At Go Ahead Eagles, the euphoria of promotion has given way to harsh reality this summer. The Deventer club will do everything it can to secure enforcement in the Eredivisie next season, but will have to do that without a number of permanent employees. Jay Gorter, Sam Beukema and captain Jeroen Veldmate, among others, are no longer there and so it is up to others to stand up. Football zone went to the Vetkampstraat and spoke with Bas Kuipers and Kees van Wonderen about the current situation and the expectations for the coming season.
By Mart Oude Nijeweeme
With barely two weeks to go until the start of the new Eredivisie season, Go Ahead Eagles has not yet completed the selection. For example, behind the scenes work is being done on the arrival of a new first goalkeeper and something has to be added in the vanguard. “We have many new players”, Van Wonderen also knows. “Then you have to work on automatisms and agreements. We need time for that. Fortunately, the new guys recognize what we want fairly quickly and you can see that. The coordination is getting better and better. We are satisfied with that. looking at the interpretation up front, especially on the flanks. We also want a new goalkeeper.”
Van Wonderen, who immediately secured promotion to the Eredivisie in his first year as head coach, knows better than anyone that there is also a downside to last year’s success. “As a team in the Kitchen Champion Division, it is often the case that you can keep the team together and try to strengthen it to fight in the Eredivisie,” the 51-year-old trainer continues. “Now important players are being removed, you first have to fill that in. Then you have to bring in guys to be able to measure you at Eredivisie level. That is quite a challenge. It is always a shame when you have worked well together and have been successful , that players go their own way. But that’s football, that’s how it works. The train continues and everyone is looking for their environment where they come into their own.”
For Kees van Wonderen it will be his first season as head coach in the Eredivisie.
Gorter went to Ajax, Beukema went to Alkmaar and the contracts of veterans Veldmate and Wout Droste were not extended. Van Wonderen also had to give up quite a bit in the vanguard with the departed Sam Hendriks and Bradly van Hoeven. The former the Dutch international understands very well that supporters of Go Ahead are not yet feeling with the group as it is now. “They haven’t had the chance to see it up close and give an opinion about it,” says Van Wonderen. “I understand that they don’t really have the feeling yet. We also need some time for that. We have to prepare the team as best as possible to be able to perform. The better we do that, the clearer it is for the supporters. is going to be.”
According to Bas Kuipers, it is easy to explain that the conviction is not quite there yet. “I understand that you see players passing by that you have never seen before,” said the left back. “Then you don’t know what it will bring, of course. But Go Ahead has to fish in a certain pond to be able to get good players. That’s why they look at multiple options. We will not have the resources to get players who are known to everyone That’s just going to be difficult.” Kuipers himself also had the opportunity to leave. “I have been informed and I have discussed it with my agent. But I have re-signed (until mid-2024, ed.), of course you do that for a reason. I have a good feeling about it. working towards a qualitatively better group. We see that the boys who are recruited really have quality. They can contribute something to the group.”
Go Ahead Eagles will immediately have to face the same direction as Feyenoord is the opponent in De Kuip on the second match day. For Van Wonderen this will be a reunion with the club where he played for eight years, between 1996 and 2004. “It’s nice to go back to De Kuip”, Van Wonderen looks ahead. “But I’ve been there before. In my role with the Dutch national team and my role as assistant coach at FC Twente. Those are great matches. Feyenoord is a top club with a great stadium. If you can measure yourself with that, that’s something beautiful to look forward to. I know how that goes, the tone that goes with it. I can imagine that. But I don’t make it bigger than it is. It gives a lot of recognition, but you try to team as best as possible.”
Van Wonderen does not immediately see it as an advantage that he hits Feyenoord, which has also undergone a metamorphosis this summer, so early in the season. “You can explain that in two ways. On the one hand, they are not yet attuned to each other, but on the other hand they are much further along and they have played major matches before,” Van Wonderen refers to the diptych with FC Drita in the preliminary round of the Conference League. “They are further along than we are, that is a disadvantage. But that applies to any team that you hit early. It will not look like it will look like it will look like in a few months. That also applies to us. Then Sometimes it’s better to hit a team a little earlier than when they are at their best.”
Despite the fact that Van Wonderen has been doing excellent as head coach so far, a return to Feyenoord is not yet on his mind. “I’m actually not that concerned about returning to the clubs where I worked,” said the former Feyenoord player. “I also like to return to Twente, where I have not played at all. Or to work here, to get to know new people in a different environment. It is not a must for me. I have a very nice I’ve had time and had great experiences with the UEFA Cup and the championship. But I’m not so concerned with whether I will come back there in a few years. You can’t plan that in football.”
Bas Kuipers is one of the supporting forces at Go Ahead Eagles this season after the departure of Jeroen Veldmate, Wout Droste, Sam Beukema and Jay Gorter, among others.
For Kuipers, the matches against Ajax are the matches he is most looking forward to next season. The left back went through the entire youth academy with the team from Amsterdam, but just didn’t manage to break through under Frank de Boer. He did train with the A-selection in the run-up to the 2013/14 season. “I had a moment in the winter, when some boys were injured, that I was close to it. I hoped to be able to go to a match one day,” Kuipers recalls. “Ultimately that never happened, then you have to think. Jaap Stam was then a trainer of Jong Ajax and he would have liked me there. Only I could play with Excelsior in the Eredivisie. Sometimes I think: if I was further physically I might have been a little calmer on the field.”
Kuipers was part of the group that under De Boer won the national title in the Eredivisie four years in a row. He drew on players such as Christian Eriksen, Davy Klaassen, Daley Blind and Toby Alderweireld. But he learned the most from Nicolai Boilesen. “I thought that was a very good player. He did have some problems later on, but I liked watching him. I think you mainly focus on your own position and look at that.” When asked whether Kuipers ever sees himself returning to Ajax, he is quite firm. “I never really thought about that. I want to focus on every club I go to and play well. It’s great how a career can run. One minute you’re at ADO Den Haag and you barely get to play. “It didn’t go well in Romania either. And then you keep an eye on better times and you always end up somewhere where you do achieve success. It doesn’t matter where that is. Every club has its beautiful things.”