Premiership: Ruud pleads for patience at United

Ruud van Nistelrooy believes he may not be able to provide an instant remedy to Manchester United's recent disappointments in Europe.

The Premiership champions splashed out a British record £19m on the Dutch international shortly after they bowed out of the quarter-finals of the Champions League to eventual winners Bayern Munich.

But fellow striker Teddy Sheringham has returned to Tottenham and the future of the current squad has been clouded by uncertainty over Alex Ferguson's future plans.

"I'm not necessarily going to be the key player immediately," he said

"I'm not under the illusion that it is going to happen overnight.

"That's something that has to develop. When I'm there, I'm going to do my job, try to get a place in the starting line-up and then we will see what happens."

Van Nistelrooy admits to being surprised by all the interest in him since his move from PSV Eindhoven was agreed.

He added: "Soon after my contract was signed, some of the English media went to my place of birth and that of my girlfriend. They have spoken to all sorts of people, former team-mates and relatives.

"It's absolutely incredible that they think my youth is so interesting. When all this is going on, my mother asked me what she should do.

"I told her to act as normally as possible. There's nothing much you can do about it, anyway."