Dutch national team manager Ronald Koeman spoke to the NOS about the trend of young talented Dutch players leaving the Eredivisie at a young age to sign for foreign clubs.
- By James Rowe
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A number of young talents have left the Eredivisie for clubs abroad recently while Justin Kluivert is being heavily linked with the exit at Ajax.
Koeman said, ”It is a shame that young talented Dutch players are leaving the Netherlands for foreign club’s that is not a good situation for the clubs nor for Dutch football.
”I believe that the responsibility lies with the players however young they are to make the right choice.
”Family also plays a role, the transfer fee that a player commands and the role of the agent too. The most important reasons a player should leave his club should be sporting reasons and that they will play regularly.
”How early young talented Dutch players leave the Eredivisie how quicker the level of the Eredivisie will drop.
”We are still training up many good young talented players here in the Netherlands but they are not quite yet ready for the level demanded in the Eredivisie.
”I also believe that we here in the Netherlands have lost the race in comparison to foreign leagues in the fact that our young players think to weigh up a move to a foreign league at a young age.”
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Koeman is right that the bulk of the responsibility does lie with the players, but agents play a huge role too. Its easy for them to manipulate players, especially given the young age and huge egos involved. In the long run, agents have a criminally cancerous effect upon many players’ careers.
But Koeman is right to warn about consequences. Players like Kluivert, F De Jong, and De Ligt will probably stew on the bench in England or Spain next year, and won’t be in the national team picture at all.
A good measured response from RK, quality leader.
That being said Dutch football needs a reality check and its long overdue.
You can’t ignore the money trail.
Whether or not it wants to, Dutch football has to decide if clubs like Ajax, PSV and Feyenoord are going to be competitive and relevant in European football or not. If they do then first and foremost they have to bring in a serious amount of investment and cash.
The conversation about whether an oil baron or the like should take over Ajax does not even seem to be in the discourse. And that tells you something about how far behind the curve they are.
They have to at the very least compete in dollar terms with the money that is being offered by City, Chelsea etc to go and play and develop in their youth teams. But they can’t even do this and really, to only get that far is a couple steps too short.
They must be able to compete in the market to buy in top players to the first team to compliment the young players coming through with enough to pay them all. Selling only the most promising players to the top 6 to 8 teams in Europe as a means of recouping some of the money needed to stay competitive.
By the time what Pep is intending at City is realised the likes of Ajax will only be looked at as a nostalgic afterthought if something is not done now.
That is, the first team squad in City in 5 yeas time will littered with youth players. Where do the best young players go from Netherlands or elsewhere, to the Eredivisie? No their ambitions will be better catered for with the likes of City. The Dutch project will all but have been rendered impotent.
Dutch football has no right to think of itself as it once did. Times have changed and there’s no way it will be able to keep up by small reforms and tinkering.
Hard decisions have to be made. Loyalties have to be broken and new philosophies embraced. The leaders should go back and read the early chapters of Brilliant Orange for inspiration.
Imagine what Ajax would be if De Light, De Jong, Van de Beek and Kluivert were there until they reached 26,27, 28. They were joined in the first team not just by hopefuls like Dolberg but established players who the young players could learn from. Whether it be a David Silva or a James Milner, the clubs have to pay the money for these types of players in order to keep the most promising players, its not just about the money.
Time is surely running out for all this to happen.
Dutch football is treading water. Sooner rather than later it will drift into obscurity.
Even a Koeman inspired renaissance at the NT level will not hold back this tide.
Very well said.
I would also add that one of the most frustrating factors is that the Dutch pride themselves one revolutionary and creative ideas.
In this whole episode of the decline in Dutch football, they have sat back, absored in their own ignorance of the old school Dutch game and watched even the Belgians and Germans pass them by in the subject fields of technique and style.
The Dutch need to find a new playing identity and quickly.
Unlike in the 70s, 80s, 90s etc. there is too much money in the world game, and my fear is if you slip into the football abyss, it’ll be a hell of a long time before you make it back. You only have to look at how much harder it has become for a small nation to retain a automatic European competition club spot these days.
Very sad.
not often I agree with RK but he he is spot on
RV – brilliant piece, well written and to the point – when will we learn to embrace outside investment? we are indeed a dying breed
Players have always left Dutch clubs for the richer leagues and its always been accepted but the situation is now getting ridiculous. If a young player breaks into the first team at 18 or 19 and leaves for a bigger league at 24 or 25 fair enough but the likes of De Ligt, Kluivert and Neres only broke into the first team last year. What service have the given to Ajax? The club that gave them a chance to break into the game!!
You had Davinson Sanchez going on strike last year to force his move to Spurs and all this in the middle of vital European qualifiers. Greedy agents must take the blame for a lot of this and are nothing more than parasites, pushing up the transfer fees to line their own pockets.
I remember Dennis Bergkamp saying that when he was a youth team player, all he wanted to do was get in the Ajax first team. Now the young players in the youth academy are dreaming of Real Madrid, Barcelona and the premier league before they’ve even broken into the squad.
If players are leaving at 18 or 19, what is the point of developing them if its just for somebody elses benefit?
It seems an irreversible situation but unless something is done to break the trend, Dutch football will disappear into obscurity and nostalgic memories!!
DB, In response to – ‘What service have they given to Ajax? The club that gave them a chance to break into the game!!’
Ok, yes the players are fortunate, up until a point, in being born into the Dutch system.
But the discussion now is to what point?
What’s better? Learning to express yourself, play and hone your skills in street football; or train on artificial pitches where you get over-trained to the point your expressiveness is beaten out of you. The elites of South American football will then go to the best academies to learn how to play the game. Whether that be Boca Juniors or City or both. They may go to Holland but only to get a foot hold in Europe, they are not going to stay if they want to progress.
So why should the young Dutch players not do the same.
The way things are looking there will be better pathways into the top first teams for the best players at 15, 16 with City etc than playing until they’re in their there mid 20s in the Eredivisie – provided they are good enough. Which the Ajax quartet are.
I believe Dutch football is making the right steps in bringing expressive football back into youth development and refinding the basic philosophy of Dutch football, to express yourself as a player and team while understanding and manipulating space – but sure under Pep they are doing the same thing at City and doing it better up through the age groups.
But when your 16 years old and your the best and want to stay the best then the Eredivisie is not going to hold you.
The only way to arrest this is with money.
The big three have to have ambitions to win the Champions League.
AC Milan bought three of ours to produce one of the best teams in history. Its time Ajax invested in the future of Dutch football by buying 5 to 6 players to compliment the great potential this side already has. Then pay market prices to existing players and they will stay.
Its time to take the risk.
Great points above .I can understand youngsters dreaming of playing for Barca, Real Madrid etc. but there is so much money available to clubs in the premiership now that even the lower placed teams the that league can now buy our youngsters to warm their benches. Sunderland who were relegated from the premiership last season still got £99.9Million for coming bottom … how do you compete with that ?
Viktor Fischer a few seasons ago was touted as one of the next top prospects to come out of Ajax, yet he had his head turned by the money a team like Middlesbrough could offer him and I am not disrespecting Middlesbrough but they are hardly European powerhouses yet they could still take one of our best prospects at the time to sit on their subs bench .
It is also killing our national team .Young players ( home grown Dutch)are not staying in the Eredivisie long enough to develop and be coached in the (Dutch way)and instead go to the premiership which is not very technical and where they are taught to as a friend of mine puts it “Kick , Bollock and Bite! . I am not sure how we stop it to be honest but it is killing the Dutch identity in football .. sadly .