Mohamed Ihattaren started Sunday at PSV on the reserve bench in the away game against FC Groningen. The reserve role of the eighteen-year-old offensive midfielder was the result of coach Roger Schmidt sending him away from a practice session last week. The fact that Ihattaren had to be sent away at a training session is food for discussion at the table at Soccer Studio.

“I wasn’t there, but I think he’s the best player of PSV”, that’s how Rafael van der Vaart starts when Ihattaren comes up for discussion. Pierre van Hooijdonk asks his table mate if he was ever sent away when he was seventeen or eighteen. Van der Vaart answers in the negative, after which presenter Sjoerd van Ramshorst asks Van Hooijdonk if that is significant. “I think that’s quite something, that at that age you are already in the front line and a new trainer sends you away. He wouldn’t have done that for nothing. Schmidt is also aware of Ihattaren’s abilities and qualities.”

Jack van Gelder gets irritated by picture of Mohamed Ihattaren

Also with Rondo Mohamed Ihattaren was a topic of conversation on Sunday evening.Read article

“Van der Vaart responded to Van Hooijdonk by saying: “He also used him a lot for the defence in the preparation. Kees Jansma states that Ihattaren, who was in the Dutch squad without playing minutes for the internationals against Poland (1-0 victory) and Italy (0-1 defeat), had a ‘strange week’. “He has been incredibly put on the horse as a great big soccer player. You have to live up to that and then there are disappointments, so there has to be someone around to guide him”.

“He was suffocating after Poland and Italy. Apparently something happened that is strange for a young player, but not entirely illogical”, Jansma continues. He doesn’t like Van Hooijdonk. “I do find that illogical. You are disappointed that you don’t play with the Dutch and then you come back to your buddies, to your club. You’re working towards your first league game in a long time and then you can’t motivate yourself?”

Van der Vaart states that it is ‘nice’ that this happens, because Ihattaren only learns from it. “That’s not nice, is it? Why is that fine?”, Van Hooijdonk responds. “At one point I also thought that I could walk on water,” Van der Vaart explains. “What are we talking about? We’re talking about football. Those guys have to learn that. Then I’d rather he learns it now. When I was twenty and was put on the couch, I thought the whole world was against me. “You just have to perform on the field and he did, didn’t he?” Van der Vaart agrees that in his time there were players who could correct him and that this is not directly the case with Ihattaren. “Should Rosario say that to him? Then I would also say: ‘Find out’.”