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Huntelaar too late at first training: penalized…

January 5th, 2009 | By: Jan | 501 Comments »

Musical chairs at the training for Huntelaar and Diarra

Juande Ramos wasn’t pleased with new signing Klaas Jan Huntelaar! The Ajax striker, signed this winter to replace Ruud van Gol, came too late for his first training with the Merenguez… Not smart. Strict coach Ramos showed Hunter who’s boss and penalized him immediately. Still, KJH will probably make his debut today, due to Higuain’s illness.

Not a good start, in other words. The Christmas break in Spain was a short one and the week lead up to the Villareal game was an important one for Hunter. His first group training after his ankle injury and one of a few to prove Ramos he’s ready to start.

It was five pm and almost dark in Madrid. No Huntelaar. No Drenthe. Coming back late after Xmas is normally the exclusive territory of South Americans.

Huntelaar and Drenthe flew from Amsterdam, but their flight had a two hour delay. When the two saw the Bernabeu’s lights from the air, their mates were doing their warm up already.

Real penalized their new signing. Because, sure…he did have his farewell in Amsterdam on Sunday, but there were several flights to Madrid after that event. But Lady luck was with Hunter, because one other players didn’t show up: Gonzalo Higuain was in bed with a throat infection, leaving him out for at least one week.

Despite Hunters’ faux pas, chances are he will start against Villareal this weekend. At first Ramos wanted to carefully bring Huntelaar into the game, he didn’t want excessive pressure on the PSV-developed striker. And there’s still the option for the new coach to start Van der Vaart behind Raul.

Arjen Robben was Huntelaar’s right hand man during the first session. His other activities are directed with a passion by Real Madrid, because both Huntelaar and other new signing Diarra seem to be the leads in a new soap opera in Madrid. It seems the Merenguez made a mistake in assuming that both their signings could play in the Champions League this year. Both have played in the UEFA cup (Diarra was signed from Portsmouth) and the rule is that only one player can be put on the CL-list.

“I will train 100% to convince the trainer that I’m his man,” said Huntelaar. “I want to play Champions League football”. These words were uttered in Amsterdam, after his farewell, but the Spanish media licked their lips and published every word. “Huntelaar puts pressure on Ramos,” was one headline. Right after the former Spurs coach had read that article, Huntelaar walks in late for his training.

,,Huntelaar verhoogt de druk op Ramos,’’ kopte één van de kranten. En net toen de trainer dat gelezen had, kwam de speler te laat op zijn eerste training.

Real Madrid put pressure on the UEFA to allow them to list both new signings, but Liverpool – the coming opponent in the CL- protested. Michel Platini will probably not bulge and stick to the rules.

This will put even more pressure on the responsible man for the screw up, the criticized Mijatovic who spent 47 million euros for two players, of which only one can play CL.

According to sportspaper Marca, the players want Diarra to play in the CL since not conceding goals seems harder for Real than scoring goals…. The fans want goals though and demand Hunter in the selection.

Tags: Diarra, Drenthe, Group C, Huntelaar, Oranje, Real Madrid, Robben, Sneijder

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Comments

Displaying the most recent 25 comments from a total of 501 comments.

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By Felipe | January 24th, 2009 at 9:09 am

@Finn: true!

BTW, Caleb, you’re right: I wrote the name of Wesley’s son as “Rodney”, when it’s “Jessey”. It’s an habit in Sneijder family: all the names of the men in the family end in “-ey”, did you know?

By sonneveld | January 24th, 2009 at 10:04 am

mathijsen game against austria would go down in my worst dutch performances

By Brian | January 24th, 2009 at 10:27 am

@goose: The blame for the demise of Southampton can be pretty much levelled at Rupert Lowe, the chairman. Poor managerial choices after Strachan left, interference in playing matters from the board, mediocre players on too high wages and the ‘parachute money’ after relegation running out have crippled the Saints. This despite making over 30 million euros on transfers since relegation, thanks to their excellent youth system. Looks like financial oblivion awaits – my own club, QPR, faced the same until the F1 guys took over…

Posted from United Kingdom

By Brian | January 24th, 2009 at 10:37 am

My own all-time 11 for Oranje:

———— Van Breukelen ———–

Suurbier – R. Koeman – Rijkjaard – Krol

Gullit — Neeskens — Cocu

Cruyff —- Bergkamp

Van Basten

Subs: van de Sar, van Hanegem, Rensenbrink, van Tiggelen, van Nistelrooy

No way on earth I’d leave the de Boers near the team, still haven’t forgiven Frank de Boer for the Denmark game in Euro 92.

