Setanta Sports can EXCLUSIVELY reveal the story behind the
bust-up that saw Ruud van Nistelrooy dropped from the Manchester
United team to face Charlton, a bust-up that could well presage the
end of the Dutchman's Old Trafford career.
Speaking to Daire O'Brien on Setanta Sports' The Hub, European
Soccer Correspondent Graeme Hunter explained the incident that
caused Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson to drop his star
striker.
"In January, Ruud van Nistelrooy and Cristiano Ronaldo, who
literally cannot stand the sight of each other, traded punches in
training, and van Nistelrooy left Ronaldo with a broken face,"
Hunter explained.
"On Sunday, van Nistelrooy was not named in the Manchester United
team, and as we all now know, he walks out.
"The roots are from a serious bust-up on the training pitch the day
before, over a perennial row between the two. Ronaldo held onto the
ball too long in training, and van Nistelrooy asked again: "Why do
you keep onto the ball, why don't you pass to me? I am in position,
I am the striker. Get the ball to me."
Hunter went on: "Ronaldo gives van Nistelrooy some lip, it
ends up in a fight, and van Nistelrooy as he always does, needles
into Ronaldo, and says "Yeah, yeah, go running to your Dad."
"He means Carlos Quieroz, Ferguson's assistant. Ronaldo's own
father had died during the season, and finally, in the face of this
abuse, Ronaldo burst into tears on the pitch and shouts "I don't
have a Dad, he's dead."
This is the incident Sir Alex Ferguson spoke of after the game on
Sunday when talked about a need to keep "team unity" at the
club.
However, Hunter is not so keen to write off van Nistelrooy's Old
Trafford career just yet.
"It is not necessarily the end for van Nistelrooy, because he is
the goalscorer, and Ferguson still wants four strikers at the
club.
"What Sir Alex may not know is that Cristiano Ronaldo is dead set
on leaving Manchester United this summer, if Madrid will buy him.
He personally has had enough of Manchester United, and English
football. Also, he is greedy young lad, he wants more money, and he
thinks that he can get it at Real Madrid. So, it may be that we are
left with Ronaldo saying that he wants to go, and that van
Nistelrooy and Ferguson may make their peace."
