John van den Brom has been fired as trainer of KRC Genk, the Belgian club announced on Monday through the official channels. The Dutchman performed extremely erratically and is held responsible for the downward spiral by the club management. Genk did not win the last seven official matches and is in a disappointing eighth place in the Pro League.
“The club management has made this decision because the results are not in line with the qualities of the players and with the ambitions we have expressed together this season,” the club said in a statement. “We thank John for what he has done for the club and wish him every success in the future.” For the time being, the honors at Genk are performed by assistant coaches Glen Riddersholm and Domenico Olivieri. Genk hopes to enforce a winter in the Europa League against Rapid Wien on Thursday. Then it has to pass number two Dinamo Zagreb, which has two points more.
Before the start of the game against KV Mechelen (1-1) on Sunday, Van den Brom already knew that he was in a difficult situation. “Whether I have a feeling of do or die have? Yes, but that is almost impossible,” he said during the press conference in the run-up to that match. “We have put ourselves in this situation. It’s up to us to come out of this together.” Genk’s last victory in an official match dates from October 31, when a 2-6 victory was recorded on a visit to Zulte Waregem. After that, the club went unbeaten for seven games in a row ( 4 draws, 3 defeats) In the meantime, the friendly match against OH Leuven (0-2) ended with a win.
Van den Brom signed a five-year contract with Genk in November 2020. He succeeded the Dane Jess Thorup at the time and achieved good results with the Belgian club in the initial phase. He won the Croky Cup and finished second in the competition with Genk in the play-offs. In the end, Genk ended in a tie with national champions Club Brugge. In the play-offs, however, the score in the regular competition went for the head-to-head result or the goal difference. Van den Brom was previously active as a trainer at ADO Den Haag, Vitesse, Anderlecht, AZ and Utrecht, among others. In 2013 he won the Belgian national title with Anderlecht.
Dennis Haar, who worked at Genk as Van den Brom’s assistant coach, was already fired in October. At the time, the club did not mention a reason for the departure of the man who also worked with Van den Brom at FC Utrecht and AZ. Surprisingly enough, Van den Brom and Haar resigned in November last year during the season at Utrecht, which cooperated in an early departure of the trainer duo. Van den Brom was also unable to convince in Utrecht, although he did reach the cup final against Feyenoord. However, this did not take place due to the corona measures.