Valentijn Driessen expects Frank de Boer to become the new national coach of the Dutch national team if he does not make absurd demands and accepts the current staff as his assistants. Allegedly, partly at the insistence of the permanent core of the players’ group, the KNVB does not want any successor of Ronald Koeman to upset everything and take one or more assistants with him. Ruud van Nistelrooij will be added around next summer’s European Championships, as agreed in December last year.

“These conditions are sacred to the KNVB’ers, but should be a reason for De Boer to refuse or play so hard that he only comes to Zeist if he is allowed to bring his own right hand”, Driessen judges Friday in his column. The chief of football of The Telegraph hopes, however, that it won’t be De Boer’s usual assistant by then. “As long as it’s not Orlando Trustfull. Since De Boer has included him in his staff, first at Ajax and later at Internazionale, Crystal Palace and Atlanta United, the coach has lost much of his luster as a top international coach in the making”.

Driessen calls Orange ‘De Boers last escape route out of impending anonymity’. “The fact that Trustfull won’t come is the only additional advantage if the KNVB stays on its stripes. For the rest, the management is taking De Boer hostage with its unshakeable stance on the staff.” He thinks it’s the opposite world that the KNVB considers the assistants’ staff more important and in fact lets it determine whether De Boer becomes the national coach. “If the new national coach finds another assistant of necessary added value, he should be allowed to take them with him. Even if only to counterbalance the current staff members and certainly the internationals. Hearing internationals in this day and age is okay, but don’t leave your ears to them.”

Should Frank de Boer be the new national coach of the Dutch national team?

The question is also whether it would click between De Boer and the assistants. “Until the end of this year the KNVB would have to see if there is chemistry between the new national coach and the staff present and then finally appoint the European Championship coaching staff. Driessen questions the presence of Van Nistelrooij. “Whether De Boer wants it or not, he is already stuck with the coach of PSV Under-18. It would be logical to leave the two with each other first and then give De Boer freedom of choice. Maybe he sees a lot more fiduciousness in someone like Robin van Persie”.

Driessen thinks it is unacceptable that Van Nistelrooij did not want to join the international against Poland and Italy after Koeman’s departure. “He thought his presence with the seventeen, eighteen year olds was more important than eight days to help the Dutch. As a coach you set the wrong priorities and as a football federation you let yourself be ringed, even though Lodeweges tried to justify it. Like De Boer’s hostage-taking with the assistant staff, such an incident proves the lack of quality and empathy of the KNVB. And it proves the lack of any background in the KNVB top international football as a player or trainer”.