Football League World
·15. November 2024
Football League World
·15. November 2024
Ruud van Nistelrooy has applied to become the new manager of Coventry City.
Ruud van Nistelrooy has applied for the vacant Coventry City job after Mark Robins’ surprise departure earlier this month.
Owner Doug King made the decision to sack Robins despite the remarkable job he had done since his appointment in 2017, which included two promotions and an FA Cup semi-final.
Since then, attention has turned to his successor, with a host of names linked with the role, including Frank Lampard, who is set for talks with the club this weekend.
However, there are other contenders in the frame for the role, and TalkSPORT has revealed that van Nistelrooy is keen on joining the Championship side.
They say that the Dutchman has formally applied for the job, as he is keen to embark on a coaching role in England at this stage of his career.
This comes just days after Man United announced that van Nistelrooy would be leaving the club after his short spell as caretaker following Ruben Amorim’s appointment.
The 48-year-old is well-known to fans in English football, as he enjoyed a fantastic playing career that included playing for the Red Devils, where he was a prolific goalscorer as they claimed several Premier League titles.
Upon retiring, van Nistelrooy turned to coaching, working with various PSV youth teams, as well as assisting Guus Hiddink in the 2014 World Cup for his home nation.
He then landed the top job with PSV, and enjoyed a relatively successful period in charge, whereby he won 33 of his 51 games in charge, one of which was the Dutch Cup final as he brought silverware to Eindhoven. But, issues with the board saw van Nistelrooy resign in May 2023.
More recently, he was appointed as assistant to Erik ten Hag at Old Trafford at the start of the season, before taking over on an interim basis after his exit.
Coventry fans have obviously had an insight into how van Nistelrooy works as a manager in the past few weeks due to his role at Man United - and they will have been impressed.
Obviously, four games is an extremely small sample size, and it’s a different set of circumstances, but he won three and drew one of those games, and he carried himself well with the press and how he got his message across.
Prior to that, his work with PSV was good on the whole, as he won a trophy and built an attacking side.
So, on paper, it would appear to be a coup for Coventry, and you would certainly expect King to at least hold talks with van Nistelrooy to hear more about his ideas and plans for the club.
This gives an insight into how attractive the Sky Blues job is, and it will be intriguing to see who will take over.
Coventry are back in action on November 23 when they host Sheffield United.