"He was a bit peed off he wasn’t playing from the start, but he came on and they won the game.
"It was the turning point when he came on. When he comes on, you know he is going to be a danger.
"He always plays behind you and tries to come back from offside positions and it’s hard for defenders.
"I’m a bit surprised Ruud has been on the bench because he’s one of the best strikers in the world.
The Sun:
'He is beginning to fear he might be the next big name forced out after David Beckham and former skipper Roy Keane."
The Times:
That [Solskjaer's injury] should put Ruud van Nistelrooy’s recent problems into context, but the United forward was "a bit peed off" about being left on the bench by Sir Alex Ferguson again away to Wigan Athletic on Monday evening. Not his words, sadly — we have Arjan de Zeeuw, his fellow Dutchman from Wigan, to thank for that insight — but it remains to be seen whether the United forward, in inspiring his team’s dramatic late comeback in the Barclays Premiership match at the JJB Stadium, did enough to prove his point to a manager keen to make one of his own.
Throughout his 4½ years in Manchester, Van Nistelrooy has been one of the few undisputed first choices in Ferguson’s team, dropping to the bench only for his own benefit during periods of congested fixtures, but the long-awaited return to fitness of Louis Saha, combined with the emergence of Wayne Rooney as a player of world class, has meant that Van Nistelrooy is no longer indispensable. And whether or not the forward accepts that fact will be crucial to determining whether he stays beyond the end of the season.
Van Nistelrooy’s contract ends on June 30, 2008, the day before his 32nd birthday, but whereas he said upon signing that deal a little more than two years ago that he is "now sentenced to life with United", his future is not clear-cut. The European football grapevine has it that clubs in Italy, more than in Spain, could test United’s resolve, aware that Ferguson may need to raise funds to strengthen his midfield, with his principal targets, Mahamadou Diarra, of Lyons, and Javier Mascherano, who plays for Corinthians in Brazil, rated in the £20 million bracket.