Co Adriaanse is Co Adriaanse’s biggest enemy

Who is more satisfied with himself? Jose Mourinho or Co Adriaanse? It’s tight. Mourinho said last week in an interview: “I wouldn’t call myself the best coach in the world. But I do think no one is better than me.” Sounds a lot like Adriaanse…

Co doesn’t have a problem naming twenty players who became a millionaire thanks to him and the results at his former clubs prove that he will always squeeze the maximum out of a group. Although that does sound strange from a coach who only won a title once in his 25 year long career.
Although that was quite a big one: the Portuguese title with Porto.

And qualifying with Willem II for the Champions League was maybe even more impressive than winning a title with – say – PSV or Ajax. And with AZ Adriaanse played the semi finals UEFA cup and he created the foundation on which Van Gaal won the title for Alkmaar. All true.

But, when Metallurg Donetsk, Al-Sadd and Red Bull Salzburg are the last three clubs on your CV, you need to look in the mirror and check where you went wrong…

It’s always something with Adriaanse. His ambition, his lousy relationship with the media and money drove him into the unchartered waters of international football. All good, but the question remains what Adriaanse could have achieved with – say – Olympique Marseille, Manchester City or Bayern Munich. He could have and should have been a top coach at a top club, but he turned out to be his own biggest enemy. He’s got the know how, the drive, the communication skills but most people associate the man with easter eggs (did he hide them or didn’t he?), penal drills in Tilburg, talking lamp-shades at PSV, horses that aren’t good jockeys and egocentric one-liners.

Another problem: his short use-by-date. Normally, that was three seasons he told us when he worked at AZ. Since then, he managed to do one year in Portugal, five months in Donetsk, five months at Al-Sadd and one season in Salzburg. And everytime he left, it was with banging doors!

Most of the problems he faced have to do with Adriaanse’ honesty and openness. He can’t shut up when he doesn’t agree with something or when he feels an injustice is done. It’s something to admire and it surely results in entertaining soundbites but in Austria, it cost him the job. At Ajax, he was sacked because he 1) doubted favorite son Van Basten’s ability to coach and 2) broke with the traditional 4-3-3 (which wasn’t a problem when his succesor Koeman did it as well). In Austria, Adriaanse said his striker Janko would be good enough to play in Hungary. Which immediately resulted in the market price of the player to plummet. He was also happy to fire critical verbal rockets to club owner Mateschitz. The billionair is used to yes-men around him, so when Adriaanse publically told the owner to hurry up with the new contract, Mateschitz decided to sack the Dutch coach.

Interestingly enough, Adriaanse is very aware of his flaws. As the AZ coach, Adriaanse was interviewed at length by a management buro. He told the interviewers that he realized that fear was his big motivation. Fear to lose his job. Fear of not reaching his goals. Fear of never being able to work again. Fear of failing. When he was asked what his biggest weaknesses were, he said that he was too impatient. He realized his urge to prove himself and his bluntness could be his downfall.

At the end of the interview, Adriaanse said he’d learned a lot about himself. The last few years don’t account for that…