Monday, June 5, 2023 at 09:10• Jordi Tomasowa • Last update: 09:25

Valentijn Driessen does not have a good word for FC Utrecht. The journalist calls the Eredivisie club the third major disappointment of the season after FC Groningen and Vitesse. According to Driessen, ‘owner Frans van Seumeren’s toy is a joke’.

For Driessen, the elimination in the quarterfinals of the TOTO KNVB Cup at home against Spakenburg (1-4) and the pushing and pulling match between owner Van Seumeren and defender Sean Klaiber in the dressing room after the defeat against Go Ahead Eagles are the two absolute lows. “Van Seumeren’s diatribe was understandable if you saw FC Utrecht’s disparities on the field. It often seemed like nothing,” writes Driessen in his column The Telegraph.

Driessen also criticizes technical director Jordy Zuidam. “The selection he put together was completely unbalanced for the umpteenth year in a row. The surplus of failed, discarded, exhausted and saturated players at the top turned out to be just enough quality to finish seventh in the Eredivisie and qualify for the play-offs to enforce European football.”

Utrecht was eliminated on Sunday in the semi-finals of the play-offs for European football after penalties by Sparta Rotterdam. Driessen also saw the Domstedelingen make an unmotivated impression in the return. “At Het Kasteel, the Utrecht supporters sang after half an hour on Sunday whether their own players could wake up. It was then 6:30 pm in the evening. How sad. Especially with the knowledge that owner Van Seumeren had shown the bus off. A bus full of overfed players, who abandoned him for the umpteenth time in Rotterdam and were eliminated.”

The columnist also does not understand why Utrecht is associated with the arrival of 32-year-old Bryan Linssen. “Jens Toornstra would like to be reunited with his former Feyenoord boyfriend and the attacker is very excited about a return after a year in Japan.” According to Driessen, Linssen is in the category where Utrecht already has far too many players. “Guys like Van der Hoorn, Ramselaar, Klaiber, Viergever, Dost, Labyad and even Toornstra stand in the way of FC Utrecht’s sporting development. When will the eyes open sleeping giant FC Utrecht?”