Posted from United Kingdom

By finnster01 | January 24th, 2009 at 10:37 am

Holland’s entire teams performnace except EVDS against Russia this summer takes it for me. That is the worst I can remember.

By Brian | January 24th, 2009 at 11:05 am

Worst 11:

———- Menzo —————

Mathijsen – Hofland De Wolf – Wijnstekers

Trustfull – Kreek – Blinker

van Loen – Sibon – Jordi Cryuff

Posted from United Kingdom

By ferenc | January 24th, 2009 at 11:40 am

Goose: youˇre terribly wrong because the football team the world has ever seen wasnˇt brazil 1970 but holland of 1974. i am prettysur about it.

best oranje
vds
suurbier,r.koeman,rijkaard,krol
gullit,neeskens,cruijff,davids
van basten,bergkamp

Posted from Australia

By finnster01 | January 24th, 2009 at 12:10 pm

@Ferenc, you may be right but I doubt it. In any event, no team has ever taken the piss out of the other finalist as Brazil schooled Italy on the day. Unbelieveable stuff. Men against boys that was.

By Michel-Olivier(Slider) | January 24th, 2009 at 1:34 pm

heerenveen 1(beerens) roda 0

Posted from United States

By goose | January 24th, 2009 at 2:45 pm

worst Oranje ever

————–Menzo———

–Wijnstekers–deWolf—-Fraser—Brard (Feyenoord back 4)

———Yildrim—–Engelaar——-Rob Witsche—–

–van den Bergh————-Blinker——-

———–Jordi Cruijff———–

worst manager ; van Basten

@finn; haha .. i hope Kuijt scores the winner in our WC10 final just to get Tiju pissed!

@ferenc ; to be honest ; i never saw the brasil WC70 team play and never saw us play WC74, only on tape ; but at least the brasilians went on to WIN! as much as we are respected for our WC in 74 we didnt win so at the end we werent the best

Posted from Netherlands

By Michel-Olivier(Slider) | January 24th, 2009 at 3:54 pm

heerenveen 2 roda 0

Posted from United States

By Michel-Olivier(Slider) | January 24th, 2009 at 3:55 pm

my worst oranje
————–Menzo———-
Kromkamp-J. de Wolf-Ooijer-de Cler
Yildrim——Boateng——Zenden
Denneboom-collins John-van der Meijde

Posted from United States

By goose | January 24th, 2009 at 4:08 pm

“impressive” front line MO!

guess we had some pretty awful players in Oranje … what about vanGobbel? Linskens?

Posted from Netherlands

By Van Basten | January 24th, 2009 at 5:46 pm

Goose…Worst Manager “Van Basten”??? I must have missread that!!! Last time I checked Louis Van Gaal failed to take the Oranje to the 2002 WC.
What about Leo Beenhakker (with his “black eye” according to Jan) during the 1990 WC when we were supposed to win the WC with our all star players Van basten, Gullit, Rijkaard,Koeman while still European Champions and he failed miserably. Van Basten was the first Oranje coach to slaughter Italy by a score of 3:0 in 30 years. Thanks to Van Basten, the Oranje was the most respect, revered, and talked about team in the Euro 2008. He revolutionized the team by bringing in new and young players, who are now on their way of becoming world class players. Van Basten may not have won the WC yet, but no other Oranje coach has done so. According to Jan, Van Basten is the Oranje’s coach of 2008 with what he has done at Ajax.
There is so much for me to say…but I will stop here for now.
No doubt Van Basten has made mistakes as a coach,and has failed just like every other Oranje coach except General Michels, but to label him as the “worst all time Oranje manager” is gobbledygook and baseless.
I love You Marco Van Basten…The Best Oranje there ever was, and the best there ever will be!
Wait and See…Van Basten will bring the Oranje a World Cup Title, and to Ajax many many Champions League Trophies.
I love You San Marco!!!

By Carlos | January 24th, 2009 at 6:06 pm

Welcome back Jan
Interesting to see Guus ’s top 3 players he voted: Xavi, Gerrard and Messi and his simple summation was that these 3 players play for the team and they make a team play better. It would be VERY interesting to see the FIFA player of the year votes by the World’s top 20 coaches. He remarks that Ronaldo’s flair, slick hairdo etc is a reason that many coaches are “fans” but he voted more for players who play for the team.

Posted from Singapore

By Lerkot | January 24th, 2009 at 7:12 pm

Ive seen Southampton a lot this season… and its pretty clear what they’ve done wrong. Poortvliet wants them to play Dutch, with technique and short passing. However, all their players suck, so its.. impossible.