Football-Oranje’s James Rowe met up with FC Oss head coach Francois Gesthuizen for a discussion about the upcoming Eerste Divisie season.

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I was invited by FC Oss manager Francois Gesthuizen to the ”Frans Heesen Stadion” in Oss. I managed to catch the training session and afterwards I spoke to the manager about their opening game in the Jupiler League, scouting, his playing career and the Dutch national team. Below is a transcript of the interview.

JR: ”What were your thoughts after your team’s 1-1 draw away at FC Dordrecht last night (Friday)  in your opening game of the Jupiler league 2016/2017 season?”

FG: ”I can live with a 1-1 draw yesterday if you look at the game there were phases where we were better and other phases were FC Dordrecht were better. It’s a shame that we conceded first but I was really happy with our approach after going 1-0 down and luckily we managed to equalize before half time.”JR: ” What are the goals and expectations for FC Oss this season?”

JR: ” What are the goals and expectations for FC Oss this season?”

FG: ”We have not really set definite goals for this season we had a great pre-season but that does not mean anything in relation to the league so we will just have a to wait and see where we are a few weeks into the season and then we will have a reference point. Last year we finished bottom of the Jupiler league of course we are not going to shout that we do not wish to finish bottom again because of course we do not wish to do so but we believe we can improve this season and for me the most important thing is that the players and the team achieve their maximum in terms of performance and if that achieves an 18th place finish or a 10th place finish at least I can say at the end of the season this group of players gave their all to achieve it and hopefully we can surprise a few people.”

JR: ”You have managed Achilles 29 who also play in the Jupiler league.Can there be comparisons made between the two clubs in terms of infrastructure and approach playing in the same division ?”

FG: ”There are differences between the two clubs for example FC Oss have been involved in professional football a longer than Achilles 29 when I started with Achilles they just started with a pilot which saw them move from amateur football to professional football and then we only managed to train 3 times a week whereas here we train 6 or 7 times a week and if you look around you this stadium is bigger and is in the process of being renovated and we have more players contracted here at FC Oss than I did at Achilles 29. FC Oss is further on but you must not forget that we have one of the lowest budgets in the entire league and we also have to also be creative in terms of scouting too in order to be able surprise people this season.”

JR: ” You mentioned scouting are you in the position to look abroad or can you only focus on players within the Netherlands?”

FG: ” In terms of scouting in other countries it has a lot to do with your network and we as a club are not actively scouting abroad we recently took a Spanish player on trial during pre-season but such a player only became available because of our network through the sources that we can trust and that we have used in the past and such a move is principle is not the first option we chose in terms of scouting”.

JR: ”During your career you played for NAC Breda, SC Cambuur & Fortuna Sittard at which club did you enjoy your football the most?”

FG: ” I enjoyed my period with NAC Breda the most a real people’s club. Although I was involved with the first team squad at PSV Eindhoven the competition for places was fierce with such players as Romario, Vanenburg, Kieft, Gerets and van Breukelen it was difficult to get into the starting 11 and in my 2nd year at PSV I decided that I need to play more regularly and I was loaned out to NAC Breda and I had a great time there and I played a lot of games although at times I was unlucky through injury. I ended up playing for NAC Breda for 5 seasons and it was the best period of my career and there I also made my debut for Jong Oranje too . I must also mention Fortuna Sittard I played with them in the Eredivisie and we also reached the KNVB Dutch cup final where we played Ajax in 1999”.

JR: ”What are your thoughts regarding the Dutch national team at the moment? ”.

FG: ”You have to look at the talent that we have at the moment and certain generations and the qualities that they have. We have had a great generation of players such as Sneijder, van der Vaart, van Persie, Robben they were all exceptional players who could bring the team to a higher level. Also with our young players leaving the Netherlands so early that plays it’s part too. Players that have shone in the Netherlands get offered 3 or 4 times their current salary to move abroad and most end up burnt out, on the bench or play for the smaller clubs in the respective leagues which does not help the level of our national team. We are a country which trains up and improves our players and we cannot compete financially with certain other countries so we must ensure that we keep training the youth up well and try to reinvest the transfer fees we receive in keeping the players we already have an attempting to attract others. We have always been a small country which has made our performances in the past even more unique ”.

JR: ‘ Finally I managed to catch the training this morning when I arrived. I noticed that your players appear to have a lot of fun during training and it appears to be a good atmosphere to train in . Do you and your staff have a specific approach to ensure this?”

FG: ”Not really we deliberately split the groups this morning and the players that played last night had a more relaxed training and the other group trained perhaps harder and in a more serious and devoted way. But you must remember that all the players here started playing football because they enjoy it. But in professional football enjoying the game is not enough you must apply yourself as a player and put in maximum effort and be driven and focused at the right moments.”

 

 




James Rowe (696 Posts)