TOP Oss announced on Thursday that the expiring contract of trainer Klaas Wels will not be extended. It means that after no less than thirteen years, the time of the 47-year-old coach at the Brabant club comes to an end, where he initially came in as an intern in 2008 and has been active as head coach since March 2017. The approaching departure from TOP Oss creates a ‘bad feeling’ for the currently longest-serving trainer of the Kitchen Champion Division, which, according to him, will disappear immediately as soon as he has found a new club. Wels hopes to be able to work elsewhere in the Kitchen Champion Division or the Eredivisie next season.
By Chris Meijer
Wels and TOP Oss have been inextricably linked in recent years. De Brabander started as an intern in 2008, was appointed assistant trainer in 2010 and took the helm independently in 2017. Wels led TOP Oss in 2019 to the best performance in club history: sixth place in the Kitchen Champion Division. The club can still end in the left row this season. “TOP Oss has not ended up in the left row that often. Then you end up ten places higher than what you pay for, that’s just a great achievement, ”says Wels in conversation with Football zone. “By that I mean that we had the lowest budget and I think we have always performed above expectations.”
However, Wels was told in January during the evaluation of director Peter Bijvelds that the club ‘probably had no intention’ to extend his expiring contract. “Well, then I don’t know what I have to achieve in the intervening three months to make him change his mind. So I saw it coming in that respect ”, says the trainer. Yet it does hurt for a while now that it is officially clear that he will leave TOP Oss at the end of the season. Bijvelds said in a statement that it is time for a ‘new head coach with a new approach’. “It is never pleasant. Let me start by respecting the club’s choice. I have an expiring contract and it is the club’s right to renew it or not. I think we are performing well and getting the most out of it, as they say. ”
‘I have always remembered Juventus from a few years ago’
Voetbalzone spoke extensively with Klaas Wels in 2019 about his career and working method.
Wels emphasizes that at TOP Oss it was not self-evident that a trainer remained in the saddle for a long time. As an assistant, he worked alongside six head trainers. “I think we have managed to get TOP Oss out of relative anonymity in the past 4.5 years. There has been recognition for this, although it is very difficult to distinguish yourself at TOP Oss and to stand out with your head above ground level. Every year you have about 7 players left from a selection of 25 players. Every time it is important for the network to make the choices that are right for the club. We have to act and work with minimal means, we have to be inventive. We have always performed above expectations in different playing styles, with which I have been able to demonstrate that I have excellent tactics and that the players can perform what I want to see. ”
“I think there was enough perspective to continue. That is not going to happen and that is a shame. Not more than that. Since 2008 I have experienced beautiful and less beautiful things at the club, although especially the beautiful things stick. It is annoying that you have to leave now. The moment I can report that I have a new club, the bad feeling I now have has immediately disappeared and TOP Oss remains as a nice memory in my career ”, Wels continues. In 2019 there was already ‘indirectly’ information by other clubs, but that never became concrete at the time, partly because he extended his contract with TOP Oss for two years and therefore a fee had to be paid. Now a number of looking clubs have again cautiously reported to Wels. “I said: we finish the season first. If it becomes very concrete, I will hear it. But the fact that information has already been provided makes me happy. ”
Wels celebrates the 0-1 victory over Young Ajax with Joshua Sanches.
“I think there are enough clubs in the Kitchen Champion Division that can use me. Perhaps it could be a step higher, at clubs that dare to take a daring leap. Or as an assistant coach in the Eredivisie. I would certainly be interested in becoming an assistant at an Eredivisie club. That is a level higher, on which I have not worked yet. I can see how I can develop and adapt in this, in order to grow into the role of head coach at an Eredivisie club. That would be a nice intermediate step. ” In that respect, the focus is still on the Netherlands for the time being. “If something comes by from abroad that is so lucrative that I can’t let it go, it will be different. But I am realistic about this: there are enough other trainers available who have performed more than I have done now. ”
First, Wels wants to show what he has to offer at a number of Dutch clubs. “Ultimately, I am ready to work at another club after thirteen years. I think I can stimulate myself with that: you get a new staff, you come to work with other people at the club, you have to find your way again, you are challenged again, you have to prove yourself. That is at a club where you have been in for a longer time, that is less of an issue, you know how things are going and what will happen every year. ” First, the end of the season with TOP Oss awaits, with matches against Helmond Sport and Roda JC Kerkrade. “We want to finish as high as possible in the rankings. If we end in the left row, you can compare it with FC Emmen or RKC Waalwijk that would finish tenth in the Eredivisie. ”
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