Valentijn Driessen warns that ‘several peat fires are raging beneath the surface’ in Dutch football, despite the current European success of the clubs. The chief of football of The Telegraph notes in his column that there is a ‘hosanna mood’, because Ajax, PSV, Feyenoord and possibly Vitesse are wintering in Europe. Driessen, however, has a caveat to this and writes that it will only take a few years to determine whether this has not been an incident.
Driessen cites that Marcel Brands and John van den Brom lost their jobs at Everton and KRC Genk last week, after Ronald and Erwin Koeman, Mark van Bommel and Jaap Stam ‘victims’ in a long line. Driessen also calls the performances of the Dutch top players among the participants in the Champions League ‘not to write home about’. Together with Arnaut Danjuma, he calls Steven Berghuis ‘the white raven at the highest European club level’.
“We participate, but – with the exception of Danjuma and Berghuis – hardly make a difference. The central defense duo Virgil van Dijk and Stefan de Vrij of national coach Louis van Gaal and left back Daley Blind are the highest in the pecking order of all the Dutch pawns at Liverpool, Inter and Ajax respectively. The fact that it concerns defenders says enough,” Driessen writes in The Telegraph. He sees a worrying development in the number of players with a Dutch passport at Dutch clubs that play European football.
“Berghuis and Blind are important for Ajax, but the big eye-catchers in Amsterdam are really called Sébastien Haller, a French Ivorian, and the Brazilian right winger Antony. PSV regularly manages to be on the field except for keeper Joël Drommel without a Dutch player. Fortunately, Roger Schmidt can again have Cody Gakpo at his disposal and hopefully he can deliver on his promise,” said Driessen. At Feyenoord, according to him, Luis Sinisterra is the eye catcher, with Gernot Trauner and Cyriel Dessers in his wake.
“While Orkun Kökcü has a Turkish passport. At AZ, the Swede Jesper Karlsson and Icelander Albert Gudmundsson are the exception in the parade of gray mice. Vitesse has been known for years for its foreign legion and this season everything revolves around the Belgian striker Loïs Openda,” says Driessen. He believes that ‘vigilance is still required’ for Dutch football. “Under the surface, peat fires are raging, which could just be a harbinger of bad times.”