Pat and I can rule world
By ROSS GREGORY
GOAL machine Ruud van Nistelrooy believes that Manchester United would have the greatest strike partnership EVER if they can land Patrick Kluivert.
Van Nistelrooy knows his Dutch international team-mate Kluivert could be open to offers this summer if Barcelona try to slash his £4million salary.
And he reckons the rest of Europe would be at United's mercy with Kluivert playing alongside him.
Van Nistelrooy, 26, who hit 44 goals for the Premiership champions last season, said: "We could be the best scoring partnership in the world.
"We love working together and I would love it even more if we could practise together every day and play together at club level. We will be a fantastic partnership.
"Sometimes when Patrick and I play together it is just 'there' between us and that is the time you feel how special football can be for fans and players.
"I cherish those times when we just click in the middle of a game or a training session with Holland.
"We talk loads and loads about our partnership. We sit down and analyse where we want the ball, where we will be at any given moment in a game and what each of us expects from the other.
"That is what helps make a good partnership into a great partnership.
"And the reason that there are not many 'superstar' partnerships in the world of football is that not many players do that - not many add brains to instinct when they play together.
"I have already had one strike partner with whom it was 'love at first sight' - Luc Nilis. We played together at PSV before he went to Aston Villa and I came to United.
"It doesn't happen often so to have another one with Patrick is a great joy."
Kluivert, 26, has hit 36 goals in 64 games for Holland and averaged 25 a season since moving to the Nou Camp from AC Milan in 1998.
His contract runs until 2006 but a clause means he could quit for a cut-price £1.5m if hard-up Barca attempt to renegotiate his wages.
And SunSport exclusively revealed on Wednesday that Van Nistelrooy has already launched a one-man campaign to get his pal to join him at Old Trafford.
The Barca hitman admitted he gets constant phone calls in Spain and confessed: "If it had been down to Ruud, I'd have signed for United long ago."
The pair share the same birthday - July 1, 1976 - and have felt a bond since their first international together, a 2-1 victory over Germany just before Euro 2000.
Van Nistelrooy added: "United had the last super-partnership in world football when Andy Cole and Dwight Yorke were at their peak together.
"I do not think any team in the world has even come close to the partnership they enjoyed at United - not even Raul and Ronaldo at Real Madrid.
"But Patrick and I could because we are so compatible.
"In terms of Dutch goalscorers I rate Chelsea's Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, myself and Deportivo's Roy Makaay at the same sort of footballing level.
But Patrick is a much more complete player than any of us. He is the typical Dutch No10 - a creative player who makes goals and scores them.
"With United, I play much further up the pitch than I do with Holland so Patrick could play just behind me and set me up with goalscoring passes."
But Van Nistelrooy admits he has another motive behind his desire to team-up with Kluivert.
As well as adding to United's silverware collection it would boost Holland's chances of European Championship glory next summer.
He said: "In the national team, I don't have the main role as I do with United. I want to be an important player not only at United but at the national team too. I can do it only one way - by making decisions, being decisive, being important
"In the Dutch team I have to play with my mind much more than my heart but that takes work because I am an instinctive player - so is Patrick.
"But, given the chance to work together more, we would become more powerful as a partnership. We complement each other because we don't try to do the same things.
"In training we say to each other 'right, we will do this or that today'. Sometimes it is like practising 85 one-twos.
"But the difference between doing that in training and doing that in a game is a big jump - and we need to be together more often."
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<a href="http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,3-2003250314,00.html" target="_blank">http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,3-2003250314,00.html</a>
Will Fergie take the hint already? Personally I don't want him at United though...
By ROSS GREGORY
GOAL machine Ruud van Nistelrooy believes that Manchester United would have the greatest strike partnership EVER if they can land Patrick Kluivert.
Van Nistelrooy knows his Dutch international team-mate Kluivert could be open to offers this summer if Barcelona try to slash his £4million salary.
And he reckons the rest of Europe would be at United's mercy with Kluivert playing alongside him.
Van Nistelrooy, 26, who hit 44 goals for the Premiership champions last season, said: "We could be the best scoring partnership in the world.
"We love working together and I would love it even more if we could practise together every day and play together at club level. We will be a fantastic partnership.
"Sometimes when Patrick and I play together it is just 'there' between us and that is the time you feel how special football can be for fans and players.
"I cherish those times when we just click in the middle of a game or a training session with Holland.
"We talk loads and loads about our partnership. We sit down and analyse where we want the ball, where we will be at any given moment in a game and what each of us expects from the other.
"That is what helps make a good partnership into a great partnership.
"And the reason that there are not many 'superstar' partnerships in the world of football is that not many players do that - not many add brains to instinct when they play together.
"I have already had one strike partner with whom it was 'love at first sight' - Luc Nilis. We played together at PSV before he went to Aston Villa and I came to United.
"It doesn't happen often so to have another one with Patrick is a great joy."
Kluivert, 26, has hit 36 goals in 64 games for Holland and averaged 25 a season since moving to the Nou Camp from AC Milan in 1998.
His contract runs until 2006 but a clause means he could quit for a cut-price £1.5m if hard-up Barca attempt to renegotiate his wages.
And SunSport exclusively revealed on Wednesday that Van Nistelrooy has already launched a one-man campaign to get his pal to join him at Old Trafford.
The Barca hitman admitted he gets constant phone calls in Spain and confessed: "If it had been down to Ruud, I'd have signed for United long ago."
The pair share the same birthday - July 1, 1976 - and have felt a bond since their first international together, a 2-1 victory over Germany just before Euro 2000.
Van Nistelrooy added: "United had the last super-partnership in world football when Andy Cole and Dwight Yorke were at their peak together.
"I do not think any team in the world has even come close to the partnership they enjoyed at United - not even Raul and Ronaldo at Real Madrid.
"But Patrick and I could because we are so compatible.
"In terms of Dutch goalscorers I rate Chelsea's Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, myself and Deportivo's Roy Makaay at the same sort of footballing level.
But Patrick is a much more complete player than any of us. He is the typical Dutch No10 - a creative player who makes goals and scores them.
"With United, I play much further up the pitch than I do with Holland so Patrick could play just behind me and set me up with goalscoring passes."
But Van Nistelrooy admits he has another motive behind his desire to team-up with Kluivert.
As well as adding to United's silverware collection it would boost Holland's chances of European Championship glory next summer.
He said: "In the national team, I don't have the main role as I do with United. I want to be an important player not only at United but at the national team too. I can do it only one way - by making decisions, being decisive, being important
"In the Dutch team I have to play with my mind much more than my heart but that takes work because I am an instinctive player - so is Patrick.
"But, given the chance to work together more, we would become more powerful as a partnership. We complement each other because we don't try to do the same things.
"In training we say to each other 'right, we will do this or that today'. Sometimes it is like practising 85 one-twos.
"But the difference between doing that in training and doing that in a game is a big jump - and we need to be together more often."
-------------------------------------------------
<a href="http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,3-2003250314,00.html" target="_blank">http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,3-2003250314,00.html</a>
Will Fergie take the hint already? Personally I don't want him at United though...
