AZ Alkmaar Winter champs

Great football names for this lad: Graziano Pelle…

Louis van Gaal sighed and repeated what he said many times before after defeating NEC ( 1-0 ) and officially becoming the Winter Champs. “It’s fun, but that’s about it,” he said, sipping his hot chocolate. He was more pleased with the first season’s goal of Graziano Pelle and the comeback of injured Mousaa Dembele. Van Gaal knows the competition is 34 games long and being first half way doesn’t mean that much.

Last season, it was Van Marwijk’s Feyenoord who won this unofficial title and look where they ended.

Van Gaal doesn’t want to talk titles yet, despite a wonderful first season half with sensational football. “Anything can happen. We aim for the first five spots. We don’t want to alter our objectives now. Why put even more pressure on?”

“What we’ve done now, is beyond our expectations. The media will put more pressure on, and I don’t see why I should add to that,” said the coach, who saw his team lose the title two seasons back on the last match day.

Van Gaal continued: “I want to see us come through the next transfer period without any casualties. If a team like AZ performs well, the international scouts will come and cherry pick. There’s talk about El Hamdaoui moving to Barca for instance. Great for him if it happens, bad for us. If we can keep the players together, we’ll work towards a wonderful second season half. Let’s wait and see first.”

Chairman and club owner Dirk Scheringa took some anxiety away. “We won’t sell a single player if Van Gaal doesn’t want us to. Simple. Even if some club offers 40 million for El Hamdaoui, it’s no go. We won’t sign new players either. Not needed. Dembele is finally back and what a comeback it was. Our players don’t want to leave, I think. We’re working on something big here. We haven’t conceded a goal in 840 minutes and weren’t beaten in 17 matches. And, they work with one of the world’s best coaches, so why would they want to leave?”

Scheringa: “Last year’s May events were crucial. Van Gaal threw the towel but his players asked him back. These players are putting their money where there mouths were now. You can’t do it all alone. The players, Van Gaal, Marcel Brands, Toon Gerbrands, Rudy Douma and myself operate as a team. Together, we make AZ strong.”

Van Gaal operated against his own principles with Dembele. He only trained for three sessions, didn’t play with young AZ…normally, he wouldn’t even allow Dembele to come on the pitch as a sub. But Van Gaal broke his own rule. Dembele grew out to be the Man of the Match.

After the last training, Van Gaal addressed the group: “I had the feeling Dembele would be crucial against NEC. He’s the type of player that can break open tight games. We knew NEC would be tough to break down.”

Van Gaal has a crystal ball it seems. It was Dembele long range shot that helped break open the game, with NEC goalie Babos dropping the ball allowing Pelle the rebound: 1-0.