Emil Holten has opened up about the way in which Rafael van der Vaart tried to get things on track at Esbjerg fB. After the sudden departure of Peter Hyballa, the former the Dutch international stepped in as interim trainer and decided to go into town with his pupils. According to Holten, the inspiration session was ‘difficult and not fun’, but it did have the desired effect.
Esbjerg had turbulent months last season. First the club put Hyballa and Roland Vrabeec on the street to finally finish the season with the duo Van der Vaart and Michael Kryger. However, the latter failed to avert enforcement, meaning the Danish club is not active at the first or second level in Denmark for the first time in 28 years. In the documentary Love it or leave it is given a glimpse behind the gates of the Blue Water Arena.
Holten talks about how Van der Vaart tried to get everything together after Hyballa left. The German left after a widely reported conflict with the players of the Danish club, who accused the coach of assault, among other things. Disappointing results were also at the root of the early departure. “It was on a Monday, so completely unheard of in our world,” Holten says about the night out with Van der Vaart.
“Everyone enjoyed themselves for the first two hours, but then the music stopped to talk to each other. We looked each other in the eye and said what we thought of each other. That was not nice. We opened our hearts. It was difficult and not fun. Two hours later we were all drunk and hugging each other. Since then, coming to the club has been very different. It has made us stronger.” At the third level, Esbjerg started with ten points from five matches. The team thus occupies fourth place in the ranking.
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