Others have noted that it has been a rough week for former Dutch international Ronald Koeman, Barcelona dream-teamer under Johan Cruyff, and ex-manager of Benfica, PSV Endhoven and current top man at Valencia . I say he hasn’t had a rough enough week.
Since resigning from PSV on October 31, 2007, and accepting the Valencia job after the sudden firing of Quique Sanchez-Flores, he has done practically everything wrong. He arrives 5 days late after being hired, misses the weekend win against Mallorca, fails to get the club organized for a midweek Champions League match against comparative minnows Rosenberg, loses 2-0 at home in the Mestalla, and leaves Trond Henriksen, the Norwegian side’s coach unimpressed, calling the Spanish side’s performance “cowardly”. He then sits on-form winger and Spain international Joaquin for his lack of effort in training after only a few days in charge, benches three of his top players Santiago Canizares, David Albelda and Miguel Angel Angulo for and now even minority ownership at the club are calling his tenure at the club a joke.
The club have backtracked from their humiliating treatment of the three, they have released a statement that the 3 have only been dropped not ostracized, but everything out of the club is stating that this is only the beginning of the Koeman Revolution. Baraja, Vicente and even David Villa are on the outs, and young starlets like Boca Juniors midfielder Ever Banega and Ajax striker Klaus-Jan Huntelaar are rumoured coming into the squad for the January transfer window.
Is he crazy? This is a club that was top four as little as two months ago. Was there a lack of quality on the side? Sure, some like Angulo and Vicente were often injured and Canizares is riding on fumes, but this is a Champions League level team with proven strikers like Villa to play off of Morientes who still has a few years left, Timo Hildebrand was being groomed as Santi’s replacement and it had a proven spine built by a Champions League winning coach in Rafa Benitez. You can’t change a club’s heart in 3 weeks and then expect the rest to play for you. You can’t expect players who have thrived playing one way, and fit them into an outdated mix of Rinus Michel’s, Johann Cruyff’s, and Louis Van Gaal’s least creative tendencies.
Ronald Koeman was a fantastic player, a defender in the libero mold, who ran the famous Barcelona dream-team of Cruyff to the 1992 European Cup final. Since his retirement, he has commanded Dutch side Vitesse Arnheim to a UEFA Cup berth in 2001, took Ajax to the Champions League quarter finals before losing to AC Milan, but spent the next 3 years grinding out wins and ruining the legendary Dutch side’s fortunes, where he was ultimately fired after a 2004 loss to Auxerre in the UEFA Cup. He was hired to replace Giovanni Trappatoni at Benfica in 2005 but couldn’t get the Portuguese champs to more than a third place finish in the league, lost out in the League Cup to a soon-to-be relegated side, and won their only trophy in the Superliga which pits the League and Cup winners from the previous years. To add insult to injury, he left Benfica for while the Portuguese squad were still in contention for the Champions League that without him lost only to eventual champs Barcelona in the quarter finals. He then leads PSV to a dominant first half, but allows both Ajax and AZ Alkmaar to cut the lead until by the penultimate match all 3 teams were tied at 72 points. In the final game, Alkmaar loses, Ajax beats Willem II, but PSV wins on goal differential against (hold it), Ronald Koeman’s old squad Vitesse Arnheim.
Tintin was the wrong choice to turn the fortunes of a struggling champ like Valencia around. The numbers don’t lie. He lucked into a young squad at Ajax led by Zlatan Ibrahimovich, Van der Vaart and Christian Chivu, destroyed a Benfica that had been brought back to prominence by Il Trap, and finally replaced Gus Hiddink at PSV only to turn them into a dour, ill-conceived squad that eat Arsenal by an aggregate score of 2-1 over two legs, but then were held goalless and thoroughly dominated by eventual finalists Liverpool.
What will his time at Valencia be remembered for? If his past is any indication, he is living a charmed life, because few have done so little after being given so much.
O
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