Van Gaal, now what?

Rafa never stops scoring.

Well, Adriaanse just got fired in Qatar. I could see that happen.

Oh, and today is the last day to buy players. AZ is looking for a striker, Feyenoord for a central defender or a striker, PSV for a central defender and Groningen for a central midfielder and a striker.

I thought Co resigned himself. And I just read that FC Porto won the case against Co and he now has to pay 1 Mio euros penalty to Porto…

What :-)?

He left because they didn’t pay him his bonus and stuff… Weird…

Co for team manager. That would be blast!

Posted from  Netherlands

The continual movement of so called “top quality” Dutch coaches/managers is difficult to understand. van Gaal moves around, Adriaanse moves around, Beenhakker, Advocaat, etc. If these professional coaches were as competent as they each seem to claim, they would be able to stay in one place and develop a long-term, successful program. That is what de Haan did at Heerenveen. I acknowledge that much of the movement relates to money and the perception of promotion. However, what happens, in my opinion, is that these coaches last for as long as their incompetentcy allows, then the owners and fans become disenchanted and off they go. They are not learning their craft, creating a quality program and placing themselves in a position to be recruited, rather than having to beg for a job such as is now apparently happening with van Gaal.

The model, perhaps, is Alex Ferguson. 21 years, 19 titles, done with many different players and assistants–but always high quality and competitive. Do the Dutch have a comparable coach with such a history? de Haan did not have the resources of Man U. but he did stay, coached superbly, mentored many eventual Dutch top quality professionals and maintained a respect of his peers that remains to this day. Do the other Dutch coaches mentioned above have such a legacy? Not in my opinion. Rijkaard is building one at Barcelona and I hope he stays there for a long time. Otherwise, jump-jump-jump around to see where and if the coach will fit.

Posted from  United States

@Bob: I think those coaches mentioned above are great coaches.
Ferguson has coached Man Utd for 21 years but in England there’s less pressure than in Spain, Italy or even Holland. Look at Wenger and Ferguson. In Spain you see Real and Barca changing their coaches with more frecuency, Rijkaard has been there for a long time but there’s a lot of speculation of him leaving this year. Maybe if they had coached in England they could have stayed for a longer period.

Van Gaal has already won a Uefa Cup and UCL, more than Ferguson.

ha ha van Gaal as national coach?
2010wc-without holland.
its good to hear kuyt,jaliens etc get droped nice to hear.

No, let’s not wish for King Louis as national coach. While he is entertaining, my fear is that we miss WC2010, just as we did in 2002. That was painful, as we all remember. Let van Gaal work some new magic at another club.

Posted from  Canada

Great news. Jaliens is out.

Kuijt needs to change teams… first time hes been dropped since his debut…

think vanGaal was not really the one to blame for us not qualifying for the WC02..always tought it was the players fault … also; vanGaal is very eager to have the Holland job, he wants to prove the world wrong

Scheringa will not kick vanGaal out…but he may let him go to be national manager

@lerkot; story in Holland is that Co resigned himself since there was no more change of a title (btw; what the f are these people doing in the dessert?? is money really all they care for??

just saw Marco on a pressconference, he talks with Ajax have moved in the next stage, looks like vanBasten will be Ajax manager next season! he also told press that Kuijt wasnt performing good enough at Liverpool.

sundag; Ajax v Feyenoord; the only dutch classic!

Posted from  Netherlands

Its never entirely the players fault and its never entirely the trainers fault. But I wouldnt mind seeing van Gaal in the team again, however, I do think he is more of a club coach.

Does Feyenoord have a chance this Sunday in Amsterdam?

@Tjeerd; i reckon a draw but Feyenoord has a change to win .. thinkk they now have a very mature team..with Landzaat they have even more control on midfield..he will help them get a ‘flow’in their play…i think Feyenoord are the only ones this year who could take it to Psv

Posted from  Netherlands

Transfer window update. The English Premier League (EPL) teams spent a combined 140 Million GBP in January alone (and that is ignoring any memo’s of understanding/letters of intent regarding this Summer moves such as Mascherano’s rumored 17.1 million GBP permanent deal with L’pool) !

This EPL transfer figure is more than the entire combined transfer fees in the top flights in Italy, Spain, Germany and France for the same period…Scary how much money has flowed into the EPL now through TV rights and sponsors. It really dwarfs the rest of Europe. The only teams that can compete on the cash front is the big 2-3 Spanish and 3-4 Italian clubs and that is about it. Even Bayern looks poor these days in comparison.

I wonder how long it will take before Eto’o, Ronaldinho, Kaka and the rest of them end up in EPL as well? Disturbing trend, especially if you happen to be an Englishman (which I am anything but). However you have to ask yourself,not too many slots in England are open anymore to any homegrown talent (if such a thing exists, which would shock me to no end as their talent development is ridiculous, not to mention their coaches).

England will be outside the FIFA top 25 ranking by WC2010 for sure. You read it here first. Sad but a reality. Lets hope the Eresdivisie can keep up the good work they are doing before they get flooded by foreign talent as well…If I am English, maybe I actually should look into buying a season ticket to PSV/Ajax/Feynoord, flights are cheap these days and you may not even have to queue outside the stadium, and besides, you may get a glimpse of the next Arsenal/Man U/L’pool/Chelsea player…

Posted from  United States

Heerenveen are now in 2nd after winning 7-0. And Leo Beenhakker beat Finland with a team of players who play only in the Polish League, 1-0 the final score. About England outside the top 25, I disagree. Outside the top 15 for sure, but I wouldn’t go that far.

