VAN GAAL MIGHT HAVE THE BIGGER VILLA, but mine has the better view!
Ronald Koeman on his rivalry with Van Gaal, why he turned down the chance to manage Messi at Barcelona and keeping Southampton at the top
RONALD KOEMAN is convulsing with laughter, his ruddy face creasing up as he hears a story about his one-time friend but now fierce rival, Louis van Gaal.
According to a recent book, Van Gaal took particular pleasure in building a more expensive holiday villa than Koeman’s in the same Portuguese neighbourhood. ‘Maybe it’s a bigger one, but the view from the villa is not so nice as mine,’ says the Southampton manager, chuckling.
Right now Koeman could say the same about their respective football clubs. Van Gaal’s might be bigger but the view from his position in the Premier League is not as nice as Koeman’s, two places and four points below his old adversary.
Koeman, however, does not appear quite so interested in measuring himself against the man he was assistant to at Barcelona but fell out with spectacularly during their time together at Ajax.
‘Life is too nice to make problems,’ he says, as relaxed about the two clubs’ encounter a week tomorrow as he is discussing the journey that brought him to Southampton in the first place.
It is one, the 51-year-old concedes, that could have been very different, Koeman revealing how close he was to becoming the manager of Barcelona and of Holland, too.
It was not just his stature as a player that ought to earn such opportunities. It was his education, having played in a European Championship-winning side under the guidance of Rinus Michels and winning European Cups, not to mention countless other titles, with Guus Hiddink and Johan Cruyff.
He would also serve as a coaching assistant to Hiddink at the 1998 World Cup, and Van Gaal for two years after that at Barcelona. But he has so far had to toil at eight different clubs across Europe while his contemporaries
have had greater prominence. Pep Guardiola and Frank Rijkaard were his team-mates, while Jose Mourinho was the lesser-known of Van Gaal’s assistants at the Nou Camp.
Three Dutch titles and a Copa del Rey in Spain is a decent return from 14 years in management and he is now enhancing his reputation with the stunning start he has made at Southampton, who face a major test of their season against champions Manchester City today.
But he has also been forced to watch from a distance as those former colleagues have amassed five European Cups, with Mourinho and Guardiola now considered the best of their generation. ‘I could see he had qualities as a coach, of course,’ says Koeman of Mourinho. ‘But if you had asked me at that time if he was going to have that kind of success, I would not have been sure about that.’
Such success might well have come to Koeman had he taken the Barcelona job ahead of Rijkaard in the summer of 2003, instead of staying at Ajax.
‘Cruyff told Ajax that there was no money on the table but suggested to Ajax that they take Rijkaard, because at that time I think he had recently left Sparta Rotterdam,’ he says.
‘My feeling was I didn’t want to make problems with Ajax because I had just signed a new contract. That would not have been straight, after two months to fight against the club to leave.’
If it was the decent thing to do, there must have been moments over the last 11 years when he has regretted missing out on the chance to work with such wonderful players. ‘Sometimes,’ he says with a smile. ‘I think it might have been easier had I had Messi in my team. ‘But Barcelona is still a dream for myself because it was my best period as a football player. ‘Maybey one day.y I’m still a young manager. But Barcelona was more in my head at that time than it is today. Maybe thenthe n I thought more about being the coach of Barcelona. As you get older you realise this is football. You have to live day by day.’
There were days, not so long ago, when Koeman believed he would succeed Van Gaal as the manager of the Dutch team after the World Cup in Brazil. The job went to Hiddink in March this year. But only after Koeman had received a telephone call from Hiddink that, on reflection, leaves him feeling rather disappointed.
‘That story was a little bit strange,’ he says. ‘A lot of people were saying I would be the new national coach. I was ready to stop at Feyenoord. I had enjoyed three successful years there and I felt it was a good moment to change.
‘My agent had good contact with the federation and Hiddink was still in Russia. That time was difficult because I was looking forward to that job, because it is an honour to be national coach.
‘And then my agent got a telephone call from the director of the Dutch federation and he said I could be the second coach with Hiddink for two seasons and after the Europeans could then take over. And I was surprised.
‘With all the respect, I am not a second coach. And I was a little unhappy with the way everything went. As well with Guus Hiddink. He was my coach at PSV and we had always had good relations. I remember he called me around a year ago. My father was dying and he called me to ask about him, and then we talked about the national team. He said: “Of course you won’t be the second. You had that job at the World Cup in 1998. I can understand that.” That was so strange given what then happened.’
For Koeman it was still the right time to leave Feyenoord for a fresh challenge. But seasoned observers in Holland, who hold Koeman in the highest regard, remain surprised that his search ended on England’s south coast.
