World

Europe

Netherlands

Huntelaar: Milan sees a deep striker in me

August 9th, 2009 | By: Jan | 71 Comments »

Bert van Marwijk said it: Huntelaar is a smart lad. He will have talked to his new club AC Milan about their plans with them…

Huntelaar: “I sure did. I already talked to the a month ago. I had a meeting with Leonardo, the new coach, and he sees a deep striker in me. A target man, so to speak. The idea is to play with three players up front, who all have their own role and who can compensate each other. AC Milan has Inzaghi and myself for the center striker, Pato is a player who likes to drift and Ronaldinho will be the playmaker behind us. You’ll have three midfielders, four defenders and a goalie and there’s your team. Both the coach as the chairman relayed this idea to me.”

In what way do you feel that this has to be the one, after the Real debacle?

“You always want it to be the one, when you move to another club. But the circumstances need to be right. At Madrid, they weren’t. When Schuster was there (who signed Hunter) I thought the vision was clear, but since he was sacked everything became fluid. I think I did ok, actually. I scored eight goals in 13 starting matches. I did what I could, the rest was all politics. I couldn’t influence that. It’s not fun when the new coach says: you won’t even get a chance to prove your worth, we want to sell you… It’s new people, new policies. So,this is Real’s new strategy.”

How are you actually? You haven’t played a single minute…

“Oh, I’m fit alright, but I discussed it with the coach and we decided to go for a full training week before I start for Milan. I hope to play with Oranje and then I want to work on a duper form for AC Milan. I’m not sure how quick I can get there, so there’s no date set for my Milan debut.”

How did it feel, your first Milan jersey?

“I’ve got something with classic shirts, you know? It felt great. As a kid, I watched Van Basten, Gullit and Rijkaard play here, so it’s like magic…

Do you feel that Real has the moral obligation to help the lads who can’t find a club before August 31?

“Well, yeah… On the one hand… Players are suffering from this total lack of consistency in Real’s strategy. I have been in Madrid for five months and had three coaches, two chairmen and two technical directors. But then again, as a player you make those choices yourself. The Spanish culture is different than ours, it’s more haphazard. So, it comes with the territory and you’ve got a work with that. I played it hard, with my manager. Real wanted me to go to Stuttgart, but I wanted something better and basically said: too bad guys… Maybe you should drop the transfer sum or otherwise buy me out. I feel our patience has been rewarded.”

Can you feel a difference in vibe with Real or AC Milan?

“Absolutely. The vibe in Madrid is fine, but it’s big business there and less…let’s say social. I experienced PSV, AGOVV, Heerenveen and Ajax… And although Ajax is seen as business-like, it’s not. It’s a warm club. When I left for Madrid, I knew what to expect and I didn’t mind the “all-business-mentality”. It sort of keeps players on their toes. It’s what it is. But in Milan, I do feel that warmth much more. And not just because I’m new or anything. They love their history, the link with Holland and there’s a certain grace and style here in Italy. Madrid was in muddy waters and you could sense that. In Milan, they have that same…some people call it arrogance…as in Amsterdam. I’d say it’s confidence. People don’t panic as much here, I think…”

Tags: AC Milan, Basten, Group C, Huntelaar, Oranje, Pato, Robben, Van Marwijk

Netherlands World Cup RSS Feed

del.icio.us:Huntelaar: Milan sees a deep striker in me

digg:Huntelaar: Milan sees a deep striker in me

newsvine:Huntelaar: Milan sees a deep striker in me

reddit:Huntelaar: Milan sees a deep striker in me

fark:Huntelaar: Milan sees a deep striker in me

Y!:Huntelaar: Milan sees a deep striker in me

stumbleupon:Huntelaar: Milan sees a deep striker in me

Comments

Displaying the most recent 25 comments from a total of 71 comments.

Read the rest of the comments

By Van Basten | August 9th, 2009 at 11:23 pm

Amazing video of Ruud Van Nilsterooy, Thanks Sonneveld for the much deserved tribute, and the lovely song. If there has ever been another Van Basten from Netherlands, it’s Van Gol. He is definitely 1 of the top 5 strikers of the decade. I was disappointed to see him benched for the rookie Kuyt against Portugal in 2006, for he has always amazed me. But then again many Dutch strikers have performed excellent at their clubs and been less than stellar in the national team(Hasselbank, Mackaay). I wish Huntelaar was of his kind but he seems far from it nowadays.
If it wasn’t for his never-ending injuries, he could have easily won the Golden Boot and Ballon D’Or.
Ruud Van Nilsterooy a pure clinical striker, one of the best of his generation who has not earned the acclamations and respect from UEFA/FIFA.

Posted from United States

By Miguel Rosado | August 10th, 2009 at 12:26 am

Van Basten: I totally agre with you. Ruud will have a difficult time to get his spot back but if he starts playing at his level Benzema, Raul, Higuain, Negredo will have to be benched because they will NEVER be like Ruud Van Gol. Just look at the statistics between Ruud and Raul with goals in the UCL, Raul has more but he started playing in the UCL when he was 17.

By Miguel Rosado | August 10th, 2009 at 12:27 am

Robben scored a beauty.

By finnster01 | August 10th, 2009 at 1:50 am

To be brutally honest, and I mean brutally honest, quite frankly I couldn’t give a monkey’s fart what Ruud ends up doing as he will never play for Oranje again which is all I care about.

By Jan | August 10th, 2009 at 2:59 am

Finn? Does this basically means that you don’t care how he is or what he does, unless he comes back to play for Holland?

By Jan | August 10th, 2009 at 3:00 am

Dick Advocaat is sacked by Zenith St Petersburg…

By finnster01 | August 10th, 2009 at 3:02 am

@Jan: That is correct. He is no good to me playing a few minutes here and there at Real (or elsewhere unless it is Ajax or Liverpool).

