PSV sack coach Van Bommel
Coach sacked by underperformers
Mark Van Bommel seemed to have a bright future as coach of PSV, the club he served so successfully as a player. And who knows what might have been? But after a year and a half in Eindhoven his career ran ashore as he was sacked unceremoniously.
The Eindhoven club isn’t known as a coaches’ graveyard, with the last boss to get his marching orders being Fred Rutten in 2012. However, general director Toon Gerbrands eventually felt he had no other option, explaining: “The decline is too large and unworthy of PSV.”
When Van Bommel was sacked PSV had won only two of their previous 12 games in all competitions and had slumped to fourth place in the Eredivisie, 10 points adrift of leaders AZ and Ajax. The Eindhoven side had also been eliminated in the Champions League qualifiers and then knocked out of the Europa League following heavy defeats against LASK and Sporting.
The axe finally fell after a 3-1 defeat at Feyenoord, who had themselves just replaced Jaap Stam with Dick Advocaat. Yet it had all started so well for Van Bommel in the summer of 2018.
Despite lacking any coaching experience at senior level PSV opted to promote him from the youth section with the idea that he could walk the same path as his predecessor Phillip Cocu, who as a rookie coach served for six years and won three championships and one national cup. And was there a better candidate than the former PSV captain who won four titles and the cup in nearly 200 matches?
A super-charged start saw PSV win 16 of their first 17 league games last season, a run that put them in pole position at the winter break. The joy, however, didn’t last long. Their lead faded and Van Bommel made crucial mistakes – such as continuing with three defensive midfielders against an Ajax side who had been reduced to 10 men. A 3-1 defeat in that game meant their championship hopes were over.
On top of that, Van Bommel also had a difficult relationship with his side’s star forward, Hirving Lozano. However, with the Mexican departing for Napoli last summer, Van Bommel could look forward to a fresh start in 2019-20.
But the club made some awful mistakes in the transfer market, with defenders Toni Lato (on loan from Valencia), Olivier Boscagli (Nice), Timo Baumgartl and the returning Daniel Schwaab (both
“The decline is too large and unworthy of PSV”
The club’s general director, Toon Gerbrands
Stuttgart) not up to the required standard. Initially, freescoring strikers Donyell Malen and Steven Bergwijn were able to hide that weakness, but when they both got injured defeats were unavoidable.
And it was not only the results that cost Van Bommel his job, with his behaviour – and in particularly his constant arguing with referees – not what the PSV board had in mind.
Then there were his rookie mistakes in relationships with players. For instance, he demoted goalkeeper Jeroen Zoet in favour of Lars Unnerstall without consulting him. Away at Willem II, Zoet was warming up when Van Bommel decided that he should go to the stands as a non-playing reserve rather than being on the bench as the back-up keeper. Midway through the match – which PSV lost 2-1 – he ordered Zoet to take a seat on the team bus to avoid any difficult questions from the press, leaving the Holland international furious that he was suddenly the club’s third choice.
PSV weren’t the only ones to dismiss their coach before the winter break, with VVV Venlo (Robert Maaskant replaced by Hans De Koning), Vitesse (Leonid Slutsky replaced by Edward Sturing), ADO Den Haag (Fons Groenendijk replaced by Alan Pardew) and Feyenoord (Stam replaced by Advocaat) all making changes in the dugout.
Stam’s reign in Rotterdam only lasted 120 days and 18 matches but he claims he had wanted to quit even before the season started. With technical director Martin Van Geel and general director Jan De Jong – the people who signed Stam – being pushed to the exit, he felt that he had little support. Nor was he helped by the fact Feyenoord had no board left to take decisions and the cash-strapped club couldn’t sign the players he needed. After a 4-0 loss to Ajax, Stam thought enough was enough and resigned.