History has not been kind to Ruud van Nistelrooy. The fact that it has taken the feats of Jamie Vardy - who was scoring goals in the English Conference three years ago - to thrust the Dutchman back into the spotlight is an indictment of how far the former Manchester United forward has slipped off the radar.Yet thanks to Vardy, the Leicester City forward who at the weekend equalled Van Nistelrooy's record of scoring in 10 consecutive Premier League games, the Dutch striker is once again in the consciousness of the football world.As football prepares to fete Vardy for matching Van Nistelrooy before he potentially eclipses him by making it 11 games in a row - against United - this weekend, there is no doubt that Van Nistelrooy was never afforded the same elite status as many of his contemporaries.During his five years at United, Van Nistelrooy scored 150 goals in 219 games at a rate of 0.68 goals per game.Only Tommy Taylor, who died in the Munich disaster, outstrips Van Nistelrooy at Old Trafford, with a strike rate of 0.69, scoring 131 times in 191 appearances.In each of his first three seasons at United, Van Nistelrooy broke the 30-goal barrier, scoring 44 in 52 games in 2002-2003, yet take a stroll around Old Trafford and you will struggle to see any image of him.Van Nistelrooy perhaps shone brightly at the wrong time and is overlooked as a consequence.At United it was his misfortune to arrive in 2001, just as the 1999 treble-winning team was being broken up by Ferguson.He also preceded the years when Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo took United to another level in Europe.But Van Nistelrooy's goal-scoring ability was second to none. United's surge to the title in 2002-2003 was largely due to Van Nistelrooy scoring 13 goals in the final eight games of the season.He was sensational at times, and he scored goals in the era of Arsenal's Invincibles and back-to-back champions Chelsea, but he was too good a player only to be remembered because one of his records is about to be broken...