Danny Blind rejected a “fantastic” offer from Manchester United last season to pursue his dream of managing the Netherlands national team.
- By Michael Bell
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The KNVB confirmed on Wednesday that Danny Blind would step up from his position as Guus Hiddink’s assistant after the coach handed in his resignation on Monday. The appointment is only Blind’s second as a head coach after a difficult season in charge of Ajax in 2005, but the 53-year-old is the man tasked with leading Netherlands to Euro 2016.
Coaching the national team is a dream for Blind, who revealed to Algameen Dagblad that he rejected the chance to follow Louis van Gaal to Manchester United last summer in favour of Netherlands.
Blind said, “I had a fantastic offer from Manchester United,”
“There were talks about United and Van Gaal a couple of times last year. But I rejected that. If you have ambition what is more beautiful than becoming manager of your country?”
Netherlands currently sit third in their Euro qualifying group, and Blind is unsure at the moment how to tackle the issues which were raised during Hiddink’s time in charge.
Blind said, “I can’t say what I want to change yet. These are things I want to discuss with my staff and the important players first.
“Do I feel confident about qualifying? We know what we have to do: win four matches, starting with Iceland on September 3. We can’t afford to lose any more games. But with our quality we are more than able to do it.
“And in September we will hopefully have some ‘new’ players, with Arjen Robben coming back to fitness and maybe Kevin Strootman. Euro 2016 is our only goal. I don’t look further forward than that and I don’t look back.”
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