Gerry ARMSTRONG Column: Super Van man's hot in Thierry, but Henry is

IT'S been very interesting listening to all this transfer talk involving Manchester United over the last week.

There has been much speculation surrounding Ruud van Nistelrooy being touted as a potential buy for Real Madrid.

However, the fascinating one could see Nicky Butt going and United snapping up Rivaldo.

But they can't afford the Brazilian, I hear you say? Wrong.

The 31-year-old striker may have been released from his contract by AC Milan, but he's done a deal with them to play for them and collect half the pounds 90,000 a week they were paying him.

Not only would he go for zilch, United wouldn't have to pay the full whack AC have been shelling out.

To see the World Cup winner playing in England alongside van Nistelrooy would be nothing short of sensational.

The burning question is whether Van the Man will be around long enough for this to happen.

There's no question that the Dutchman is on Madrid's list, but do you honest believe Alex Ferguson is going to let go David Beckham and him in the same season...er, I don't think so.

Plus the fact, he's not even their No.1 target. That honour goes to Arsenal's Thierry Henry.

Real president Florentino Perez has already stated that he intends to get in the best in the world.

Well, if you look at the candidates for this year's World Player of the Year crown, Ronaldo and Zinedine Zidane have been nominated alongside Gunners' striker Henry. Perez has got two out of three and my understanding he's out to make it a hat-trick.

A lot of you may say that Real don't need another striker, they need a defender to stop silly goals being conceded. Wrong again! In Senor Perez's eyes, buying another striker is the way to help his defence.

Staggering I know, but that's Real for you.

What will be interesting is that if they don't get Henry or van Nistelrooy, then Liverpool's Michael Owen is No.3 on their shopping list.

That makes more sense, because Owen hasn't signed a new contract yet and he would fit in to the way Madrid play very easily. How exciting would that be..Owen and Ronaldo playing in the same front line. Another of top Perez's top targets is Arsene Wenger.

The Arsenal manager is the boss Madrid want and I believe they will have another go for him next summer.

Arsenal have pulled off an amazing escape in the Champions League, dead and buried seven weeks ago to qualifying top of their group this week.

I, for one, thought they would fail to get to the knockout stage, and quite rightly after the disgraceful early European performances they put in.

But to be fair to them, they have rallied brilliantly and raised their game, with the highlight being that staggering 5-1 hammering of Milan, and deserve to have got into the last 16, although Celta Vigo will be a toughie.

A sustained Champions League run could be enough to keep going Wenger's interest in Highbury, but the simple fact is that if the Frenchman does head to Spain, then I think he'll take Henry with him. I was delighted to see that all the English sides had made it into the knockout stages of the Champions, and I believe they are a real contenders for the European crown.

But I feel it will be a Spanish side that could take it this year. All four - Real Sociedad, Madrid, Deportivo La Coruna and Celta Vigo - have amazingly qualified and the reason for this is that the style of play between La Liga and the Champions League are not too dis- similar.

The trouble for the English and Scottish clubs is that there is still this age old problem of the style of plays being so different so when they do have to play in Europe, they have to adopt a game they're just not used to.

One thing Chelsea are not used to is the violence they had to put up with in Turkey. How disgusting were those scenes against Besiktas last week.

I don't agree with Chelsea chief Ken Bates that the Turks should be banned from Europe. A lot of fans will say that any hint of trouble saw English clubs banned in the eighties, but a lot of that was down to the Heysel disaster.

I do believe, though, that Turkish sides have got away with it for too long. Time, and time again there is trouble in Turkey and time and time they have been punished way too leniently. UEFA must do something!

Anyway, as for the last 16 draw of the Champions League, there are a few juicy ties, Bayern against Real being one. That should be a cracker because Bayern have beaten Real nine out of the last 14 matches.

Celta Vigo shouldn't trouble Arsenal, while Porto will lose their bottle against Man Utd, but Chelsea could find it tricky against a Stuttgart side who were like Roman's boys, beaten last night for the first time in a while.

However, the tightest call will be Deportivo, who play great football, against Juventus, who, er, play a more 'defensive' game. Bring on next February that all I say.

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