smile as wide as the Irwell, when Casemiro despatched a world class opening goal, by which time his enthusiasm to direct his own players had taken him all the way out of his technical area and half way across Steve Cooper’s. He was ushered back.
The stadium lapped it all up and Sir Alex Ferguson, back in his seat, smiled beneficently, and it was hard not to think, ‘What if?’ What if those running United could have waited, observed and tried to discover if this man had the answers they’re looking for.
Alejandro Garnacho and Bruno Fernandes – dummying exquisitely to allow the ball to run on for the Casemiro bullet – played like were actually enjoying themselves. A reminder of how sheer pleasure and motivation to do well for a manager counts for just as much as philosophies and formations.
And though there were substantial caveats – a Leicester side featuring nine changes still managed to core twice before half time and Joshua Zirkee was still lamentable – it was certainly a throwback.
There were no histrionics from Van Nistelrooy, who did not budge from the touchline throughout – arms folded, mostly; occasional pointing and exhortations; an arm thrown around Rene Hake when they plotted. He’s certainly not one to parade himself as a United legend like he is entitled to.
He’s quietly got on with the prosaic realities of the coaching role which Manchester United have assigned him after sounding him out last June. The 7am departures for Carrington from his Deansgate apartment in central Manchester. The solitary evenings there.
‘It’s more than a job. Otherwise, you wouldn’t opt to live alone in a flat,’ he told Dutch paper Algemeen Dagblad’s Maarten Wijffels, just before Ten Hag was sacked. ‘As a family you have to have a discussion about being apart. That is the price. And one you wouldn’t pay for any club. But you would for this one.’
He also kept things low key when United’s emphatic win was sealed, on Tuesday night. A few TV press interviews but he elected not to hold court from the press conference seat where Ferguson sat for all those years. No words were needed to reveal how much he wanted this moment and any more that might come his way here. Old Trafford loved him for that.
