Ruud van Nistelrooy phone calls stopped me triggering clause – he's why I'm a £70m player today

Manchester United fans were gutted at the club's failure to sign Jarrad Branthwaite in the summer – and a deal would have seen him team back up with former boss Ruud van Nistelrooy.

The Dutchman, who was appointed Erik ten Hag's assistant in July, spent the 2022/23 season in charge of Eredivisie giants PSV, and one of the first moves he made in the transfer market was bringing a young Branthwaite in on loan. The Everton defender ended up thriving in Van Nistelrooy's team, though it took him a few months to nail down a starting spot.

Speaking to The Times, Branthwaite, 22, heaped praise on Van Nistelrooy, insisting the former striker played a key role in helping him blossom into one of English football's most exciting starlets last season. "He was brilliant for me," the Toffees ace said in December 2023.

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"He would speak to me about my body shape when defending and the importance of being side on, so that I am always ready to run back or be ready to press forward," Branthwaite added. "He said if you don’t have the right body shape, you will get done because the Premier League is much faster. If they play it in behind and you are not side on, the striker will already be gone."

United made Branthwaite their No. 1 transfer target at the start of the summer, and had a couple of bids for the player turned down. They ended up signing Leny Yoro and Matthijs de Ligt instead after being put off by Everton's £70million asking price.

However, it's understood the Red Devils are as keen as ever to bring the Cumbria-born star to Old Trafford and are planning a fresh approach in the New Year. Having worked with him in the Netherlands, Van Nistelrooy, 48, could play a significant role in luring Branthwaite to the club, particularly if he becomes United boss.

Ten Hag is under immense pressure after United were thumped 3-0 by Tottenham on Sunday, a result which left them in the table. His future at the club is now hanging by a thread, and he could only have a couple of games to save his job.

Typically, assistant coaches follow sacked managers out of the door, but United may end up keeping Van Nistelrooy and consider him for an interim manager role in the event Ten Hag leaves. Such a scenario will be music to the ears of Branthwaite, who admitted he "trusts" Van Nistelrooy after the Dutchman went out of his way to keep a promise he'd made.

"At the midpoint in the [2022/23] season, I hadn’t played as much as I would have liked," Branthwaite said. "I had a clause in my contract where I could have come back here [to Everton] and, having hardly played, I said I wasn’t sure what I was going to do.

"He [Van Nistelrooy] sat me down for half an hour and said I was going to play every game in the second half of the season. At the time, I was like, 'you can say that, but how am I meant to believe you?' We were on a winter break, I was on holiday, and he kept ringing me every day, saying, 'trust me, you are going to play.'

"I sat down with my mam, dad and my agent and said, 'he wouldn’t go to all this effort if he wasn’t going to play me'. I decided to trust him and it worked out well."

Branthwaite began his career at Carlisle United, but was snapped up by Everton in 2020 after making just 14 appearances for the Cumbrians. The Toffees knew they had a serious talent on their hands, but it was until after his loan move to PSV that the defender ended up establishing himself as a first team regular at Goodison Park.

He's played 55 times overall for the Toffees, scoring four goals. He also made his England debut in a Euro 2024 warm-up fixture against Bosnia and Herzegovina in June, but was left out of Gareth Southgate's final 26-man squad.

Van Nistelrooy, meanwhile, spent five seasons at Old Trafford as a player. After arriving from PSV in 2001, he blasted 150 goals in 219 matches and won several major honours including the Premier League, the FA Cup and the PFA Player of the Year award, before leaving for Real Madrid in 2006.

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