Etienne Vaessen is not very happy with the way trainer Fred Grim has acted. The goalkeeper has been a fixture at RKC Waalwijk for the past three seasons and everything indicated that he would start the new year as a basic player. However, Grim decided last week to appoint Kostas Lamprou as number one at RKC, to Vaessen’s anger and disappointment.

Vaessen got the bad news last Wednesday from Grim. On Friday, he said he left the training of RKC out of self-protection, ahead of the game with Vitesse (0-1) on Sunday. “Otherwise I might have accidentally kicked somebody’s ass at an action”, explains the angry closing post in conversation with the Brabants Dagblad. Grim denounced the mindset of Vaessen and didn’t include him in the match selection.

The passed Vaessen believes he should be treated better. “I had counted on a little more credit. Two years I haven’t had any decent training at RKC. On the contrary, I felt better again and I was not inferior to Lamprou during the preparation”. Vaessen immediately asked for an interview with technical director Mohammed Allach and general director Frank van Mosselveld. “I’m still two years under contract and I want to know what my perspective is. If I can’t be hired out, I’ll reconnect. Because RKC remains my club.”

Vaessen has now been disciplined by the RKC management. After a period of reflection he joins the Grim team again on Wednesday, so it sounds. “Disappointment is allowed, only Etienne has expressed this disappointment in several wrong ways on several occasions. In the conversation with him this morning he received an official warning and the maximum fine was imposed on him. The next two days he will be suspended and he will have the opportunity to come to his senses”, Van Mosselveld explains on the club site.