From the Perez thread, @devilish was saying that Beckham and Nistelrooy were engineering a move to Madrid, and in some way we were forced to sell them.
On the other side, most of United fans say that we got rid of those two, and we wanted to sell them.
Now, while it is difficult to find the truth, I think that devilish is completely on the right here. If we look at Fergie's autobiography, he pretty much agrees with that.
From Rvn chapter:
From Beckham's chapter:
If you reach the entire chapters, you can understand more, but couldn't post them (copyright issues).
Still, it looks quite clear to me that both (especially Ruud) were trying to leave United and go to Madrid. Both lowered their performances and started acted badly with the other players and manager (in Ruud's case with Queiroz too). Coincidence?
I just find it quite hard to believe that we wanted to sell them. Beckham was a world class winger and the most marketable player in the world. Ruud was probably after Henry, Eto'o and Shevchenko was the best striker in the planet (even in his last season here he scored 26 goals). It was something more than just Fergie deciding to sell them. You just don't sell those type of players unles forced too. The Madrid rumours were going on for the entire season, and at that time they started behaving unprofessionally and playing badly.
Lowering the performances in order to make the move possible isn't something new (Ibra did it for Ajax).
Discuss!
On the other side, most of United fans say that we got rid of those two, and we wanted to sell them.
Now, while it is difficult to find the truth, I think that devilish is completely on the right here. If we look at Fergie's autobiography, he pretty much agrees with that.
From Rvn chapter:
I WAS at home on a snowy January night in 2010 when my phone beeped with a text message. ‘I don’t know whether you remember me,’ it started, ‘but I need to call you.’ Ruud van Nistelrooy. Christ, what was this? I said to Cathy, ‘He left four years ago.’ Cathy’s reply: ‘What’s he wanting? Maybe he’d like to come back to United.’
‘No, don’t be silly,’ I told her.
I had no idea what it might be. But I texted him back: OK. So he rang. First, the small talk. Had some injuries, fit now, not getting a game, blah blah. Then he came out with it. ‘I want to apologise for my behaviour in my last year at United.’
I like people who can apologise. I’ve always admired that. In the modern culture of self-absorption, people forget there is such a word as sorry. Footballers are cocooned by the manager and the club, the media, agents, or pals who just tell then how flipping good they are. It’s refreshing to find one who can pick up a phone much later and say, ‘I was wrong, and I’m sorry.’
Ruud offered no explanation. Perhaps I should have taken that chance to say, ‘Why did it go that way?’
Mulling over Ruud’s call to me, that winter night, I knew that two or three Premier League clubs were looking at him, but couldn’t see that being a reason for him wanting to speak to me. There would have been no need for him to repair his relationship with Manchester United in order for him to play for another club in England. Perhaps it was a guilt complex. It might have been playing on his mind for ages. Ruud was doubtless a more mature person by that stage.
The first sign of trouble in our relationship had been that Ruud had started to mouth off all the time to Carlos Queiroz about Ronaldo. There were a few stand-up confrontations, but nothing unmanageable. Then Ruud switched his fire to Gary Neville. Gary was ready for that and won the battle. David
Bellion was another who seemed to arouse anger in Ruud. There were quite a few altercations all the way through his final season with us, but it was mainly Van Nistelrooy on Ronaldo.
At the end of the previous season, 2004–05, we had reached the final of the FA Cup, against Arsenal. Van Nistelrooy had a horrible game. The previous Wednesday his agent, Rodger Linse, had sought out David Gill and asked for a move. ‘Ruud wants to leave.’
David pointed out that we had a Cup final on the Saturday, and that perhaps this wasn’t the best moment for our main centre-forward to ask to leave. David asked why he wanted to go. Rodger Linse’s reply was that Van Nistelrooy thought the team had stagnated and didn’t believe we could win the Champions League. His view was that we couldn’t win the European Cup with young players – the likes of Rooney and Ronaldo.
After the Cup final, David called Rodger and asked him to get Ruud in for a meeting with me. Our position was strong because Real Madrid were not going to pay £35 million for him. That was obvious. And it was the reason, I believe, why Ruud was asking to leave. Had Real Madrid been willing to come up with £35 million, there would have been no need for him to push for a move. He was hoping to bargain with the club to find a fee United would find acceptable. Silly idea.
From Beckham's chapter:
In his final season with us, we were aware that David’s work-rate was dropping and we had heard rumours of a flirtation between Real Madrid and David’s camp. The main issue was that his application level had dropped from its traditionally stratospheric level.
...
Then, of course, after finishing top of our Champions League group, we were drawn against Real Madrid. In Spain, for the first leg, David seemed especially keen to shake hands with Roberto Carlos, the Madrid left-back
...
David was looking for the sympathy vote from the fans. But there is no doubt there had been a direct attack on me. The move to Real Madrid was clearly accelerating. From what we could gather, there had been dialogue between his agent and Real Madrid. The first contact we had was probably in the middle of May, after our season had ended. Our chief executive, Peter Kenyon, called to say: ‘Real Madrid have been on the phone.’
If you reach the entire chapters, you can understand more, but couldn't post them (copyright issues).
Still, it looks quite clear to me that both (especially Ruud) were trying to leave United and go to Madrid. Both lowered their performances and started acted badly with the other players and manager (in Ruud's case with Queiroz too). Coincidence?
I just find it quite hard to believe that we wanted to sell them. Beckham was a world class winger and the most marketable player in the world. Ruud was probably after Henry, Eto'o and Shevchenko was the best striker in the planet (even in his last season here he scored 26 goals). It was something more than just Fergie deciding to sell them. You just don't sell those type of players unles forced too. The Madrid rumours were going on for the entire season, and at that time they started behaving unprofessionally and playing badly.
Lowering the performances in order to make the move possible isn't something new (Ibra did it for Ajax).
Discuss!