Fortunes turn for Low countries at Euro 2016

10 June 2016 16:02

Normally I am happy at a tournament when one of England’s rivals are knocked out or fail to qualify. But this year I feel a sense of sadness at the fact that the mass of orange flags and shirts taking over a stadium will be missed due to the Netherlands failure to qualify.

The Dutch always bring a party atmosphere and colourful banter when they play in the Euro’s or the World Cup. Normally, as an England fan, they would be a team to avoid and prayers would be offered up so as not to be drawn against them.

This year is different, very different, for the first time the Euro’s tournament has 24 participants in the finals. With enough qualifying spaces it was a given all the top sides would make it to France along with several average sides and even a handful of minnows.

But yet the once mighty Dutch still failed to make it. They came fourth in a group topped by Czech Republic and they lost home and away to Iceland, yes you read it right Iceland, a country of 330,000 people, a country with no great footballing history and no world-class players.

The Netherlands looked on fire as van Persie's theatrical diving header topped a brilliant 5-1 demolition of World and European Champions Spain in Brazil in 2014. They eventually finished third in the tournament. They were runners-up in 2010.

The problem was that the stars of those tournaments, such as Huntelaar, Sneijder, van Persie, Vlaar, de Jong, Robben and Kuyt were either 30 or just about to hit 30. So while the old guards talents have faded the new boys such as Depay, Wijnaldum and de Vrij haven’t lived up to the same standards.

The young Dutch footballers of today have lots of promise, but that’s about it. Depay started his Manchester United career firing on all cylinders and Wijnaldum started with a wonder goal at Newcastle but both players fizzled out.

The Dutch style of play is the backbone of most successful sides in the modern day with a little twist added. The possession based and high pressing ideals of Rinus Michels and Cruyff can still be seen in the playing style of Barcelona and Bayern Munich.

The Dutch production line for footballers was once unbelievable, in fact in 1988 when the Netherlands won the Euro’s in Germany, in the Ballon d’Or voting Van Basten, Gullit and Rijkaard made up the top three and Ronald Koeman was fifth. Not bad for a relatively small country.

In recent years Dutch prospects have failed to live up to expectations and promise. The problem could be the weakness of the Dutch league, which does not have the finances of England, Spain, Germany, Italy and even France. But this isn’t new. The Dutch league has been behind for a while.

The Dutch coaching system is still great for teaching youngsters between 10 and 18, but something goes terribly wrong and promising talent is not reaching its potential. Dutch journalist Henk Spaan believes that the failure to transform talent into full grown stars is because they leave the Netherlands too early these days. Usually in their early 20’s and don’t finish their Dutch football education.

The stars of recent years learned their trade fully before moving on. Van Basten, Gullit, Bergkamp and even Ruud van Nistlerooy were in their mid 20’s before they left the Netherlands to go on to bigger and better things.

However, I’m not totally convinced with Spain’s reckoning. Just look across the border at Belgium. Once upon a time the Netherlands used to laugh at the state of the Belgium national side.

Nowadays however, the Belgium side are full of star players like Hazard, de Bruyne, Kompany, Lukaku, Fellaini, Mirallas, Benteke, Origi and many, many more including goalkeepers Mignolet and Courtois.

In fact Belgium should be any English football fans second choice side. It is a very strong possibility that the Belgium starting XI could completely consist of Premier League players. That is a sign of how strong they are. Some may even argue that Marc Wilmot’s squad may stand a better chance of actually winning the competition than Hodgson’s.

Whatever happens in France over the next month it is bound to be exciting, depressing at times and brilliant at others. A feast of football. But back in the Netherlands former Ajax and Chelsea man Henk Cate, with the backing of KNVB (Dutch FA), are leading an inquiry into what can be discovered from the best methods of rival countries. They hope to revamp the Dutch system and launch a new masterplan later this year called ‘Dutch school 2.0’ as they plot to become world leaders again.

Maybe we should take this lesson from the Dutch? The German’s had a total revamp after the 5-1 humiliation by England at the turn of the century. The French did the same after a disastrous early 1990’s internationally. What did we do after the “Wally with the Brolly”? Or when Capello’s side capitulated in 2010 World Cup? Nothing really, just carried on paying through the nose for a substandard team. Capello wasn’t even sacked. I’m English and I damn well expect us to have a decent team. If we fail this time round we should have our own revamp and sack the whole of the FA.

Source: DSG