Koeman’s got his zest back as Orange leader
HE’S OVER EVERTON AXE AND READY FOR ENGLAND
THE last time we saw him, the painful end was coming. He knew it, we knew it. It was October 22 and Everton had just been pummelled by Arsenal. Ronald Koeman was waiting for the sack.
As Koeman marched out of Goodison Park’s press room, he remarked witheringly, “Write what you like”. It was the clearest sign that Everton’s disastrous start to the season, following a £140million summer outlay, had caused his patience to snap.
Five months on, the figure standing before us at Dutch football’s headquarters in leafy Zeist — a small town 25 miles south of Amsterdam — cuts a very different figure in terms of how he looks and speaks.
New Holland boss Koeman, 54, is making jokes, holding court and the audience are hanging on his every word. He is ready for the challenge of restoring a proud football nation’s reputation and cannot wait to get started against England on Friday.
‘When you last saw me, I was a little bit more nervous and under pressure — I understand that,’ he tells Sportsmail after his main media duties are over.
‘After Everton, where everyone knew it was really difficult towards the end, I needed time to focus again. I needed to recover. I have had a good time to relax. I work because I want to work. Even after that decision (his sacking), I was still crazy about football.
‘I wanted to be involved as a coach, I wanted to be with the national team and this was the right time to try the challenge — for me and the national team.’
It won’t be easy. Holland failed to qualify for Euro 2016 and they won’t be at this summer’s World Cup, either. The country that gave us Total Football should be in the thick of the conversation, not peering in from the outside.
Koeman is picking from a shallow pool of talent, a fact highlighted by the manager attempting to lure Arjen Robben out of international retirement at the age of 34. The Bayern Munich winger declined.
Another old warrior — Feyenoord striker Robin van Persie, also 34 — will be considered for duty when he is fit.
But for all the potential problems, the Holland job was Koeman’s calling. He is plotting and preparing and will ask talents such as Liverpool’s Virgil van Dijk — who is almost certain to be captain — and Ajax’s precocious 18-year- old Justin Kluivert to make the future Orange.
‘I am thrilled,’ said Kluivert, to whom Koeman has given a first senior call-up. ‘It was a good feeling. I know my father (Patrick) scored after seven minutes of his international debut and I want to do that, too! I hope it is against England. We shall see. Let’s hope so.’ And that is exactly what Koeman feels — hope.
The misery of those desperate final two months on Merseyside, when results and performances spiralled miserably down, has been banished. He is ready to push himself again.
‘We are here,’ said Koeman. ‘It is a new challenge. It is one I couldn’t say no to. It is an honour to be the Holland coach and I am looking forward with all I have to trying to get the country moving forward again. I want to take us to the next big tournament in 2020. That is the aim.
‘It is a big and difficult challenge. Everybody knows this. We have not qualified for the last two big tournaments and, OK, it is going to take time.
‘We start against England. It is going to be a great game.’