Wielaert: "Sometimes I shouted 'Throw in for Twente'"

Monday 19 January 2009

His first match is behind him.

And it had to be his former club NEC, the club where he was elected Best player of the season twice, where he had to make his debut for Ajax.

And although it took some adapting, he stepped off the pitch fairly satisfied after the 2-4 victory.

"Because I do not think that many teams will take three points here," he said.

It all went so fast this week with Robbie Wielaert .

On Monday the two clubs, FC Twente and Ajax, agreed a transfer fee, a day later he signed his contract and a day later he trained for the first time with his new team mates.

And that apparently went so well that coach Marco van Basten let him start in the tough away match to NEC.

He formed the heart of the defense with Belgian Jan Vertonghen.

"Everyone gave me a great reception. I felt at home straight away," he says about his first week at Ajax.

That the Amsterdam club is a step up compared to FC Twente was never a problem.

"I try not to think about that. Of course everything here tells me that Ajax are a big club. Take the players lounge for instance. By nine in ten clubs there is one lady running it. At Ajax there are seven or eight people doing it. It's a big honor for me to play at a club like this, but on the pitch I don't think about it."

But it still took some getting used to, after 2½ years FC Twente.

"Oh yes. Against NEC I found myself shouting 'throw in for Twente' to the referee when the ball went over the side line. At Twente I knew exactly what my team mates would do. That is not the case here yet. It takes some time. You need training to create automatisms. Perhaps that is why it is a good thing that we're not playing a cup game this week, so we can train all week. That way I can get to know the way my team mates play a little better."

Wielaert does not know how long it will take before the new team will gel.

"It's a process and depends on a lot of things. Take our season at FC Twente. At first things were hard, but after that 6-0 against Heerenveen it all worked all of a sudden. It increased the confidence and that speeds up the process."

"That is why it is so important we won this difficult away game to NEC. Not many teams will take three points here, I think. Of course we could have played a little better, but these three points are very important. We kept fighting, especially when we were down to ten. We really wanted to win this game. Just how was a little less important."