Look past the Netherlands coach’s truculence and you see someone of integrity who cares for football and how it’s playedThe 70-year-old walks over to the 24-year-old and peers at what he is watching. His hands flick out in a shrug of incomprehension. “Are these cars racing now?” he asks, bewildered. “Do you really enjoy watching this? I don’t like it. It’s just, ‘Mieeeeuv, Mieeeuuv’ [the sound is majestically Dutch] all the time.” And so Frenkie de Jong’s love of Formula One is dismissed.The 70-year-old shakes hands with the 20-year-old. “I’m vaccinated. You?” “Yeah, me too,” Jurriën Timber replies. “Thank goodness. Not a wappie.” Wappie is a Dutch word roughly equivalent to “nutjob” that tends to be used for conspiracy theorists....
Dutch manager says he is more flexible than he is portrayed, but his club may not have enough patience to wait for his long term project to deliver the goodsAfter agreeing to take charge of Crystal Palace in June, Frank de Boer sought advice from a former manager who has become a friend, Louis van Gaal. The 66-year-old has been a key influence on De Boer, having managed him at Ajax, Barcelona and the Dutch national team. Van Gaal offered his protégé tips for succeeding in England based on his two years at Manchester United, from which he apparently carries a curious disappointment that De Boer is determined to avoid.“The only thing he regretted was that he played 3-4-3 in...
Few of the former manager’s costly signings succeeded at Old Trafford and many, like the Everton-bound Morgan Schneiderlin, soon found their careers in limboOne has to feel a little bit sorry for Morgan Schneiderlin somewhere along the line, even if the basic reason his move to Manchester United did not work out was because he could not prove himself a better midfield option than the 35-year-old Michael Carrick.United splurging all that money on Paul Pogba did not help either, though even with the world’s most expensive player in the lineup this season Carrick has still been getting the nod over Schneiderlin and José Mourinho was being somewhat economical with the truth when he suggested on Tuesday that he had been...
Leicester City’s title win was every bit the fairy story, as was Wales’ run at Euro 2016, but England displayed their unerring ability to ruin the moodThe year 2016 was a terrific one for the Premier League and a terrible 12 months for English football. Leicester City’s title success was every bit the fairytale, the perfect antidote to long-held and justifiable fears that ordinary clubs could no longer dream of glory as the bigger institutions and the Champions League elite had effectively ringfenced all the prizes worth winning. Related: A 2016 football moment to remember: Dejan Lovren sets the Kop on fire | Paul Doyle Arsenal and Tottenham are particularly guilty of dithering instead of cashing in on managerial changes elsewhereI've...