Comments on: Ajax youth system still the best

By: Caleb

Caleb — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 13:24:43 +0000

Thanks finnster and Jan, I learn something new everyday.

By: finnster01

finnster01 — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 10:38:17 +0000

In other words, a small and convenient commute to work for the pompus KNVB brass

By: Jan

Jan — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 06:37:45 +0000

No idea… Zeist is a posh village not too far from Utrecht, centrally located in the country. It’s close to where the Royal family lives (lived I should say…our current Queen resides mostly in Den Haag if I’m not mistaken) and a lot of the old blue-bloods lived in that area.

By: Bob

Bob — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 01:17:44 +0000

Jan, any idea how Zeist was chosen as the place to host the KNVB headquarters?

By: Jan

Jan — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 23:09:13 +0000

Oops. Caleb sorry… Indeed, Zeist is the hometown of the KNVB and in Holland whenever the KNVB does something or says something, the street lingo is to say: “Did you hear what Zeist just said?”… In politics they’d say “Den Haag decided to blablabla…” (since the government seat is in Den Haag) etc etc…

By: finnster01

finnster01 — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 15:15:58 +0000

@Caleb;

from what I understand Zeist is a small town in Holland that hosts KNVB’s main training/development center. Quite a bit of controversy about it, especially by the bigger clubs.

By: Caleb

Caleb — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 13:26:46 +0000

Jan – what is Zeist?

By: Jan

Jan — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 02:11:21 +0000

@Bob: good question actually… I don’t think he was. I’ll do some research.

I do know Wiel Coerver – who developed the Coerver method Meulensteen bases his work on – was a skilled player and a very successful coach. He won the UEFA cup with Feyenoord in 1974. He developed his method and some players became coaches based on that method. Meulensteen was one of the people who surfaced as a Coerver-follower… I’m not sure what his background is. I do know the KNVB never embraced Coerver because he was very critical on “Zeist” and that is normally enough to piss the suits off. He then moved to “under-developed” football countries, as did Meulensteen. I’m not referring to England here . Meulensteen worked in Saudi Arabia (?) for a while I believe.

By: Michel-Olivier

Michel-Olivier — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 22:52:47 +0000

@ porchetta
i’m not gallic french, nor european, or african. i’m not related to henry are makelele. i’m american of multiple ethnic backgrounds.
also vatican city is for any christians that follow the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church.

By: Bob

Bob — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 17:06:58 +0000

Jan, I do not know the identity of the youth coaches shown in the DVDs. Based on ages, I do not think any of them were either Winter or Muhren.
Thanks for the update on Muelensteen. When I spoke with him, I chided him about his getting away from the Dutch theories of coaching and football, and adopting the English ways. He laughed and said, in Holland the Dutch believe their way is best, in England the English think their way is best. So, said Renee, I have the best of both worlds! He seems to be a great guy, and I wish him well in his new position–he deserves it! There is a great video produced by Man U, with Muelensteen teaching youngsters various aspects of football and using Man U players to demonstrate the techniques. van Nistelrooy was one of the player/demonstrators. Also, Muelensteen himself provided great demo’s of the various skills as well. Was he a top quality player in the Netherlands?