Feyenoord breaks with Stanley Brard, the club confirms Friday afternoon. The head of youth education was discredited this week by blundering emails he sent internally. He wanted to see various employees leave the youth academy, but instead Feyenoord chooses to say goodbye to him. He serves his expiring contract and then leaves Varkenoord.
Brard started his second period as head of training at the Feyenoord Academy in January 2020, having already held the same position between 2005 and 2013. He gained a lot of fame at the time: the training was named best in the Netherlands five times and produced players such as Georgino Wijnaldum, Bruno Martins Indi, Stefan de Vrij, Jordy Clasie, Kelvin Leerdam and Tonny Vilhena. However, his second employment contract was a lot more controversial due to internal struggles about the course to be followed in the youth academy.
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Tuesday wrote RTV Rijnmond that a ‘bomb has burst’ in the youth academy. Brard alluded to a departure of former players Ulrich van Gobbel (assistant coach Feyenoord Under-18) and Remco Schol (video and performance analyst Feyenoord Academy), Melvin Boel (head coach Feyenoord Under-18) and Mark Onderwater (head performance Feyenoord Academy) ). He found the foursome ‘too difficult and too innovative’ and preferred to work with the trainers he already knows from his first period at Varkenoord, such as Cor Adriaanse and Gaston Taument.
Last week, just before the match between PSV and Feyenoord (1-1), Brard wanted to email the names of the foursome to general manager Mark Koevermans. By mistake, however, he sent the email to another Mark, Mark Onderwater, one of the staff members he’d rather see leave. The main performance of the Feyenoord Academy ‘did not know what he was reading’, according to the broadcaster. After all, he never had an evaluation interview with Brard. He reported sick after receiving the email and has not been to Feyenoord since then.
Bomb bursts at Feyenoord: Stanley Brard blunders in emails
Stanley Brard was discredited at Feyenoord this week.
Although Onderwater did not inform the other three persons mentioned in the email, Brard feared that the information would leak. He therefore chose to call Van Gobbel, Schol and Boel himself. However, the trio knew nothing about it and were ‘dumbfounded’ by Brard’s phone call. “The trainers are angry, also because they have never received a negative interim evaluation. That is why they assume that they will also be active within Feyenoord next season,” wrote RTV Rijnmond.
It wasn’t Brard’s only email blunder. After all, he also thought that video analyst Etienne Shew-Atjon should leave the field and used an earlier email exchange with Koevermans, Shew-Atjon and video analyst Michel Valke to inform Koevermans about this. However, because Brard clicked on ‘reply all’, Shew-Atjon also read via email that Brard wants to get rid of him. The head of youth academy admitted to having made a huge mistake. “I find it very annoying and that cannot be justified. I apologized for that.”
The question was whether Feyenoord would choose the old course that Brard feels better about, or the innovation that is being preached by other people within the youth academy. The club had the English company Sportsology write a report about a new organizational structure in De Kuip, which was received on Monday, with a delay. Reportedly Frank Arnesen had that report drawn up and the technical director is more in line with the new generation of trainers. On Thursday, consultations took place about the future of the names of youth trainers mentioned by Brard who would have to leave.
Just like every professional club, Feyenoord had to provide clarity before April 1 about which employees will stay on and has chosen to say goodbye to Brard. “Stanley is a real Feyenoord man through and through. He has achieved wonderful successes here as a player of the 1983/84 championship team and as a trainer,” Arnesen says on the club site. “Under his leadership, Feyenoord Academy was the showpiece of the youth academies in the Netherlands. That’s not nothing and Feyenoord should be very grateful to him for that. Our task is to find a worthy successor for him who can further develop Feyenoord Academy and the youth academy. . “
Brard had an expiring contract. He does not want to claim too much credit for the development of players under his rule. “Of course, the boys primarily develop and break through themselves – and with the help of the fantastic trainers and supervisors who still walk around the Academy – but it is proud to know that this was also possible. continued for several years. Nevertheless, I look back on my time at Varkenoord with great pleasure. “