‘Why?’ asks Koeman. ‘Because of the level of the club? I think in Holland we maybe don’t realise that clubs like Southampton or West Ham or Aston Villa are very big clubs in England.
‘Of course I was coach of Valencia. I was coach of big clubs in Holland. Maybe there is a difference in possibilities to win titles or to win in European football. But I was interested in coachingg in the Premier League and I was surprised after the first meeting I had with the club; about the facilities, about the possibilities. I met with Les Reed (Southampton’s head of football development) and we talked only about
football, about the philosophy of the club.
‘I had also done some homework. But my feeling was very good after that first meeting. It is a club that is very serious about what it is doing and the work it has done over the last few years, here at the training ground and with the academy, is just exceptional. We are not happy, but it’s a compliment that Paul Mitchell [a talent scout] is going to Tottenham.
‘I believe Southampton are growing up. When you look at what they did over the last five years, nobody can stop Southampton.’
In the next eight days, City, Arsenal and Manchester United will attempt to prove otherwise. But even so, after the club sold £95million worth of players in the summer, Koeman will reflect on his first few months in ‘Europe’s best league’ with great satisfaction.
‘I couldn’t expect the results we have had,’ he says. ‘But I was happy with the changes we made; how we replaced good players who left the club. With Pelle, with Tadic, with Sadio Mane, Bertrand and Gardos.
‘In Holland we are used to change every season because young players are always leaving. I was very positive about the squad we have.
‘We’ve had a great start but, yes, it will be a tough week. But West Ham beat City, so why can’t Southampton? We won in the League Cup against Arsenal. So far I have not seen one team better than us.
‘Manchester City have players l i ke Aguero. But we like to play offensively, we like to play good football. I look forward because it’s exciting to play these big teams.’
He does seem to have an affinity with England, and not just because he scored the winning goal, for Barcelona, in a European Cup final at Wembley. Koeman and England have history, that somewhat controversial role in their failure to reach the 1994 World Cup – he has long admitted he was fortunate not to receive a red card for his foul on David Platt prior to scoring that quite brilliant free-kick – one he will forever be reminded of while he works in England.
He did once watch some of the infamous ‘Do I Not Like That’ documentary that recorded Graham Taylor’s demise as England manager. ‘Now I’m a manager I can understand how he felt,’ he adds.
But this is not why he has such passion for English football. He owes that to his late father, Martin, himself a former international footballer who would have probably taken as much pride in seeing his two sons, Ronald and Erwin, working as manager and assistant at Southampton as when they played together for Holland. ‘My father would watch Match of the Day every Sunday morning,’ says Koeman. ‘We always followed English football.’
Koeman is charm personified, something he further demonstrates when he meets Rachel Baker as part of Barclays’ ‘Thank you’ campaign. Rachel is so passionate about her football club she even got married at St Mary’s, and Koeman is only too happy to welcome her to the training ground.
He is clearly a people person, and he sees value in such social skills. Indeed he says it was among Cruyff’s finest qualities as a manager.
‘First I think you have to be yourself,’ he says. ‘You have
your own qualities and your own character. But I think you do draw on the good qualities of all of them. You learn from other coaches.
‘What I learned from Van Gaal, he always had fantastic organisation. Van Gaal was a teacher. Cruyff was more like a former player, Hiddink was a bit between the two.
‘Cruyff was more detail about football. Van Gaal is more about structure. But Cruyff also had the advantage of once being the best player in the world. He inspired players, and he was a great manager of people. Always good with the players.’
Koeman was unusually close to Cruyff. ‘We were neighbours,’ he says. ‘Houses next to each other. We had a great relationship.
‘I went to Barcelona in 1989 and the Cruyff family helped my family settle in Spain. We spent Christmas time together, children’s birthdays together.
‘And it wasn’t difficult for him because it was away from football. On the pitch he was my coach, and he forgot everything and he was criticising me as much as anybody. He could change in a second. But away from the pitch we were friends.’
Could he imagine having such a relationship with one of his players? ‘No,’ he says, laughing. ‘But it was different.d In those days clubs were not allowed to have so many for foreign players and we were both Dutch.’
His admiration for Cruyff remains. But will there be an i issue with Van Gaal come D December 8? ‘I will invite h him for a glass of wine after th the game, of course,’ he says. ‘I was at a managers’ meeting in Manchester last week and Lo Louis was there as well and we shakesh hands and have a little conversation.con No problem. ‘We‘W spoke regularly when he was the national coach. He calledcall me always about my players at Feyenoord. OK, I don’t inviteinvit him to my birthday and I don’t expect to be invited to the birthdaybirth of Louis. But the rest of the contactc we have is normal and whenh we meet next month the game will be Southampton v Manchester United; not Koeman v Van Gaal.’
A view Van Gaal will no doubt share.