Ruud van Nistelrooy has deleted a historic photo of him doing ‘blackface’ just hours after confirmation of his appointment as Manchester United’s interim manager.
Erik ten Hag’s reign as United manager ended on Monday following last weekend’s controversial defeat against West Ham.
Van Nistelrooy returned to his former club in the summer with a view to providing additional support to his compatriot who, after being given what ultimately turned out to be a stay of execution, was equipped with a new-look backroom team.
It is unclear how many games the 48-year-old will take charge of with United already pressing ahead with talks to hire Sporting Lisbon’s Ruben Amorim, but Van Nistelrooy was immediately placed on the backfoot and embroiled in controversy.
A picture dating back to 2013 reemerged on social media which showed Van Nistelrooy attending the Parade of the Three Kings in Marbella, before he removed trace of it.
Blackface, the practice of wearing make-up to look like a black person, was associated with minstrel shows in the United States from the 1830s until the mid 20th century and is regarded by many as highly offensive in modern-day society.
Van Nistelrooy, meanwhile, will face the media on Tuesday ahead of tomorrow night’s Carabao Cup tie against Leicester and has been urged to change tactics by his former teammate Gary Neville.
Neville believes United could benefit from lining up with a three-man defence in order to provide more solidity to the team.
Asked if Van Nistelrooy can immediately instill a new identity in the team after Ten Hag’s exit, Neville told Sky Sports: ‘I mean it’ll be almost impossible wouldn’t it, for him to do that in the next few days.
‘What’s he going to be able to do? He can set the team up differently, I mean that’s something that could happen, he could make the make-up of the team slightly different.
‘Ruud van Nistelrooy will do his very best, I have thought for a number of months that looking at the players United have they may be better suited to going three at the back.
‘Just purely because of a lack of a centre-back pairing and the full-backs, to be fair, look better going forward than they do defensively.
‘So maybe that could happen, maybe that might give them a little bit more comfort because it would give them an extra body at the back but also get the players into a system whereby they’ve got more support.
‘That’s something I’ve thought for a few months, but whether Ruud does that and whether that’s the right way to go I’m not sure.
‘It’s ultimately in this moment in time something that we’ll see against Leicester on Wednesday night whether he believed in what Erik was doing because he’ll pick a different team if he didn’t.’
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