Chelsea were fourth when you took
over in February 2009, but ended up
running Manchester United close for
the title, barely dropping any points,
and winning the FA Cup. You didn’t
find blending two jobs tough, then?
Gary Phillips, Staines
No, as with PSV and Australia, it worked
seamlessly. When I arrived at Chelsea,
I deliberately didn’t dig into what had
gone wrong. If you ask each player for
their thoughts, you get a story that’s
coloured by different perceptions. So,
I just asked them to go home, hold up
an imaginary mirror and ask what they
had or hadn’t delivered this season.
I let Steve Holland lead training at
first, because from a distance you get
a feel for how players react to each
other. I also noticed that Didier Drogba
always dropped deep into midfield to
collect the ball, when we had players
like Michael Ballack, Frank Lampard,
Michael Essien and John Mikel Obi.
I told Didier, “Stay in the box, save your
energy.” In training games, I told the
others not to pass to him if he turned
up in midfield. He still did, but wouldn’t
receive the ball and was like, ‘Aaargh!’
I just said, “Didier... head to the f**king
box!” [Laughs] Soon, the players gave
more and some freshness returned.
In the end, we only lost one game for
the remainder of the season – at Spurs.
Although there also was that Iniesta
game in the Champions League semis.So, what was going on in your mind
when Andres Iniesta’s 93rd-minute
equaliser for Barcelona sent them to
the Champions League final?
Onua Kyei Marfo, via Facebook
That was a huge disappointment. We
had held a really good Barça team toa 0-0 draw away, then took the lead at
home and had chances to score more,
but didn’t. We also had a few penalty
appeals for obvious handballs, but the
referee waved them off. Some people
argued it was fixed. While deep down
I don’t believe that, perhaps it was the
only time I started to doubt it. Chelsea
and Manchester United had played in
the final the year before, and with the
Premier League’s dominance, I started
to have a few conspiracy theories, such
as UEFA looking to avoid the same two
teams reaching the final again.
Although his goal hurt us, Iniesta was
an unbelievable player. I spoke to him
many years after in a different context.
He had scored the winning goal in the
2010 World Cup Final between Spain
and Holland, and several years later he
was booed in a friendly between the
two countries. By then I was the Dutch
manager, and my immediate reaction
was to stand up and gesticulate at the
crowd to stop it. Afterwards, I received
a WhatsApp message from Iniesta
himself, thanking me for that and forwhat I said. I just told him that it was
a normal thing to do. Those things go
beyond football – it’s the respect you
have for somebody as a human being
as well as a player.What happened with the Dutch the
second time around? Why couldn’t
they qualify for Euro 2016?
Jaap Visser, Amsterdam
When I took over, they’d just reached
the World Cup semi-finals in Brazil but
with a different system, replacing the
Dutch school, as games initially didn’t
go well. In Brazil, things went Holland’s
way, albeit with some lucky escapes.
The result was great, but quality-wise
it wasn’t the best. I could see it was
a generation in decline, with players
like Wesley Sneijder, Robin van Persie
and Arjen Robben into their thirties.
So, I tried to instil a survival instinct,
as the team wasn’t strong enough to
perform consistently at a high level.
We lost early matches to the Czech
Republic and Iceland, which increased
my belief that I had to make them
a fighting team. I felt we managed to
do that, too. After we beat Latvia away
in June 2015, I thought we had a good
base to build from a few months later,
but then followed a meeting with the
KNVB hierarchy. We met up after every
international round to evaluate things,
but this time they wanted to meet in
a hotel in Nice. They hired a big suite,
and once we were inside, director Bert
van Oostveen said, “We won’t continue
with you on the bench.” And then they
asked me to carry on as an advisor to
the directors and supervisory board!
I was incensed. I replied, “What do you
think I should advise first? To replace
all of the directors and the supervisory
board...” Afterwards it was suggested
that the decision was mutually agreed,
which wasn’t the case.You ended your career with a couple
of curious posts: managing China’s
Under-21s and the Curaçao national
team. How challenging were those?
Chris Gascoigne, Birmingham
I enjoyed them – I really liked working
with those young players in China – but
the pandemic made it difficult and cut
both stints short. Now I’m back home
in Holland as the chairman of the CBV,
the Dutch trade union for managers.
I try to see if I can share some of my
experiences and offer a bit of guidance.
I’ve also been involved with the LMA in
England, for whom I perform lectures
occasionally. I’m still open to helping
a federation implement foundations
behind the scenes, like putting coaches
in the right positions, but I don’t aspire
to be working on a training pitch every
day any more.YOU ASK
“HOLLAnD HAD SOME
LUCKY ESCAPES AT THE
2014 WORLD CUP. THE
TEAM WAS In DECLInE”
FourFourTwo June 2022 11