Sunderland have loved the luxurious of quite a lot of proficient strikers over time and are at the moment benefitting from Ellis Simms and Ross Stewart’s knack for locating the again of the web.
The likes of Kevin Phillips, Darren Bent, and Jermain Defoe are different forwards who had implausible spells in entrance of aim on the Stadium of Gentle, however there may be one participant who may have added his identify to that checklist – Ruud van Nistelrooy.
Will Ross Stewart develop into a membership legend?
Sure
No
Again in 2000, Black Cats boss Peter Reid revealed that the prolific Dutch marksman was a participant on their radar in 1997, saying:
”He’s a high quality participant and somebody we have been seeking to purchase three seasons in the past when he was nonetheless one thing of an unknown. It was simply after we began again within the First Division.
“On the time he was taking part in for Heerenveen and I feel he was solely 19. However they quoted us £5 million which on the time was simply far too excessive a worth for a participant we couldn’t completely make certain can be a hit.”
The striker ended up signing for PSV in the summertime of 1998 and plundered an distinctive 77 objectives and 20 assists in 90 appearances for the Eredivisie outfit.
This led to Manchester United snapping him up in 2001 for a price reported to be within the area of £19m and he loved an exceptional five-year spell at Previous Trafford.
The Netherlands worldwide scored 150 objectives and assisted 25 in 219 matches in all competitions for the Purple Devils, successful the Premier League, the FA Cup, and the League Cup.
Van Nistelrooy was as soon as described as a “devastating” finisher by his former teammate Rio Ferdinand and Louis Saha additionally hailed the striker, saying:
“He has the final word mentality of a striker. He’s all the time concentrating so he might be in the best place to anticipate a move or be in the best place to obtain it. That’s what makes him so efficient.
“There’s no one on this planet like him. David Trezeguet is an analogous participant however he doesn’t have the identical high quality, management and approach. Ruud retains management of the ball with three gamers making an attempt to get it off him. He’s the entire ahead.”
Reid and Sunderland definitely made a mistake by deciding towards signing the centre-forward, who ended up scoring a whopping 327 profession objectives at membership stage, for £5m in 1997.
He went on to develop into a prolific goalscorer in England and proved that he would have been a terrific signing at that worth, notably on condition that he signed for United for £14m greater than that 4 years later. Certainly, the ex-manager is prone to have nightmares about that decision over 25 years in the past.
