Van Nistelrooy, Slot and £30m signings among five random reunions this weekend

Arsenal midfielder Mikel Merino might not recognise Newcastle but there will be more emotional reunions for Ruud van Nistelrooy and Arne Slot.

Mikel Merino and Newcastle
Rafael Benitez revelled in the capture of “a midfielder with talent” – which is about as emotive as the former Liverpool manager gets – when Newcastle adorned their summer 2017 transfer business with the loan capture of Merino.

The Magpies also signed future double European champion Joselu in that window, as well as current Eddie Howe loyalist Jacob Murphy. It was a different time.

Merino fared well enough. He played 24 games, earned a permanent move and was named Newcastle’s Player of the Month during his start to life in England. But an injury limited his opportunities and there was an element of homesickness surrounding perennial links with a return to Spain.

They were not without merit and when Real Sociedad activated a low release clause at the end of his only season on Tyneside, that seemed to be the end of Merino’s brief English love affair. But six seasons as a La Liga starter ignited his international career and attracted the attention of Arsenal, who saw rather more than a mere “midfielder with talent” when handing over £31m for the pleasure.

Murphy will be one of the few remaining familiar faces to welcome him back to St James’ Park on Saturday.

Arne Slot and Yankuba Minteh
“I think that his choices are already improving in the final phase. The bad thing for us is that if his choices become really good, he will probably no longer play for us.”

While Slot knew his union with Minteh was destined to be fleeting, he would have struggled to accurately predict the reasons when speaking back in March.

There are few better career “choices” Minteh could have made than to join a Brighton side burgeoning with young talent and ample opportunities. But Slot jumped the Feyenoord ship even before the former Newcastle winger when he agreed to replace Jurgen Klopp.

Neither player nor manager has cause to regret their decision thus far. Minteh blossomed as a teenager in his first season of European football under Slot and both are reaping the rewards of their fine work in the upper reaches of the Premier League. Many at Anfield might not realise the reason why but there will be a warm embrace if the Brighton forward can make his return from injury in time.

Ruud van Nistelrooy and Noni Madueke
It is perhaps not the leading storyline in the wider Manchester United manager plot but Van Nistelrooy’s extended interim reign will include a reunion neither party will have even contemplated when they were last together.

Only two players – Johan Bakayoko and Cody Gakpo – have more combined goals and assists under Van Nistelrooy than Madueke, who sampled the Dutchman’s early coaching stylings in the PSV youth team before enjoying a proper taste when the legendary striker was handed the senior reins for almost the entirety of the 2022/23 season.

Madueke has publicly credited Van Nistelrooy for much of the development which caught Chelsea’s eye a couple of winter windows ago, even revealing the seal of approval he was given at the time:

“I was coming off the training pitch and Ruud van Nistelrooy, my gaffer, pulled me to one side. I’m thinking, something’s up here. He said it’s done. He said you’ve gotta go. ‘You’re signing for Chelsea’.”

Enzo Maresca has shared the Chelsea minutes around this season but just six players have received more than Madueke, whose threat Van Nistelrooy will know is worth trying to nullify.

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Sam Johnstone and Crystal Palace
There might be no reconciliation between Johnstone and certain individuals at Crystal Palace when Oliver Glasner takes his side up to Molineux. There might not even be an official get-together at all if the keeper cannot overcome his recent injury issues.

Johnstone has missed the last two Premier League fixtures but had been a regular starter for Wolves until then, conceding 13 goals in five games. Jose Sa impressed in the late defeat to Manchester City before making a costly mistake in the draw with Brighton.

Gary O’Neil has been insistent that he knows who his best keeper is but the answer has been obscured by Johnstone’s absence.

The 31-year-old spent most of the second half of last season on the sidelines but that was through the choice of Glasner, who picked Dean Henderson as his man and rubber-stamped that decision by unceremoniously stripping Johnstone of his shirt number, which the England international took in stride.

Wolves came in with a £10m bid soon after and following Sa’s kicking exhibition on the south coast, will hope Johnstone can return to channel that typical Palace keeper energy which inspires them to turn into Lev Yashin against a former club they feel treated them harshly.

Enes Unal and Manchester City
It will be moving. It is a shame the game is at Bournemouth because the Etihad tributes praising the prodigal son’s return would have been beautiful. But it will be a poignant, powerful moment all the same.

In two years on the Manchester City books, Unal’s record of a goal a game made him a bona fide club legend. He had none of either thanks to three separate loan spells before being sold at a massive profit as an Etihad cheat code stalwart, but still.

Unal kickstarted his post-City career in Spain with Villarreal, then Levante and Valladolid. The Turkey international actually re-entered the Manchester City orbit with a fruitful spell at Getafe but it was Bournemouth who brought him back to England.

As a teary Pep Guardiola once said about someone we’re pretty sure was Unal: “We love him so much. He’s a special person. He’s so nice. He helped me a lot. We cannot replace him, we cannot.”