Tuesday, September 28, 2021 at 2:41 PM• Jeroen van Poppel • Last update: 14:43

The occasional match that Louis van Gaal coached for Telstar last Friday meant a reunion with Andries Jonker for the current national coach of the Dutch. The pair have previously worked together at Barcelona and Bayern Munich, but Van Gaal does not see Jonker as his ideal assistant coach. “Andries Jonker is not the most complementary personality for me,” said Van Gaal, quoted by Football International.

Van Gaal led Telstar to a narrow victory against Jong AZ (1-0) together with Jonker, the actual trainer of the club, on Friday. Thus, although the two worked together for years, Van Gaal revealed that Jonker was “recruited on other grounds” by him. “Danny Blind is much more complementary to me,” said Van Gaal about his current assistant at the Dutch. “He was also a national coach, but he couldn’t do what I could. Just tell people not to be late. I think you should always be on time.”

While grabbing Jonker, Van Gaal told the press on Friday: “Two of these personalities is actually too much. Blind is doing better. I can’t explain that more clearly. But we,” he said, pointing to himself and Jonker, ” have the same high intelligence level.” Jonker could appreciate that: “Just save that.” Van Gaal then gave Jonker a pat on the back. “Andries is even more intelligent. It just is.” Jonker: “Note!” Van Gaal nodded to his companion. “We often say the same thing, with the same articulation. That’s not always good.” Jonker grinned: “One Louis van Gaal, that’s more than enough.”

Van Gaal also explained how he quickly put the the Dutch to his will at the beginning of September. “The funny thing is: I have that aura,” said the extremely confident national coach. “I had a day and a half before the game against Norway. That just isn’t possible. But to speed up the process that I became national coach, I called eight players in advance who I thought were going to play. And one because I thought beforehand : I’m not going to draw it up, but it shouldn’t become a festering wound. Vision. But now it comes: facetime. Two players reported already five minutes before the start time: ‘Trainer, I’m ready.’ That’s because I have that aura.”

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