• There will be pressure this week, Holland square up to England in the Nations League semi-final tomorrow, but not of the kind that would be omnipresent if this was a major tournament.
• At Everton, when he was managing in the Premier League, his media briefings could be blunt and difficult and there is no question the startling way his team lost form and led to his sacking in October 2017 left its mark.
Image: /REUTERS
There is a huge laugh as Ronald Koeman contemplates the idea he is a changed man.
He recently became a grandfather for the first time, a bouncing boy called Xavi, and proudly reveals at the start of this conversation that a second grandchild will arrive later this month.
Koeman is the King of Dutch football, a man who has spent his life at the highest parts of the game. Relentless pressure has been ever-present through his career, so does a more mature status means he is now contemplating a life of pushing prams?
“Ha! says Koeman. “As a manager of a club, it is 24 hours a day but the national coach is different. The pressure is not every day; the pressure is when the qualifiers start and we are playing because then you feel the pressure, but that’s normal and I don’t feel it’s something negative.”
There will be pressure this week, Holland square up to England in the Nations League semi-final tomorrow, but not of the kind that would be omnipresent if this was a major tournament; silverware might be available this weekend but Koeman is certainly not stressing out.
He knows what it is like to win in Orange and the memories of a glorious summer in 1988 when they became champions of Europe will never fade but when asked whether winning the Nations League as manager would be a comparable feat, the accompanying raised eyebrows are a telling response.
“No,” Koeman, who is now 56, explains. “It’s Nations League. It’s not a Euros, it’s not a world championship. Winning the Nations League, you don’t get a ticket for the Euros. It’s a tournament instead of playing friendlies. Winning the Nations League is important, but you cannot compare.”
The prestige might be missing, then, but the determination to be successful remains the same. We spend an hour at the sparkling Dutch football headquarters in Zeist, a small town an hour outside Amsterdam, and Koeman in these circumstances is wonderfully engaging company.
RONALD KOEMAN CV
PLAYER
1980–1983: Groningen
1983–1986: Ajax
1986–1989: PSV
1989–1995: Barcelona
1995–1997: Feyenoord
1982-84: Holland (78 caps, 12 goals)
MANAGER
2000–2001: Vitesse
2001–2005: Ajax
2005–2006: Benfica
2006–2007: PSV
2007–2008: Valencia
2009: AZ
2011–2014: Feyenoord
2014–2016: Southampton
2016–2017: Everton
2018: Holland
At Everton, when he was managing in the Premier League, his media briefings could be blunt and difficult and there is no question the startling way his team lost form and led to his sacking in October 2017 left its mark. To spend 10 minutes in his time there, you would say he was distant.
Here, though, he is invigorated. He laughs about having to completely redecorate a Christmas tree in blue after posting a picture on Twitter in front of red tree. That was during his first year at Goodison Park and it is something about which he continues to be reminded on social media.
But there are so many other stories, not least about Johan Cruyff, his inspiration and mentor, and the things he learned from the greatest European to play the game; methods he still employs today. Mention Cruyff and Koeman comes alive.
“Cruyff told me that ‘sometimes you need to play in the middle of training because then the players can see and learn from you’,” Koeman begins.
“He said if you stay always outside watching the sessions or sometimes be part and involved in that session because then you see much more.”
Koeman would involve himself much more in training but operations on both of his Achilles tendons mean he has to be selective of when the boots go on. You imagine, though, he would want to play in every session given his defenders are Virgil van Dijk and Matthijs De Ligt.
KOEMAN HONOURS
PLAYER
AJAX: Eredivisie: 1984–85, KNVB Cup: 1985–86
PSV: Eredivisie: 1986–87, 1987–88, 1988–89, KNVB Cup: 1987–88, 1988–89, European Cup: 1987–88
BARCELONA: La Liga: 1990–91, 1991–92, 1992–93, 1993–94, Copa del Rey: 1989–90, European Cup: 1991–92
HOLLAND: European Championship: 1988
MANAGER:
AJAX: Eredivisie: 2001–02, 2003–04, KNVB Cup: 2001–02
VALENCIA: Copa del Rey: 2008
“I was not the quality defender of De Ligt or Virgil,” Koeman states. “They are top, top players. We have the best central defenders (in Europe) with De Ligt and Virgil. That’s great because you build the house, always, from downstairs. You don’t start with the roof.”
“When you look at Virgil now, this is a big, big personality on the pitch. He is a leader. That is why I made him captain. I knew him from Southampton. I thought: ‘he can do more — he can carry more responsibility.’ He is strong; he has a great character and enjoys the responsibility. He is a good boy.”
“De Ligt is only 19! If you watch him play, you do not see a player who is only 19. You see a player who plays with so much more experience than he actually has. The season that he had — and all the young boys at Ajax had — is great for their development as players.”
This is the beginning of a potentially exciting period for the Dutch. The Under 17s won the European Championships in Dublin last month, suggesting that the conveyor belt is working again, while the squad Koeman will take to Portugal this week is bursting with talent.
Frenkie De Jong, the midfielder who is heading to Barcelona, and his former Ajax team-mate Donny van de Beek will provide threats to England in Guimares, while Koeman continues to emphasise the importance of Liverpool’s understated Gini Wijnaldum to his team.
“We always brought good young players through the system from what we have in Holland,” says Koeman. “Sometimes in football, it’s like this — talented young players coming through the system. The atmosphere around the national team changed and that was down to the players.”
“Then we started in the Nations League well. We won a tough group with France and Germany and ok… Finally, we had a good start in the qualifying. We are on a good way back to where we would like to stay as a country. Frenkie has signed for Barcelona. De Ligt will sign also for a big club.”
It is 16 months since he took charge of his country and started with a 1-0 defeat by England in Amsterdam but, from that point, the line of progress has been steadily rising and there have been hugely encouraging results against Germany and France.
Without doubt, Koeman — who admires Gareth Southgate and is impressed by his work — is in a good place mentally as he prepares to lock horns with England; he enjoyed the three years he spent working with Southampton and Everton but can see now the toll it took.
“I look back to a great period in the Premier League, as a total picture, and those two seasons at Southampton were unbelievable,” says Koeman. “The first season at Everton was really good. Only the start of the second season was not so good. If that is three or four months they will discuss, I do not have any problem. What happened there was difficult and it was good to get back and start this job. The problem for Everton is they like to be part of the Champions League. The crowd expects more. But how do you compete with the Big Six?
That is no longer Koeman’s problem. There may come a time when he returns to club management — his name continues to be whispered with Barcelona, for whom he won the European Cup – but, for now, national service is all that matters.
“We are proud because we had a bad time over the last four or five years with the national team,” he says. “They spoke about crisis. Now, everybody says: ‘Look, Holland is back on track.’ Everybody sees Ajax this season in the Champions League, the national team is doing well.”
“You do everything to put Holland back in the big tournaments and because then you get the support of the fans and that’s really important. We start like that and now we are on the way back. You are defending the colours of your country.”