Mario Been: Have faith in Gertjan Verbeek!

Mario Been had a bit of a laugh. Again, the press made the connection between the success coach and “his” beloved Feyenoord. The 45 year old even has a clause in his contract, allowing him to work for the Pride of Rotterdam whenever they want him.

“Oh boy, what are you guys making up here… I don’t have anything in my contract on Feyenoord. It runs till 2010 but I’m negotiating a new contract till 2012. You know how it works. If some club wants me, whoever it is, and I have an ongoing deal, they’ll have to pay. That’s how it works. But anything anyone writes about me and Feyenoord is bullshit.”

Been is a child from De Kuip and he knows why these stories are made up. “I am not with Feyenoord on my mind but others seem to think it’s a cool subject. Of course, in my dreams, I hope to be able to be the chief coach there, but who knows when, you know?”

Is Been not worried about his club? “Listen, it does hurt to see how they’re doing. But I have the utmost confidence in Verbeek. When he gets those injured players back next year, you’ll see what they’re capable of.”

The former Feyenoord playmaker is very content in Nijmegen and was supported by NEC’s management when he had a dry spell last season.

Been is hoping for another European stunt with his team. Thursday, Udinese visits, which is already qualified for the next round. Thanks to a sensational away win against Spartak Moscow, NEC could go through in the UEFA cup.

“That would be awesome. And I do think we can beat Udinese. Why not? We’re fit, we score easily and Udinese has a more difficult phase right now. But, the Italians will want to win, even though they are through already. They will deploy their counter tactics. So, we need to keep the zero at the back and score one up front. Than we’re fine.”