Perhaps some of the magic of his playing days at Manchester United would rub off on the Foxes players who had seen Steve Cooper get the sack from the first-team manager's position after just two league wins to that point of the season.
A win over West Ham in his first game in charge was surely the shape of things to come, given that he'd also won three and drawn one of his four games in charge as interim manager at the Red Devils.
Van Nistelrooy's first win as Leicester manager hid many deficiencies
Were circumstances different, perhaps the Dutchman could even have been kept on in some capacity by Ruben Amorim, however, the Portuguese manager made it clear from the start that he had his own people in mind, opening up the possibility for Van Nistelrooy to make his name elsewhere.
To that end, Leicester were the grateful recipients of his services, though the 3-1 win over the Hammers perhaps hid the deficiencies that were to haunt the 48-year-old for the rest of the 2024/25 campaign.
For a start, the Irons had 61.1% possession across the 90 minutes, whilst their 31 total shots compared to just eight from Leicester. On another day, had West Ham's strikers had their shooting boots on, the game would've been over as a contest before half-time.
20 completed dribbles from the east Londoners, 29 aerial duels won and and an 86% pass completion stat were all far, far better than the Foxes' output on the night.
Goals win games, however, so little was made of what in reality was a poor night's work from the hosts.
Questions already being asked after waiting nine games for second league victory
By the time of Leicester's second league win under the Dutchman - a 2-1 victory over Tottenham at the end of January - questions were already being asked as to Van Nistelrooy's suitability.
A 2-2 draw against Brighton followed the West Ham victory, but seven straight league defeats before the visit to Spurs was a sure sign that the Foxes had put a square peg in a round hole.
A 6-2 win over Queens Park Rangers in the FA Cup did nothing to dispel that feeling.
After beating the Lilywhites, Leicester proceeded to lose nine Premier League games in a row, scoring one goal against Manchester United but remaining scoreless in the other eight matches.
Another 2-2 draw against Brighton was a brief respite as Liverpool's 1-0 win relegated the Foxes, whilst also strengthening the Reds' grip on the Premier League title.
First team in top-flight history to go nine consecutive home games without scoring
Breaking a record of becoming the first team in English top-flight history to go nine consecutive home league games without scoring will have done nothing to temper the feeling that another change in the dugout might be needed, and Jamie Vardy was the first to break cover on what had been a "miserable" campaign.
He'll likely not be the last Leicester player to do so, and it does pose the question as to what happens next for Van Nistelrooy.
Would relegation be the worst thing in the world for the Dutchman who can effectively build from scratch next season in the hope of immediate promotion back to the English top-flight? Or do the owners go back to the drawing board?
Much is likely to depend on what they find when a season review is conducted.
They will see, for example, that only Southampton have scored less than Leicester's 27 goals to date in 24/25, and the Saints are also the only club to have conceded more than the Foxes' 73 goals.
Top-scoring Jamie Vardy has already called time on his Leicester career
Only 10 players in the entire squad contributed goals, and of those 27 scored in total, 38-year-old Vardy's paltry seven was the most from any one player.
It's a mystery that the manager, one of the world's best front men in his prime, couldn't get the best out of his strikers during 24/25, and given that it was announced on Thursday that Vardy would be leaving the club, it puts the ball firmly in the club's court as to who is brought in to score the goals in the Championship next season.
If his team putting the ball in the back of the net were Van Nistelrooy's only issue, one might expect that he could've turned things around.
However, of the entire first-team squad, only Harry Winks managed a pass completion statistic of over 80%. Centre-backs Conor Coady and Wout Faes could only offer up 52.9% and 55.6% respectively.
Couple that with goalkeeper, Mads Hermansen's unbelievably poor 18% completion, and you already have a recipe for disaster if your team can't play out from the back with any sort of accuracy.
No stomach for the fight
Only four players in the squad, one of whom is Hermansen, have made more than 100 ball recoveries - unforgivable for a team fighting for their Premier League existence - whilst only Jannik Vestergaard (60.2%) has won more than 50% of his one-on-one duels with a direct opponent.
Of those players who have made more than 15 tackles in the current campaign, only Vardy and Abdul Fatawu had more than 70% success, evidencing that the majority of the current squad were never really up for the fight in any event.
It's a damning indictment on Van Nistelrooy's management and the least surprising news of the summer would be that Leicester do indeed relieve him of his duties.
As his former Man United striker partner, Wayne Rooney, has also found to his cost, being a big name as a player doesn't automatically lend itself to a transference of skills into management. Ditto Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard.
Therefore, perhaps what needs to be asked is which club would be brave enough to want to take a chance on a manager with such a poor record (P21 W2 D2 L17) and then present them to the supporters as being the perfect choice?
