Is it pie in the sky for Ruud?

The Stoke chairman has revealed that we’ve made an enquiry after Ruud van Nistelrooy.

The former Man United striker is now 33 and is still plying his trade at Real Madrid but has struggled over the past year when he was out for nine months with a knee injury. Both Blackburn and Spurs enquired after him during the summer, but he opted to stay in Spain only to be injured again in September. He’s now fit and still seems to harbour hopes of a final appearance for Holland in the World Cup this year, but with only one start under his belt this season there doesn’t look like there will be too many opportunities at the Bernabeu.

It is those hopes that have encouraged the Potters to make that approach, but Peter Coates admitted that they have no inside information to know if it’s going to interest him and Liverpool are also rumoured to be tracking him.

He confirmed the enquiry in an interview with Radio Stoke: ‘It may be a long shot but we’ve made enquiries and we’ll see what comes from them. It depends on him wanting games to make sure he goes to the World Cup.’

Coates continued: ‘We’re too far away from it to know how realistic the chances are of it happening. We really don’t know at this stage.’

In short then – don’t hold your breath!