Ruud woe looks Real

And the recent lament over being deprived of the England captain's probing crosses only heightened concern over Van Nistelrooy's future and added more weight to claims that he will be Bernabeu-bound this summer.

Those who know Van Nistelrooy claim that, for all the strands that have helped create the uncertainty, the root problem comes down to how you define arrogance.

It is a charge that has been levelled against him by people within Old Trafford - teammates, even - who find it hard to establish any rapport, decry the star treatment that appears to be afforded him and speak in disdainful tones of a haughty approach to players he considers less gifted.

An alarming number fit into that category, according to Van Nistelrooy, who has privately admitted a sense of dismay at signings such as Bellion and Eric Djemba- Djemba, and even doubts whether Louis Saha has the pedigree to be part of a Champions League- winning strike force.

After arriving at Old Trafford with expectations pitched at the highest possible level, Van Nistelrooy took it as read that subsequent incoming transfers would be of the same illustrious standing. If that is arrogance, he has told friends, he will plead guilty with a clear conscience.

He makes no secret of settling for nothing but the best and has become increasingly agitated and unsettled by a gradual eroding of standards, caused chiefly by perceived flaws in the transfer market.

While Bellion, Djemba-Djemba and Kleberson have been recruited to negligible effect, and even Cristiano Ronaldo has yet to deliver consistently, Ronaldinho was allowed to slip through the net to Barcelona and, even more gallingly for Van Nistelrooy, Arjen Robben opted for Chelsea rather than Old Trafford.

Others apply a different theory to a conspicuous fall from grace, and Keane, for one, has been swift to accuse Van Nistelrooy of taking his foot off the pedal since pocketing a tidy pay rise for agreeing a two-year contract extension to 2008. After one of many recent listless home performances - a 2-0 win over Charlton - Ferguson called a team meeting and gave Keane free rein to pick out the culprits for an alarming loss of urgency and vibrancy. Nicky Butt, Paul Scholes and Wes Brown were spared the torrent of invective that followed, but Van Nistelrooy was not.

His new contract had transported him into a comfort zone, Keane argued, and he was no longer leading the line with the hunger and edge that had made him one of Europe's most effective finishers.

It was all a million miles from the harmony and optimism that surrounded Van Nistelrooy's arrival at United in 2001 in a deal worth £19million.

Holland's most exciting discovery since Johan Cruyff had been on the verge of leaving PSV Eindhoven a year earlier until doubts over his right knee, raised in an Old Trafford medical, brought proceedings to a halt.

Indignant at being deemed a fitness risk, Van Nistelrooy set about disproving the diagnosis at PSV's training ground, only to end up confirming it in distressing circumstances.

The leap was convincing enough, the return to earth less so. As he landed, his knee gave way and he crumpled to the turf in agony.

But Ferguson kept faith in Van Nistelrooy and was a constant source of support, making frequent visits to his hospital bedside and offering words of encouragement and reassurance throughout his lengthy rehabilitation.

Those days now seem a distant memory. The damage has been done and the odds appear to be shortening on Real Madrid activating a 50million euros escape clause in a contract which, ironically, was drawn up to repel overtures from the Spanish giants.