By Leon | August 10th, 2009 at 3:03 am

@Sonneveld, Great clips. Shiver down the spine stuff!!

By Ruud | August 10th, 2009 at 3:28 am

I hope RVN breaks Raul’s record of the Champions league top scorer.

Posted from Canada

By Jan | August 10th, 2009 at 3:53 am

Gotcha!

By ferenc | August 10th, 2009 at 5:20 am

i’m not as brutal as Finn about rvn but have a little bit the same feeling. but still hope that he’ll play in south africa and finish his career as a world champion. he deserves it. much more thab any other player in the squad (maybe except van bronckhorst who will be a good substitute at oranje).

best strikers of this decade: 1. ruud, 2. samu eto’o, 3. fernando torres

Posted from Hungary

By ferenc | August 10th, 2009 at 5:52 am

i read about yesterday real madrid game the robben was man of the match and – unfortunately – sneijder was flop of the match…

Posted from Hungary

By jess | August 10th, 2009 at 7:28 am

@ sonneveld,

This very off topic but I was watching your videos and I was wondering why you chose Rio Ferdinand over Vidic for your better player? I was surprised to read that as everyone always seems to be gushing over Vidic. Great videos by the way. I added you to my subscriptions.

By sonneveld | August 10th, 2009 at 7:46 am

i like vidic more, where did i say that?

By Michel-Olivier | August 10th, 2009 at 8:38 am

@ Jeff
i believe in right of blood, if a player can play for a team through ancestry they should go for it.

Posted from United States

By Alex | August 10th, 2009 at 9:21 am

would anyone be mad if Messi decided to play for Netherlands(not Holland, that’s a province), lol? of course not, it depends on the quality of the player. Most people are bit a of hypocrites when it comes to these things.

Posted from Netherlands

By Jeff | August 10th, 2009 at 9:52 am

@Michel-Olivier, how many generations? Where do you draw the line? Grand children??

Posted from United States

By Caleb | August 10th, 2009 at 9:53 am

@Sonneveld – love the videos, the Ruud one gave me goosebumps! Man, Ruud is sooo good at scoring! The Sneijder one was good but runs out of music at the end which is a little strange… and I would add a little more of his pinpoint passing which is one of his main talents. Otherwise very good though!

Posted from Canada

By Caleb | August 10th, 2009 at 10:05 am

@Jeff – yes, grand children is where the line is drawn. Children and grand children can play for the country of their parents/grand parents, but great-grand children can not. I see no problem with it. I was born in Canada, but I still feel quite Dutch as well. If I was good enough to be able to choose, hands down I’d choose to play for Oranje instead of Canada. No doubt about it – Oranje is my team, not Canada.

Posted from Canada

By sonneveld | August 10th, 2009 at 10:10 am

same carlos, but i still feel we should try to cap players like we did with maduro, its a good strategy.

By Michel-Olivier | August 10th, 2009 at 10:15 am

@ Jeff
it depends how a country use the right of blood law.
ex.
to gain japanese or indian passport you need at least one japanese or Indian great-grandparent. for italy, croatia, spain, isreal… there is no limit of generations because they don’t use jus soli(right of soil).

Posted from United States

By Jeff | August 10th, 2009 at 11:41 am

@Caleb and Michel-Olivier, your arguments are convincing and I have the same situation having been born in Europe and moved to the US when I was 20 but supporting Holland. My kids would never play for the US either. I guess I may be biased when dutch players are involved. Even though Amrabat is unlikely to play for the NT you never know how he will be in a few years. Same goes for Aissati. I suppose though that with the new rule they could change back to playing for Holland (Nederland!!) if good enough, is that correct?

Posted from United States

By jess | August 10th, 2009 at 12:03 pm

@sonneveld,

When I followed the link to your RVP/Huntelaar video in the info you were talking about the 10 greatest players for 2009 I believe and you had Rio down as an option. I was just curious as I have a friend who is a big England fan and he says Rio makes Vidic look better than he is so I was just wondering if you thought the same thing. Than again this is a guy who claims Man U’s back line makes Van Der Sar look good too. Needless to say we argue a lot.

By Miguel Rosado | August 11th, 2009 at 1:29 am

@ferenc: I wish the same for Ruud. He deserves to be World Cup champion.

The Netherlands deserve to win a big trophy!!!. We have been to 2 WC finals and both were against the hosts. Our Dutch players are legends around the world with many clubs (Milan, Barcelona, Arsenal, Ajax, Madrid).

I am from Mexico but I fell in love with Holland’s style of playing because I’d never get tired of watching the Dutch national team. Some people say we are not amongst the best because we haven’t won the WC but as soon as they know they’ll be facing Holland they get very scared.

Holland has given the world some of the best memories in football history the 70’s, ajax ‘95 , the national team of ‘98, Milan in 90’s. Michels is the best manager in the history, Cruyff, Louis, Hiddink. The way these teams played was pure magic. I mean, Barcelona plays that way and look what they’ve done.

We have the team and the coach seems to be smart and reasonable so we have everything to win it. I know it’ll be hard but if our players play as a unit I am very hopeful about this group of players. I have a dream but soon will be real!!!.

By Caleb | August 11th, 2009 at 10:14 am

@Jeff – actually, I believe that once they play for one country (be that Morocco or the Netherlands), they are locked into that country for the rest of their life, the only exception is that youth teams don’t lock you into playing for that country (U21 for example). That’s why giving a player one cap means that they will only be able to play for your country in the future. As for players like Amrabat and Assiati, they need to make a choice who they want to play for and stick to it. We don’t need wishy-washy players in Oranje, we only want players who are proud to wear the jersey!

Posted from Canada

Comments are closed