Gio: Crisis at Feyenoord is blown up by media

Feyenoord skipper Gio van Bronckhorst distanced himself on behalf of the whole group of the so-called crisis in Rotterdam. “Bullshit,” the Oranje captain spitted. “The media are making a meal out of it. I am saying this on behalf of all the players. And this is not rehearsed or prepared by our press people. It was the latest article in the AD that motivated me to do this. They said we took a vote and 14 players wanted Verbeek out. That is not true.”

“I know this is not standard procedure but I felt strongly that I needed to say this. These articles create negativity and pressure and we do not recognize ourselves one bit in these statements in the press. It’s all concocted to sell papers.”

“We didn’t take a vote. We didn’t even discuss Verbeek. As the players, we came forward with things we felt we needed to change. Everyone got to say their thing, the players and the technical staff. Another thing we keep reading is that there’s a rift between young and older players. Again, nonsense. And some players would have complained about the tough training sessions, but that wasn’t on our list at all. We do not want the fans to get a wrong impression.”

“This stuff will only make our problems bigger. We don’t need this. You get the idea that it’s the players versus the coaches but that’s absolutely not the case. And our focus needs to be on AZ now. We’ll play the leaders this weekend, and it’s like everyone forgot that.”

When Gio was faced with questions about how some details did reach the media, he refused to answer and left the pressroom.

The Feyenoord fans supported the coaches and the club. That became clear in the last days.

Verbeek used this to finetune his players. “They only thing you can do and must do, is work hard. Give it your all. If the fans see that you do everything you can, you will create goodwill. The game against AZ is the perfect game to do this.”

Verbeek was pretty chilled out after the press meeting. “If they say the articles in the press are wrong and exaggerated, I believe them. I never experienced any deep issues with them. We do have our discussions, but that’s good. And they don’t have to agree all the time. I do not distrust them and whenever they come out and speak their mind, I can do something with it.”

Verbeek didn’t want to blame the press. “I won’t repeat what Gio said. I can only say that all that stuff in the media is something I can’t do anything with. It’s all “anonymous sources” and stuff, so what can I do? What I can do, is work hard with the group every day. I can work with them and influence them. I can’t influence the media.”

Van Bronckhorst did confirm that there were lots of talks in the past days, between players, staff and management. Verbeek: “Those talks were very useful. Improving communications improves our cooperation and therefore the results.”

The hard-headed coach did make a bow: “I’m not saying I know it all. I work with lads who played at the highest levels and still do. I do involve them in different processes.”

Verbeek also said he listened well. “Our course remains the same, but a couple of changes left or right won’t hurt. El Ahmadi said recently he wasn’t used to training 100% the day before a game. Fine. He can say that. Others asked for different training forms before a game, we can actually work with those requests.”

Verbeek repeated that Feyenoord hadn’t “directed” Van Bronckhorst’s statement. “That was a fine initiative of the players. It’s important for Feyenoord and I support this. I am happy with their support and I can work with this. My relationship with the players is my biggest asset. Anything that impacts them, impacts me and the club. I received useful imput and I am happy with the way this process has gone.”

Today, Feyenoord plays leader AZ Alkmaar, who – as opposed to Feyenoord – do not have any injuries or missing players to speak of.