Ruud van Nistelrooy gives firm answer on Leicester City future after transfer change
Ruud van Nistelrooy firmly declared he would not walk away from Leicester City over the club’s lack of transfer business.
The City manager had hoped to strengthen his squad in a number of positions in the winter window but the deadline passed with just one arrival at the club, Woyo Coulibaly costing just £3m. Wolves, Ipswich, and Southampton, City’s three relegation rivals, all signed at least four players.
Van Nistelrooy had been told that funds were available when he first joined the club, but he admitted on Thursday that it became apparent the restrictions posed by Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR) were more limiting than first thought. However, he said the club kept him informed of those developments.
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When he was PSV manager, van Nistelrooy left the club the week before the season concluded because of a lack of support from the board. But he denied he would ever consider the same at the King Power Stadium.
Asked if he had mulled over his future because of the lack of transfer help, van Nistelrooy said: “Not at all, because when you’re part of the conversations and you are informed on a regular basis how things are going, then things are not a surprise. I don’t have to be considering these things.”
Then asked if he could give assurances that he would still be at City come the end of the season, he replied: “Of course. That’s what commitment is called.”
The fallout from the transfer window is just the latest event in what has been a fraught two months in charge for the Dutchman. But he insists he knew the job he was taking would be far from simple.
And while City do have a break from their Premier League relegation battle when they take on van Nistelrooy’s former club Manchester United in the FA Cup fourth round on Friday night, it should not be considered as a break from the standards the manager is pushing. He wants a response to the 4-0 loss to Everton.
“I knew (it would be a rocky road), but I looked at this squad, I looked at the players,” he said. “We’re in this fight, we’re talking about the league of course, but the game on Friday is big for us.
“We have to show that consistency, to show it’s not 60 to 70 minutes then there’s a mistake, or we are playing one great game where we can do it for 95 minutes and the next week the levels are not there. It’s now.
“We have to show we can be consistent and have all of us at the highest level. At the end of the road, we’ll see if it is enough. I think we can do it.”
