Stoke City, Blackburn, and Tottenham hope to snatch Ruud van Nistelrooy from the hands of Liverpool
Stoke City, Blackburn, and Tottenham hope to snatch Ruud van Nistelrooy from the hands of Liverpool
Stoke City gaffer Tony Pulis is making an audacious bid in hopes of luring the Holland international to the Britannia Stadium.
Ruud van Nistelrooy has found himself in a Beckham-esque situation, as he has been told that he needs to be playing regularly to have any chance of being included in the Netherlands’ 23-man squad to South Africa.
Pulis believes Ruud should choose Stoke City instead of Liverpool because Pulis thinks at Liverpool Van Nisterooy will merely be Fernando Torres’ backup. Currently the Real Madrid striker has been demoted to a rotation player for Los Galacticos, as young strikers Karim Benzema and Gonzalo Higuain have been starting for Manuel Pelligrino’s squad.
Blackburn boss Sam Allardyce has said, "The sort of salary that Ruud would be on at Real Madrid may be beyond us, but if he wants to play in England again and take less of a salary, then we’d be interested.“
"There’s no doubt it would be of interest to me and I would want to talk to him. It would be a major coup if I could pull it off.”
Van Nistelrooy, who scored 150 goals in 219 appearances for Manchester United before completing a £12 million transfer to Madrid in 2006, has been made available by Real following the Spanish club’s £135 million double move for Kaka and Cristiano Ronaldo.
Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp is also interested in signing the Dutchman, who is now fully fit following a cruciate knee ligament injury suffered last November. With the trio of Jermaine Defoe, Peter Crouch, and Robbie Keane, one wonders how Ruud could see any playing time in the Premier League with Spurs.
