Food For Thought: So Ruud Is Rafa...

January transfer window is going to be a very busy period for Real Madrid striker Ruud Van Nistelrooy. Apparently, a lot of hype has been created around Van Nistelrooy’s transfer from La Liga to almost every possible league. Sounds a hyperbole, but teams from every corner of Europe seems to be interested in the Dutch striker whose injury woes just doesn’t seem to end much to the anguish of his star studded side—Real Madrid. 

Van Nistelrooy has fallen out of favour at the Santiago Bernabeu, and is allegedly keen on a winter window exit in order to find first-team football and play his way into contention for a spot in the Netherlands' World Cup squad to be played next year in South Africa.

The front runners in this rat race are Rafa Benitez’s Liverpool who are not only chasing the ball on-field but are also chasing a top-four spot for themselves, ineffective until now. They might be looking at the former Manchester United striker as a suitable cover for their super-successful striker, Fernando Torres who is yet to recover completely from his groin injury.   

Signing Van Nistelrooy would help Benitez form an injured XI which will be lead by Alberto Aquilani including the likes of Albert Riera, Ryan Babel and Voronin with Torres, Glen Johnson and Fabio Aurelio shuffling between the main team and their injury squad. Jokes apart, for Van Nistelrooy to be effective for the Kop, he has to be fit, which he hasn’t been so far this season.

Next in the line are Tottenham Hotspur, who along with Manchester City and Aston Villa are giving the big guns a good run for their money. In fact, they are so keen to recruit the Real Madrid misfit that they are even ready to get rid a few of their own players like Roman Pavlyuchenko, David Bentley, Alan Hutton and Robbie Keane. Due to a limited transfer budget, Harry Redknapp, is all up for relieving a few of his own players prior to buying Van Nistelrooy.

Big spending Turkish side, Fenerbahce are also tracking the Real Madrid forward hoping to secure his signature during the January transfer window.

However, not all are ready to accept the Dutchman, certainly not Arsene Wenger. Arsenal manager rubbished reports suggesting that he could make a January swoop for Real Madrid's out-of-favour van Nistelrooy.


What’s going wrong with Liverpool? This is a question that everyone would want to find an answer of. So far, it has turned out to be a very miserable season for the Merseysiders who are currently placed at the seventh position in the League standings. They have won only eight games of the eighteen played till date and their last win came against Wigan Athletic last week.

Their last defeat came in the wake of 50th anniversary of Bill Shankly’s appointment as Liverpool’s manager against Portsmouth at Fratton Park on Saturday where Nadir Belhadj scored from a nearly impossible angle to give home side the lead just ahead of half-time which was later doubled by Frederic Piquionne’ sizzler to give Pompy only their fourth victory of the season.

But is Benitez the reason for his side’s sorry performance or other teams are making full use of their chances against a low on confidence Liverpool side. Could be a combination of both as well. Teams are no longer taking them as a serious threat seeing their poor run of form and are using their opportunities at an optimum level. The best example is the bottom placed Portsmouth punishing the sorry looking Liverpool.

Benitez just got away with his decision of not starting with Fernando Torres and opting for David Ngog against Wigan Athletic. Mind you, they just got away as Wigan couldn’t capitalize on some really open chances and lost 2-1.

Ever since he has been out of the title race, he has been claiming that his side will still end up on fourth position despite hitting an all time low. Will he still be there at the end of the season to see it, we would like to know.   

Husain M Zaidi