Structural issue with Dutch goalkeepers?

August 25th, 2009 | by: Jan |

Dutch football is renowned for it’s attacking skill. But apart from developing great creative players, Holland also produced top goal keepers. Names like Heinz Stuy, Gert Bals, Frans de Munnick, Eddy Pieters Graafland, Jan Jongbloed, Jan van Beveren, Hans van Breukelen, Joop Hiele, Stanley Menzo, Edwin van der Sar, Ed de Goey, Ronald Waterreus to name a few… But after Sar, it kinda stopped (with all due respect to Westerveld, Boschker, Timmer).

Half of the Dutch clubs currently employ a foreign goal keeper. “They do not add value whatsoever, but our current goal keeper development is simply horrible.”

Piet Schrijvers, De Beer van de Meer, De Bolle van Zwolle, Het Lek van Pec

Ex Oranje and ex Ajax goalie Piet Schrijvers tells it like he sees it. It hurts the keepers trainer that the statistics support his vision. “I’ve warned the KNVB years back. They’ve been sleeping for decades. It’s just preposterous that the KNVB never developed a structural development plan for goalies. Only recently they started a scouting and development plan. I submitted a plan like this years back with two colleagues and they simply shelved it. And now we’re facing the implications.”

It’s not just The Bear from De Meer (Ajax’ old stadium) to say this. Pim Doesburg, former Sparta and PSV goalie and currently Feyenoord’s keepers trainer: “I can’t say anything positive about the scouting and development of talent. No one cared. But you can’t make a goalie, keepers are born. So you need to recognize that early and work with the talents while they’re still young. The level today is shocking. The Eerste Divisie should be the talent pool for the Eredivisie. None of the Jupiler keepers would make it in the Eredivisie today.”

Typical Van Beveren style

More and more clubs pick a keeper from abroad. Heerenveen and Sparta are the most recent examples. Sparta coach Frans Adelaar: “We didn’t plan for that. We had PSV goalie Ramos on loan but he was called back at a late stage. We needed to act and preferred a Dutch goalie in view of communications, but there weren’t a lot of options for us, so we had to look abroad.”

Pim Doesburg: “I love working with Dutch goalies. The foreigners do not add value, which isn’t so weird, because it’s the second tier goalies that come to Holland. So, you’re always dealing with the mediocre class, so to speak. The only exception to the rule is AZ’s Romero.”

Joop Hiele style

Schrijvers: “The KNVB needs to act. A foreigner needs to add value to the competition. Like Dudek or Gomez in the past.Heerenveen now has three foreign keepers: Vandenbussche, Steppe and Lejsal. None of those is top, let’s face it. Just like Isaksson at PSV is mediocre.”

Utrecht keepers trainer Maarten Arts was the “discoverer” of Michel Vonk. “It’s incredible how young goalies do not get a chance at clubs. Coaches do allow defenders or midfielders to start gaining experience when young, but goalies don’t get that.”

Arts: “I also don’t understand why good goalies like Timmer and Wapenaar can’t find a club in Holland, while Sparta and Heerenveen shop for goalies abroad. Timmer is definitely better than the keepers signed by these clubs.”

Frans Hoek was keepers trainer at Ajax and worked at Barcelona under Van Gaal. He has gotten the assignment from the KNVB to rejuvenate the goal keeper’s development. He’s working on the project for a year now, endeavoring to create the circumtances inwhich the young talents can be developed.

“We certainly made a bit of a mess of it,” confirms the passionate Hoek, who wrote a number of expert books on the subject after his active keeping career. “Some keepers from abroad are actually an added value, most aren’t. After Van der Sar, we had a huge gap. There is talent, for sure, but Stekelenburg is the only keeper today with international experience. There’s not enough opportunities for young goalies. We need to get back into the game and it will take us ten years to get there. We need to share our know how and administer exactly what we expect from goalies, how we develop and train them and how we can allow them to gain experience. Scouting is key. Ajax is the norm. For years and years, they develop their own goalies and they’re all outstanding (Menzo, Van der Sar, Stekelenburg, Vermeer, Waterman). Same at Barca, where I worked as well.”

Hoek will engage former top goalies to brainstorm about how the KNVB can boost the level of young Dutch goalies. Cracks like Hans van Breukelen, Jan Jongbloed and Ronald Waterreus have agreed to work with him in this project.

