Top coaches and a backstabber…

Better times…

A re-worked column by Johan Derksen with flavours of…well…me…

This is the season of the coach. Last season, two Eredivisie coaches were in trouble. Louis van Gaal’s AZ had barely missed the title in the previous season, when his team – slightly changed – didn’t seem to be able to win anything last season. Sure, Stijn Schaars was injured. Experienced strikers Showtime Arveladze and Danny Koevermans were gone. But Van Gaal didn’t seem capable of winning a game anymore. And there was loudmouthed Mario Been. The hugely talented by not-so-serious former Feyenoord playmaker. He assisted Van Marwijk at Feyenoord and led Excelsior but NEC seemed to bit too ambitious a club for him. Last year this time, NEC was at a relegation position.

Both AZ and NEC’s management supported their coaches, however. Not because of their results, but because of their work. Their vision, the way they improved their players, their long term vision.

And now, Van Gaal is again the top coach and Mario Been is hailed as our new crown prince. AZ could easily win the title this season and NEC will again qualify for European football.

Coaches deserve some credit and time to work on their teams. As long as we play football we’ll have losing coaches. And a coach who doesn’t win points can still be a good coach. At the same time, you can be a mediocre coach but have one or two top players and win the title.

Hans Westerhof, Huub Stevens, Trond Sollied and Gertjan Verbeek are in a tough spot. But, they’re all experienced and have proven in the past to be professionals. They act cool, when criticized but they’ll definitely lose sleep over the performances of their teams. Because these are all passionate, proud and almost obsessed football men who loathe losing.

Hans Westerhof is from the school-teacher category of coaches. A decent and sincere man, who worked at PSV, Ajax and in Mexico and San Diego. He is confronted with a ragged bunch of players who don’t really give a damn. They steal from eachother, cheat when playing cards for money, fight in Arnhem nightclubs and call journalists to tell them the nitty gritty from the dressing rooms.
And most of them think they’re better players than they really are. Claudemir, Jenner, Kolk and Hofs are good players. But once they think they’re the stars and the other seven should work for them, Vitesse is in trouble. At Vitesse, every player needs to work 100% to be able to achieve anything. It’s cowardice and too easy to blame Westerhof for everything. He might not be the best coach in Holland, but Vitesse loses games through personal mistakes by players who don’t know how to be self ciritical.

Huub Stevens made his mistakes too. Totally against his character, he allows his players to stab him in the back in the media, like Salcido, Mendez and Lazovic have done. They want to play every game and they also want to determine where they play in the team. If their coach refuses to give in, they play powergames and say they want to leave. They get more than decent salaries but when they fail they blame their coach. It’s about time Jan Reker acts upon this. In PSV interest, Stevens plays numb but this is really unacceptable. Stevens should react from the gut. PSV won’t win the title this year. So what? That’s football. Stevens should start to chuck the rotten apples out of the club, pronto. If Reker decides to sacrifice Stevens, the next coach will face exactly the same problems.

Gertjan Verbeek will always act cool and collected. But inside he must be boiling with rage. He is attacked from all sides. The players don’t support him and his methods. That hurts him. Because he is the most obsessed of all coaches in training methods, physical condition, medical trends, etc.
He even thinks he knows more about it than other coaches, players, the medical staff and Feyenoord’s management added together. That was exactly why Heerenveen didn’t renew his contract. He delivered, but he is so hard-headed it isn’t fun anymore.

Verbeek knows it better. Listened to no one and went his own way. I like him. He’s a guy with balls. But, no one can deny that what he does in Rotterdam doesn’t work. Instead of points, he wins injuries. He should critically assess his own vision and methods. And players in Rotterdam should stop whinging about it to their managers and press, they should talk to Verbeek about all this.

The facts are there. Feyenoord hasn’t been able to play in their fave line up once! When Verbeek learns to listen, I predict a great future for him. Other than that, he has all the qualities of an absolute top coach.

At Heerenveen, Verbeek was confronted with a conniving De Haan. His former master was always ready to criticize his former assistant. De Haan has opinions about everything, like young talents with expensive watches but the man himself behaves like a megalomaniac and know-it-all. The success with Young Oranje has gone to his head. And it turned him into a backstabber. Trond Sollied works differently than De Haan. The latter is a control freak, Sollied wants the players to take their own responsibilities. It’s probably not smart of Sollied to travel to away games by car so he can immediately drive home to Belgium after the game. Someone should tell him that. But De Haan in the meantime tells the world he will take over from Sollied if he doesn’t improve the results.

It’s hard, but I’d rather work with a talent wearing an expensive watch than a megalomaniacal backstabber…