SOCCER: Not everyone at Manchester United agrees with Alex Ferguson that the club would be better off without Ruud van Nistelrooy but nobody will stand in the manager's way as he prepares to add the Dutch striker to the long list of players he has spectacularly disposed of.

Ferguson spoke at length with his chief executive David Gill yesterday and the outcome is that Van Nistelrooy is available to the highest bidder, valued in the region of £10 million.

In a move which could play a defining part in his own future, a defiant Ferguson is understood to have informed Gill that he regarded Van Nistelrooy's recent behaviour as unacceptable and bordering on mutinous. He said he saw it as an affront to his authority and the damage to their relationship was likely to be irreparable.

His disdain for Van Nistelrooy can be gauged from the fact that he has told him he will not be welcome to join the rest of the first-team squad for Roy Keane's testimonial match against Celtic at Old Trafford tonight. A deeply insulted Van Nistelrooy has instead flown to the Netherlands to join a pre-World Cup training camp, having initially been given special dispensation to stay in Manchester.

Van Nistelrooy believes he is being strategically alienated but Ferguson, always one to get his retaliation in first, has skilfully set about using his contacts in the media to portray the Dutchman as being to blame. Ferguson, absolving himself of any culpability, has advised some of his closest associates that he has been appalled by Van Nistelrooy's attitude since he was dropped from the League Cup final on February 26th and that nothing the manager did could snap him out of it.

As always with Ferguson, his version of events differs from that of the player he is in the process of ostracising. Van Nistelrooy's advisers say they are bewildered by Ferguson's rather vague comments about a "couple of incidents in training" damaging team spirit. Van Nistelrooy has had some practice-ground altercations since arriving in England, most notably with David Bellion and, this season, Cristiano Ronaldo, but his representatives point out that these are the exception rather than the norm.

Van Nistelrooy has scored 21 times in the league and Ferguson, as a former striker himself, does not need it pointed out that replacing him may be expensive and problematical, especially when the club are also seeking to bring in two high-calibre midfielders.

It would be far cheaper, as some Old Trafford officials have noted, for Ferguson to make his peace with a player who has set all sorts of scoring records since signing from PSV Eindhoven for £19.5 million. Van Nistelrooy (29) has plenty of sympathisers at the club and many admirers outside Old Trafford, with some of the biggest clubs in Italian and Spanish football closely monitoring his availability.

Milan is one possibility, particularly if they lose Andriy Shevchenko to Chelsea, and Newcastle, Tottenham, Chelsea and Liverpool are all looking for a natural goalscorer. Ferguson is certainly taking one of the braver decisions of his 19 years in office but history suggests that nothing can stop him once he has made up his mind. His propensity for falling out with key players remains unsurpassed.

Van Nistelrooy is closer to Keane than many people realise and was looking forward to playing in his testimonial but that will not be allowed, as Ferguson made clear in the same conversation that prompted the striker to drive home after learning he had been dropped for Sunday's game against Charlton Athletic. That was the moment when it became clear the tensions had gone beyond the point of no return.

Guardian Service