Has anyone else noticed that strikers that go into Liverpool, tend to leave a lot worse off then they start. For example, in the Eredivisie, Kuijt used to be a beast, who could volley and bicycle kick and do everything, but once he got to liverpool, he could barely score. The same applies to Litmanen, Cissé, Baros, Heskey among others.

Posted from  Canada

Maybe I am too pessimistic about England’s NT, but never the less the negative trend is there for sure which I am not sure I think is good for the sport of soccer in general. I think you need a decent England team to qualify for top tournaments, at least to prop up the tourist industry:-) Right now they wouldn’t even qualify for a pub league in Afghanistan (not sure if they have pubs there, but maybe the team & snotty players should spend a few days there and get real)

Actually, a more interesting question is if England is on the way down, who is on the way up (in Europe) and where does Oranje fit into the mix? Are we coming or going? If I had to guess, I’d say todays Oranje is (at best) somewhat middle of the bunch given the Oranje we are used to over the years, a bit above mediochre but with too many future question marks around the team & squad to be a real force certainly in EC08. Hopefully that will be fixed by WC10 but I am somewhat sitting on the fence on the latter one. Teams on the up, I would say Croatia, maybe even Spain (if they stop choking when it counts). Italy is stagnant and France can go either way (generation change). I find it hard to call the EC08. Will be real intersting to watch.

Posted from  United States

a couple of weeks before our next Oranje fixture, and some key players are not looking sharp..

Im foremost worried about van persie.. he’s losing status in arsenal fast, and adebayor and eduardo are becoming the players to rely on. he needs to come back, in full health, and make double effort to find his place again among the first eleven.. what news does anyone have on his recovery?????

also real just lost to almeira !!!!! 2-0.. hehe ferenc must be celebrating today.. Van nistelrooy is looking tired.. he’s done so much already, im just hoping he can sustain his form, and continue.
and Sneijder is not playing that well too.. its been a good two months since ive last been impressed by him; only a slump of form i guess, but as things now stand id go for seedorf and vdv and have him as a sub.

i agree with dirk about liverpool.. kuyt should pack his bags and look for a new start, revitalize his career.. many of u dont give him enough credit, but i still think he has an overall good record in both feyenoord and liverpool and has proven to be capable of being better than some of the forwards we pick to play for Oranje,.

Finnster, i think what you said about what teams are going down/up is very interesting..
i completely agree with you about Oranje, croatia, spain, italy and france.. but i think id wait to look at England under Capello.. if not much changes, then yea, everything you said must be true.. but i also believe steve mclaren was a disastrous choice of a manager.. and while i think its still debatable whether the english players are going upwards or downwards in terms of quality, i think its more evident that the quality of coaches and managers in england is on the downhill.. Ferguson aside (not english but i guess still british), there’s no one they have of world-class material.. we have probably a good dozen of our managers that are.

also beside CROATIA, that seem interesting prospects, id add ROMANIA, maybe GREECE (although i dont know what makes them so good in getting results), and PORTUGAL (under a much improved ronaldo are gonna be even deadlier than before)..

European national team football is definitely on its way down. As I see it, it reached its top at 98-00 when France, Holland, Italy, Portugal,Yugoslavia, Belgium and maybe even England had teams that I doubt they will ever get again.

But if someone is on their way up, I have to say its the eastern countries, like Romania, Ukraine, Russia. Croatia looks about as strong as in the late nineties.

Dirk vd Berg: I think the main problem in Liverpool are the untouchable players. I have some troubles seeing them winning the league with extremely overrated players like Carragher, Riise (who plays a lot but not every week) and Gerrard. They gotta kill their children, so to say.

Ramy, i just checked the arsenal website for news on van persie, but they have yet to set a return date for him, in part because they feel they rushed him back to quickly last time so they are trying to avoid making that same mistake again. i think that wenger is a pretty big fan of robin, and if he can stay healthy i don’t think he’ll have any trouble getting back into the starting XI.

Posted from  Canada

Did you guys know that van Nistelrooij picked up a right ankle injury in the Almeria game, and that’s why he was subbed off at half. I hope it doesn’t keep him from the Croatia game. Even though Huntelaar’s been on good form, and could easily play the one in 4-2-3-1.

Posted from  Canada

van Nistelrooij will be out up to three weeks, so is definitely missing the Croatia game.

Posted from  Canada

As for top twenty I’d say it ends up something like this.
1. Argentina
2. Germany
3. Spain
4. Brazil (I can see them struggling over the next few years)
5. Portugal
6. Netherlands
7. France
8. Croatia
9. Italy
10. Romania
11. Czech Republic
12. Scotland
13. Mexico
14. Ivory Coast
15. Uruguay (I think they’ll do well in 2010 quali’s)
16. Sweden
17. Poland
18. Russia (Due strictly to Guus Hiddink)
19. England
20. Japan
21. Cameroon
22. Bulgaria
23. Nigeria
24. Paraguay
25. Turkey

It’s hard to predict because Asian Qualifiers normaly boost the top Asian teams ranks a lot. Hope I didn’t forget any teams.

Posted from  Canada

Ajax - Feyenoord; 3-0…. (Heitinga ‘08, Huntelaar ‘45 + ‘91)

Posted from  Netherlands