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By ferenc | August 26th, 2009 at 12:28 pm

@Jeff: sure, perez is not the coach,but he’s not like laporta who let pep do whatever he wants (changing samu to ibra for ex.). he’s a dictator,but a pretty good businessman. he wants to sell shirts as well – except ruud our dutch guys don’t sell too many shirts… believe me,he will influence pellegrini by valdano. actually the starting eleven (with the subs) will be something like this: casillas (dudek) – s.ramos(arbeloa),pepe(garay),albiol(metzelder),marcelo(drenthe) – lass(diarra),xabi alonso(gago) – c.ronaldo(higuain),kaka(guti),robben(granero) – benzema(rvn,raul).
i guess vdv will leave in the coming days,so it means that they’ll have 2 players who have almost 0% chance to play. one of them is miguel torres. guess who is the other…

Posted from Hungary

By Marc | August 26th, 2009 at 12:41 pm

Well hopefully this is true. A new report from goal.com BREAKING NEWS: Inter Sign Wesley Sneijder – Report

Posted from United States

By Marc | August 26th, 2009 at 12:51 pm

http://goal.com/en/news/11/transfer-zone/2009/08/26/1463029/breaking-news-inter-sign-wesley-sneijder-report

Posted from United States

By Jeff | August 26th, 2009 at 2:07 pm

@Marc, thanks for the update. Hopefully this is true this time.

@Ferenc, I don’t disagree with you about the influence Perez may have but I really think it will be short-lived. There is no way the president will dictate who plays to a coach. Even Berlusconi does not do that. Don’t get me wrong, I definitely want all the Dutch players to get out of Real but I am also saying that Wes may have a case.

Posted from United States

By Jeff | August 26th, 2009 at 2:10 pm

Just announced in VI (reliable) that Wes is gone to Inter. “And now there were 3″ All we can hope for is for Robben to leave. Ruud should stay.

Posted from United States

By Agragami | August 26th, 2009 at 2:52 pm

Great. now we will see sneijder f@#$%^&% RM and Perez with his boots whenever his team plays them…

By fares | August 26th, 2009 at 3:04 pm

GREAT GREAT NEWS SNEIDEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEER TO INTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

By goose | August 26th, 2009 at 3:11 pm

yes; its official (about 12 mln euro)

…actually never liked Inter since it almost ‘killed’ Berkamps career…lets just hope he will perform and play

Posted from Netherlands

By Jeff | August 26th, 2009 at 3:12 pm

All we have to hope for now is to have WES score the goal that qualifies Inter against Real!

Posted from United States

By fares | August 26th, 2009 at 3:13 pm

BRAAFHEID SCORED TODAY AGAINST UNION BERLIN With his first touch of the game (he entered in the place of pranjic in the 46 min)he curled a free kick from 22 meters !!!!! (friendly game )

By Marc | August 26th, 2009 at 3:29 pm

C’mon goose, we’ve been wanting this transfer for weeks and now that it’s finally here lets not make it sound like it’s a bad thing. I think he knew all along that this would happen it was just a matter of time.

Posted from United States

By ferenc | August 26th, 2009 at 4:05 pm

great! i’m with goose: i have never liked inter neither,i just wanted him to go there because they needed sneijder and will play regularly. with eto’o (and sneijder + mourinho) i hate less inter than before,but still prefer milan ac in italy.
it means that saturday 2 ex-barca and 2 ex-madrid player will play against each other at the derby (ronnie versus samu,the hunter versus sneijder).

what’s going on with vdv?
it seems that ruud,drenthe and robben will stay. 3 are ok.

Posted from Hungary

By bobotoh | August 26th, 2009 at 4:21 pm

Ok. One down, one to go. I am worried about VDV now. Instead of chasing vdv, MU is, according to a report, chasing Robben. I hope Robben VdV will move to MU.

Posted from Canada

By finnster01 | August 26th, 2009 at 6:08 pm

I struggle very hard to find any sympathy with any Italian side these days. Back in the day, I probably would have said I enjoyed watching the odd AC Milan game, but was never really into Italian football at all. Just got me always depressed, and I am not even talking about the national team. All the negativity, diving, crap fans, everything bad about football. Went to see the Inter against AC Milan derby once at San Siro, 0-0, crap ref afraid of letting people play, 452 free kicks, had to watch my back all day in the stands, fire crackers landed and exploded right at my feet, nobody seemed to care from the security perspective, stadium is overrated, the only good thing was it was loud.

Now that they seemed to be signing up all the Dutch, maybe I would consider coming back, but only if I was there on business or something.

I’d rather watch Ajax-Feyenoord any day to be honest!!

It has only gone downhill from there.

By Jan | August 26th, 2009 at 6:13 pm

I agree Finn… It’s totally void of atmosphere… I mean real football vibe like in Scotland or England. It’s pretty aggro, as I remember.

By Jeroen | August 26th, 2009 at 6:14 pm

And now all the people who had lost faith in Wesley can learn to be more trustful of our players and their agents in the future. He was just forcing a salary raise, since he also has to pay more taxes in italy than in spain. gj wesley, I hope you will do well there. Even though I don’t like Inter, it’s better than Madrid.

Posted from Netherlands

By Carlos | August 26th, 2009 at 7:45 pm

I now will reluctantly watch Inter – Like Ferenc, prefer Milan, they at least have passed down a little what Sacchi Gullit/vB and Rijkaard tried to instill in their “non Italian” game. Of course the derby will be good to watch this weekend if Wes plays. I am happy for him, in fact when I look at their line up its not too bad. Also not a big Mourinho fan but I believe he will do Sneijder a lot of good. They both need each other.

