Comments on: AZ, champions of patience…

By: 3ric

3ric — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 12:25:38 +0000

Sucks! If Van Gaal goes, expect a massive exodus of players .. there are no shortage of suitors of El Hamdaoui, Dembele, Schaars, De Zeeuw, and Mendes. This will surely deplete the squad, and AZ will fall flat on their face on Champs League. Needless to say, Holland’s European coefficient will stumble down. Bad new for Eredivisie.

Anyway, if any of you like healthy discussions in and around Dutch soccer, check out this forum. We need more readers and posters.

http://www.soccerpulse.com/forum/index.php?s=381487e44066458c0530d06af52290c1&showforum=101

By: Jan

Jan — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 07:41:28 +0000

Van Gaal recently said he might be on his way out. This season took a lot from him. If a big club comes knockin’ (Bayern) he’s out. He said “I realize the players won’t like it, but they can’t expect me to stay forever and they should be able to do well without me too.”

An incident in the media has probably tipped the scales. While preparing for an interview (after the Vitesse defeat) Van Gaal handed out a knock on the camera. The NOS broadcasters demand apologies. Van Gaal has refused and put a ban on the NOS!! His claim: this was a short pre-interview talk and the deal is they don’t film that. The camera man said the camera was off, but he lied. They taped that conversation. They screwed me over. Again! So, I gave the camera a little nudge. No one got hurt. The camera man didn’t get it in the eye or anything like that. It’s a witch hunt again.

Won’t be surprised if things like this will drive Louis to Germany or England. Sad… In this case, I support and back Louis!

By: Miguel Rosado

Miguel Rosado — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 01:28:53 +0000

Jan, you are very right about Louis he really squeezes the best out of his players. Hopefully most of them stay next year.

By: Jan

Jan — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 07:19:16 +0000

Thanks Igor!

By: Igor

Igor — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 02:50:14 +0000

@Jan and others who like a good van Gaal story, here’s an article from soccernet’s Dutch correspondent, Ernst Bouwes on Champions AZ and their coach.

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story?id=639095&sec=europe&root=europe&cc=5901

By: Jan

Jan — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 22:04:14 +0000

I feel that most players will stay. The WC is coming up next summer and players always risk not settling in at bigger clubs when they move. See Babel at Liverpool, Vaart at Real… El Hamdaoui, De Zeeuw, Mendes Da Silva.. they all want to play CL, they all want to go to the WC (Belgium is out of course, Morocco I don’t know really…).

I also hope the players realize that they’re not that good without Van Gaal. I mean, that Louis knows how to squeeze the best out of players WITHIN his system. Once De Zeeuw moves for instance, and become a midfielder in a different made up team, he might not reach that AZ level.

Look at players like Jenner, Kromkamp, Koevermans and further back Bogarde, Oulida, Finidi, Litmanen…

By: 3ric

3ric — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 16:50:07 +0000

I can’t see AZ resist the temptations of selling El Hamdaoui and/or Dembele if lucrative offers come in (which I believe, it will). Same with De Zeeuw, although offer for him will perhaps be much more modest (HSV Hamburg?). I don’t see anybody else is going to move. Schaars is obliged to pay the trust of Van Gaal and AZ after last season’s injury nightmare, so he is going to stay. Look for AZ next year to unleash Marko Vejinovic (formely known as Marko Matic). Such an exciting talent!

By: sonneveld

sonneveld — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 11:57:59 +0000

———van der sar

v.d.wiel–heitinga–chivu–maxwell

——-de jong

sneijder–van der vaart–babel

–huntelaar—-Ibrahimovic

just of the top of my head!! Ajax could contend for the champions league with that offense.
Ibra and KJH with sneijder and vdv is a world class attack.

By: Alex

Alex — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 08:55:45 +0000

That defeat against Vitesse was just unlucky, two lucky goals that came out of nowhere. AZ isn’t too blame for that. Schaars defenitaly forms the spine of this team, together with De Zeeuw. But Moisander, Moreno, Romero, El Hamdaoui, Dembele, Mendes da Silva, played a big part in it as well.
BTW i heard people still complaining about lack of fresh blood in oranje defence. ? V.d.Wiel, Braafheid, Marcellis, isn’t that fresh blood. I agree if you say V.Bronckhorst and Ooijer need to be gone as soon as possible. But for now the ones coming closest to Ooijer are exhausted: Zuiverloon, injured: Vlaar or coming back from serious injuries: Luirink. I bet you if Luirink wouldn’t have gotten injured he would have played for AZ almost every match and would have been in oranje now, guaranteed.

BTW Bouma has to have a second operation so he’ll be out until next season. Too bad, he’s our best leftback at the moment, makes hardly any mistakes defensively.

By: Jan

Jan — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 03:36:10 +0000

Scheringa today declared he want to use the ManU model with AZ and keep Van Gaal on for as long as possible. “If Louis wants to coach a nation to the WC, he’s allowed to do so. Hiddink combines it now and I think Michels coached Barcelona back in 1974. I’m more than happy to allow Van Gaal his ambitions but I do want to keep him here at AZ.”