Arne Slot has paid tribute to Ruud van Nistelrooy by saying the new Leicester manager laid the foundations for the PSV Eindhoven team that deposed his Feyenoord side as Dutch champions.
The two Dutchmen will meet again on Boxing Day with league leaders Liverpool hosting Leicester.
They faced each other in the 2022-23 season when Van Nistelrooy got the better of the games – winning 4-3 in Eindhoven and drawing 2-2 in Rotterdam – but Slot lifted the Eredivisie title, with Feyenoord finishing seven points clear of second-placed PSV.
And Slot smiled: “I was expecting you to tell the people over here that I lost once and drew once! But you made it positive, saying that we won the league title which was true.
“Cody Gakpo was in his team, but I’m happy that he’s in my team when we face Ruud because Cody he scored [in PSV’s 4-3 win].”
Van Nistelrooy resigned in 2023 and PSV went on to win the Dutch league under his successor Peter Bosz but Slot believes the former Manchester United striker deserves his share of the credit, for their form in their final months under him, as they only lost once, raising money by selling key players and starting a rebuilding job.
He explained: “Ruud is a very nice person, first of all. I met him once or twice. I think he did really well when he was at PSV because I think for the last one-and-a-half years, PSV have been on top of the league table but if you look at the second half of Ruud’s season, I think they didn’t lose any more games at all.
“It wasn’t a surprise that, after we left, they bought so many players because PSV started buying a few more players than they did when he started working there. When he was there, Cody Gakpo and Noni Madueke were sold.
“But he still showed that he could compete for the title. Nice person, good manager, did well at Man United as well. Looking forward to seeing him – especially if we win.”
