Dutch football: reshaped by modern forces?

By: Dan | May 15th, 2009

As followers of Dutch football will already be well aware of, the 2008-09 campaign has concluded without Ajax, PSV or Feyenoord, the traditional big clubs, occupying first or second place; this last occurred in 1959. The rebranded Europa League will thusly welcome Ajax and PSV as direct qualifiers while AZ Alkmaar and FC Twente attempt to navigate through the Champions League.

We’ve become somewhat accustomed to Ajax not making the Champions League group stages, but for the second consecutive season, they won’t even have the luxury of an embarrassing third qualifying round exit. PSV, on the other hand, will be missing out on the Champions League for the first time since 1996-97, the last season the competition admitted domestic champions exclusively. There’s a big question hanging over heads in Amsterdam and Eindhoven: is this season a stumble or is a sea change taking place in the Netherlands?

In many ways, decades of success have created as many burdens as they have benefits. Economic realities mean that even huge clubs like Ajax and PSV are selling clubs as far as bigger nations are concerned; this was true even in pre-Bosman days. When Ajax won all three European trophies between 1987 and 1995, it was essentially with three different teams. The vaunted youth system was able to fill the places of the departed, and allowed the club to purchase outside players wisely. PSV has also spent the past twenty years or so successfully replacing lost players, from Koeman and Romario to Ronaldo and Robben, to the point where they’ve been in the later stages of the Champions League twice in the past five years, (though a repeat of that any time soon seems unlikely.)

How can anyone reasonably be expected to keep this up when they have to perform personnel magic on an increasingly larger scale, including losing coaches in the middle of the season every year? The ever increasing ruthlessness of the transfer market seems to defy the second law of thermodynamics. Even if youth policy and savvy buying could perpetually unearth replacement players, they are likely only going to be there until they wind up on the radar of a big international club. We should hop over the border to Belgium for a great example of this phenomenon. Standard Liege played superbly in a high profile Champions League qualifier against Liverpool, and Marouane Fellaini was an Everton player before the UEFA Cup first round started.

Maintaining a consistent level of success in these circumstances requires the system for replacing lost players and coaches to be flawless. The more often a club is forced into rapidly change personnel, the more likely they are to appoint someone who is very clearly less than perfect to an important position. Obviously, this is not playing out in a vacuum either. For the big clubs, there is intense pressure to maintain the status quo of winning. A vicious cycle of high expectation and panic decisions is created and can result in the very real life worst case scenario of this season’s Ajax under Marco Van Basten, who was not only a mistake himself, but in a position of power to make more mistakes.

That provincial sides are able to take advantage of the big clubs stumbling is actually an encouraging sign for Dutch football. There are few things more disheartening than financially dominant clubs being able to perpetually maintain their position regardless of their on-field shortcomings. Of course, AZ and Twente will be put to the test of maintaining their good form in the spotlight. Twente, for instance, who lost their captain, Rob Wielaert, to Ajax in during January sales, are now faced with the prospect of their players in an international shop window while Alkmaar has already lost manager Louis van Gaal to Bayern Munich. It’s difficult to say if the Alkmaar and Twente that compete in the Champions League will be the same teams that were so successful this season.

I believe the ultimate result of globalization on Dutch football will be a more egalitarian league, rather than the permanent decline of the big powers, which will be more than capable of success when they are competently run and susceptible to finish behind strong provincial sides during off years. There are few things more damaging to a club than making key decisions based on delusions of grandeur. Unfortunately, the solution for the big clubs is neither quick nor easy. Both clubs will probably be forced into recommitting to the long term cycle of developing and selling players that conform to a specific system. It demands a significant lowering of expectations on the supporters’ part.