Johan Derksen: Verbeek liquidated himself

Johan Derksen might be an annoying twat, he has a good pen… On Feyenoord and Gertjan Verbeek. For the last time. I promise…

Fear is a bad adviser. Former chairman Van den Herik got extremely agitated with Feyenoord Icon Wim Jansen’s behavior. He always complained. In the dressing room, the hall way, the restaurant. He always explained to everyone he knew – in particular his little clan – what was wrong at Feyenoord. So, there was always a group of influential people – fans, sponsors, ex-players, media – chanting Wim Jansen’s name.

The same Jansen who as a technical director in the 1990s didn’t have the balls to fire coach Van Hanegem and asked chairman Van den Herik to do so.

Van den Herik was pressured to make a big mistake. To silence the critics, he got Jansen back in the organization. But, not in a formal role, but as “consultant”. He didn’t want responsibility. He did want a big paycheck. And since that moment, weird things happened. Peter Bosz was one of Jansen’s followers. They act together in a share-investment club. Bosz may have been an ex-player in De Kuip, as a coach he never impressed at De Graafschap and Heracles. Still, Jansen decided Bosz would be the ideal Technical Director at Feyenoord… The next appointee was Jansen’s brother-in-law Stanley Brard. He became the new youth development manager, and one of his first actions was firing a couple of well-performing youth coaches, like the successful but “difficult” Henk Fraser. Bosz long-time buddy John Lammers was also recruited, as strikers-coach. And another friend of Wim Jansen, Rinus Israel, came back as scout.

This nepotism continued when new coach Gertjan Verbeek introduced his mate Rekelhof as recovery-trainer, while his personal guru Paul van Zwam also ended up on the pay roll as Mental Coach. Van Zwam coincidentally ran a mental coaching company with none other than Leon VLemmings. Was it really a surprise that he would sign (and pay for) Vlemmings move from NAC to Feyenoord as assistant coach?

The new team manager would not be one of Feyenoord’s many ex-players, who know and would guard the club culture, no…ex Sparta goalie Bas Van Noortwijk got the job. Is it a coincidence then, that his wife is the best friend of Mrs Woerts? The wife of the Feyenoord commercial director?

Right before Jansen left Feyenoord, it became public news that Jansen was involved with a dubious football academy in Brazil, owned by his son. That initiative was sold as an idealistic enterprise, but it smells like slavery and kids-trading. Off the record, Jansen also proclaimed that the connection with Excelsior was useless, forgetting that players like Glenn Loovens, Gil Swerts (AZ), Patrick Mtiliga (NAC), Salomon Kalou, Luigi Bruins and Andy Slory were developed at Excelsior. Despite that track record, Feyenoord followed Jansen’s advice and gave Excelsior the bullit.

True, Jansen is a walking football encyclopedia. No discussion. But his work hasn’t contributed to Feyenoord at all. Now, he can go back to backroom discussions and criticize his club. But, Jansen should shut up from now on, really. He had his shot at it and blew it. His protege Bosz has pushed Feyenoord to the edge of the abyss. His evangelism was hot air.

The final result is that Bosz will go into history as the ultimate air-cyclist. He spent 30 million euros on players, but the results are abyssmal. His mission failed. Feyenoord has the worst season ever.

His management of the technical staff was also horrific. Bosz allowed the relationship between the players and Verbeek escalate and hoped to solve the problems with cliches and empty talk.

And Verbeek? He was a problem in itself. He might still be the ideal coach for Feyenoord, but he went under thanks to his own rigidity. Heerenveen chairman Van der Velde was right. He worked with Verbeek for quite some time, but decided not to renew his contract. Not because of lack of results, but because it was impossible to work with the man. He never allowed others to contribute and was totally hardheaded. A constant cause of internal conflicts and irritations.

Rambo leads the troups…

When the players couldn’t see eye to eye with the coach, Verbeek should have known that the story would end. There is just no foundation for a partnership anymore, and any sensible coach would have listened and compromised. Not Verbeek. His vision was made holy in Rotterdam and never even tried to listen to the different opinions. His hardheadedness became his fall. It’s easier to gel a young group and mould them, but with players who have experience at AZ, Ajax, PSV, Wolfsburg, Glasgow Rangers, Arsenal, Barcelona, Deportivo, Bayern Munich, Newcastle United, VFB Stuttgart and AC Milan it’s a bit harder. They played alongside the best players, worked with the best coaches and have more experience in top football than, say, Gertjan Verbeek.

The pigheaded coach refused to take his players seriously, let alone listen to them. He continued his approach, without compromising. If he’d listened to his experienced players, he would have been the dream coach of Feyenoord. He may have left with his head held high, but he can’t deny that the new and proven Verbeek-method resulted in anything other than injuries…

Once he learns to listen and starts to trust other people in the organization, he could still grow to be a top coach. He may think he knows all about growth processes and mental coaching, but at Feyenoord he clearly didn’t see the signs. The board allowed him to run havoc in the whole organization, from medical staff to catering ladies, Verbeek was ruthless, but he never did what he was paid to do: get results.

When it became clear the chemistry between players and coach was non-existent, the experienced players should have been much more firm in their position. But, Jansen, Bosz and Gudde “watched it all and did nothing”, as the nursery rhyme goes. When we, the media, mentioned it we were called troublemakers and disrespectful and when Gio van Bronckhorst made his hypocritical statement in the press the situation became really troubled. The press was better informed than the board, and that basically says it all.

The people paid to bring Feyenoord back where it belongs, left chaos and mayhem. The new general manager does not seem to have the chops to pull it off alone. The only good thing is, that the fans won’t be chanting Wim Jansen’s name anymore…