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Van Basten offered Cruyff the job!!

June 30th, 2006 | By: Jan | 13 Comments »

Typical Dutch, I guess…. We’re out of the tournament, but still we’d like to yap on and on and on about it . How bad we were treated, how good we could’ve been, how “they” have it all wrong, how we are going to get “them” next time, etc etc. And the good things is, looking at the number of comments the posts get, you guys still enjoy it.

Well, howbout this one?

Johan Cruyff told the press the other day, that Marco van Basten offered the WC head coaching job to him (Cruyff) when he (Van Basten) was appointed. Van Basten would do the qualification matches and step back to assist Johan at the WC. Johan declined. And when Holland reached the WC and finished first in the qualification group, he made the offer again! And Johan declined again… “Marco and John were the right men for the job. They did well in the qualification. And besides, I didn’t feel like doing it anyhow.”

Holland’s most famous coach (closely followed by Gus, Hoes, Guus-san or Hiddinkoff) never coached the Dutch team. The Dutch players wanted Jahan in 1990 (including Marco van Basten) but KNVB honcho Rinus Michels infamously gave the job to Leo Beenhakker. In 1994, the KNVB and Cruyff got close for the WC94 in the US, but couldn’t get to an agreement. Cruyff said the KNVB didn’t want JC to appoint his own staff, the KNVB said JC wanted too much money for it…

Tags: Johan Cruyff, marco van basten, Netherlands

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Comments

By goose | June 30th, 2006 at 9:28 am

@Jan, saw the interview yesterday, think its a shame that Johan never takes responcebility(?), maybe its cause of his wife Danny who also forbid him to play in the 78 WC, remember Johan has a bad hart so maybe its his family who dont want him to take on a stressfull job…but wouldnt it been great to have JC on the bench!!

greetz

Posted from Netherlands

By Jan | June 30th, 2006 at 9:53 am

Agree Goose, it’s not just contract-shit with the KNVB. If JC really wanted to do it, he would. I think he thinks he can only lose. But funny enough, the KNVB seems to be outraged by JC’s remarks and say it’s nonsense. They say that IF this was true, they would have known. And they didn’t. So, here could be another rift in the making…. If Marco needs to chose between JC and the KNVB, who will he chose? Where’s his loyalty? And it goes on and on and on and on…

Posted from Australia

By alaa | June 30th, 2006 at 10:10 am

too bad that we never saw him as the coach of the orange. could you imagine what he was capable od oing in the 1990 wc if he was appointed. with gullit van basten rikaard and koeman am sure we could’ve won the world cup, we are always throwing the good opportunities

Posted from United States

By goose | June 30th, 2006 at 11:04 am

@alaa, agree with the 1990 thing you say, we had such a great team, the players wanted Johan, they didnt get him and it was by far the worst WC Holland ever played (with that much talent)…

the interesting thing with Johan is that he has this hidden power.. hes the one who got Rijkaard at Barcelona, hes the one that got Marco for the bondscoach job, he still has a lot of (hidden)influences on dutch football.. BUT, Jan i guess what you say is true, Johan is afraid to lose face,
guess hes happy playing golf in Spain and have an advising role from a distant…. still, i realy wished it to happen just once…

b.t.w. realy hope Arg. and Eng. will win their games!!!

greetz

WIJ HOUDEN VAN ORANJE

Posted from Netherlands

By Mario F | June 30th, 2006 at 1:04 pm

Damm Portuguese…is them fault..im very sure )

They give money under the table to Johan, so he didnt accept the job and they still win…

Dammit…no its the referee…im confused now, can you guys give me some help???

Posted from Sweden

By john W | June 30th, 2006 at 1:39 pm

The Dutch team :
They play to eliminate the opposition by injury.
A kind of “Pitbull attack” but not football.
Seen during Portugal – nl and previously
Lyon – Eindhoven.
What could be excellent Dutch football is
overshadowed by the aim to physically dominate and injure the opposing team.

Posted from France

By Jan | June 30th, 2006 at 1:43 pm

It was YOU Mario F!!!! And that’s an alias for…. RINUS MICHELS!!! You didn’t die, you went to Portugal.

Posted from Australia

By Mario F | June 30th, 2006 at 2:28 pm

Come on Jan…be serious…:)

To be honest, Holland is one of the countries im sad is out..if their coach and team sucks, on the other way, their female fans are really nice

Posted from Sweden

By Jan | June 30th, 2006 at 3:31 pm

They are, but what do you think of Rafael van der Vaart’s wife! I mean, no wonder the guy is exhausted when he goes home to take a nap. I mean… jeez…
Just kiddin’… Still, I do think that with teams at Oranje’s level (or Spain, England, Portugal) it takes just a little tweak and some sort of luck/momentum to go from mediocre to fantastic. Can you remember Oranje’s first match in the EC’88? Or the first match at the WC’94? Dramatic! I know it’s only ifs and buts, but with vd Vaart in figthing fit form or Van the Man in topform, it could’ve gone the other way. If Cocu hammered that ball in the goal and v Persie scored fromn his chance, Portugal was out and we could’ve been champs. That’s how it works in football! And everybody would’ve applauded Van Basten. Take Michels in ‘88. He wanted tu use v Basten as left winger! By “chance” it went allright against England (they hit the post twice and were denied a penaly), so that’s how fickle it all is. Anyway, take care amigo, catch ya later…

Posted from Australia

By Fares | June 30th, 2006 at 3:36 pm

Why do we keep saying that Holland and MVB sucked ?
Holland won all their games except 2 in the qualifications, got 7 points same as Argentina in the group of death. Lost in a WAR game against Portugal ( one of the great teams in the world) 1-0. Things happen. 1-0 …
Brazil might lose 1-0 ..it is a play offs tourny. U lose by one goal from a clear offside and a hand of god ..but if the ref did not get it, u lose. And you are out.

So I guess we cant judge and say that Holland did bad becuase we lost this game. Keep up the faith. There is always mistakes, we can always fix it.

Remember .. 4 years ago we were watching other teams ..not the Dutch team reaching the second round.

Posted from United States

By ayl18 | June 30th, 2006 at 4:25 pm

Will all of these posts end after the WC?? If so, does anyone know any other Dutch soccer blogs?

A big thankyou to all the people involved with this blog for giving myself and others a place to voice our opinions….. lots of respect for all the time you’ve put in.

Posted from Australia

By Clyde Van DutchWannabe | June 30th, 2006 at 8:08 pm

I used to visit http://www.knvb.nl daily until they made it pretty much Dutch only…. I guess I have to break out my Learn Dutch books that I never got around to using.

Posted from United States

By goose | June 30th, 2006 at 11:08 pm

aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh, this is to much..these f#cking germans..this was the straw that broke the camels back..this is turning out be one shitty WC, i thought God would at least give me the plesure of a great german defeat now that we are out, but no!!

@jan, a nice final comment, its all so close (and so far away), well just have to wait..

@All you Holland fans, thanks for all your comment, special thanks to Jan and Mike, so sorry that theres nothing more to say on Holland this WC

@MarioF: im sure you can appreciate the way our women look, i know how yours do!!! draken..

GREETZ YOULL

Posted from Netherlands

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