Posted from Singapore

By Gerard | August 26th, 2009 at 7:48 pm

If this is true about Sneijder it is great news. There is a ready position for him at Inter as trequartista which is where he was meant to play and which is something he would never have at Madrid. Not to mention that he wasn’t even given a shirt number this year. It’s true that Bergkamp had a hard time there but it’s hard to compare a situation 15 years ago to now.
Good luck Wesley!

Posted from Canada

By Marc | August 26th, 2009 at 8:27 pm

@Jeff, It seems as though you were the only one who kept faith in Wes and you were right the entire time. Im looking at some previous comments and while other people are saying let Wes rot, you continued to emphasize that sneijder knows something we don’t and you were right. So I think we should be more like that and have faith in are players until the move is official.

Posted from United States

By Leon | August 26th, 2009 at 9:14 pm

@Jeroen, Well said! As avid supporters of Oranje we are all prone to bouts of panic when our players are left out. But these guys are extremely talented and I find it near impossible that the likes of Wes and Raf won’t be playing regular football in the lead up to WC2010. Let’s keep the faith in our boys!

By Felipe | August 26th, 2009 at 10:20 pm

So many topics… well, let’s go.

1) In my opinion, the more Dutchies who left Real, the greatest for Oranje. I really don’t have any grudges with Merengues, but that’s clear: no one of Bert’s boys have space anymore there. VDV already got it, and is searching for another club. I also think Robben will have no problem in leaving Chamartín. But Wesley… I hope he gets it the soonest possible. Otherwise, he’ll possible throw out his career. He can play the best he can, and will NEVER take Lass or Kaka out. Because Florentino doesn’t want it (and because Kaka is a masterpiece – I’m Brazilian, after all! ). For all, I do hope he is headed to Inter. He gets a spot there, and will be the main playmaker. It can only be great!

2) About goalies, a subject about which I’m hooked on: I agree with most of people here. Sar is a true legend (and I do hope he win the UEFA trophy tomorrow!), but, if he says that’s over, then that’s over. Closed case. Let’s give Steks the space he wants and needs: he got the gifts of goalkeeping. He’s not yet one of the best around Europe, but have a lot of potential. Like Asenjo from Spain, Neuer and Adler from Germany, Lloris from France. Steks deserve the chance. Waiting for Sar will only postpone a necessary renewing.

3) @Goose-meister: as you’re one bookwarm about Oranje, I have a question: did you already read the book collection “Oranje Toen en Nu”? If you did, is it good? I’m asking because I plan to buy the collection.

BTW, guys, I read Sar will have a biography, whose author is Jaap de Visser, a Dutch journalist. I asked the publisher about this book, and it said “well, it was intended to be published at the end of the year – November -, but it was postponed to May 2010, because people think Sar will play at South Africa.” So… let’s wait the scenes of the next chapters.

By finnster01 | August 26th, 2009 at 11:12 pm

@felipe: Or maybe EVDS will retire? End of May, season is over, and a biography being launched?…hmmm… I hope I am wrong, but not sure if that is the best of signs to be honest.

By Jeroen | August 27th, 2009 at 3:56 am

@Marc,

there were plenty more of us that never lost faith . In general, whenever a multi-million dollar deal is going down it’s presumptuous to think the media and public know everything that’s going on behind the scenes. One should especially avoid reading articles from goal.com etc too much.

This soap ended like most transfer soaps: the public kept hearing yes no yes no from Sneijder, statements that he hates inter, and a bunch of other crap. What was really going on was just negotiations about his salary (which some of us here already pointed out).

It is now becoming clear that Mourinho and Sneijder were in contact daily over the past two weeks. That certainly changes the picture a bit already doesn’t it from what we were hearing? At the end of the day, you have to realize that a player like Sneijder is not in it so much for the money (of course it plays a role) but he also wants to play. At Madrid the president made it clear that would not be the case. Just remember that this guy has been in the business all his life and his agent is really good. It’s just pulling strings.

And yes, Sneijder is stubborn. But not so stubborn that he’s going to sit on the tribune. Besides, every professional football player at this level IS STUBBORN! It’s a necessary quality to make it to the top. Some more than others, and some mask it better than others to make the public like them more.

I’m more worried about VDV. Robben, Ruud, and Drenthe will be ok I think, even if they stay. We haven’t hear much about him, only about Arsenal and Liverpool but those are only rumors. Hope these last couple of days are fruitful for him, but he’s probably in contact with someone as well.

Posted from Netherlands

By Tiju | August 27th, 2009 at 5:35 am

Van der can be a king in Mancity……………..

Posted from India

By Lucas | August 27th, 2009 at 5:08 pm

I hope that sneijder will be the spark that Inter have been missing in the Champions League, and i hope huntelaar scores that goal to send Real crashing out in the group stage Fingers Crossed !!!