Feyenoord: vote against Verbeek was 14-4

Friday 12 December 2008

(AD) - With the afternoon training session continuing coach Gertjan Verbeek dashed off the ground.

Still wearing his trainer he climbed up the slope leading to the road between the youth academy and the stadium and crossed the busy fairway.

Drivers who happened to pass looked at the coach with their mouths wide open.

In a week full of wistful discussions and emergency meetings it was a curious sight.

Was Verbeek finally fed up with his players?

Was he called on the carpet?

"No," Verbeek says.

"And I didn't have to go to the toilet."

The coach was rushing to get to a investors meeting in the town of Ridderkerk.

Together with General Director Eric Gudde and Director of Football Peter Bosz he addressed the financiers about the actual state of affairs at Feyenoord.

The message, in short: "Out on the pitch it's tough, but we maintain our course."

That was also the overall outcome of the talks of recent days between players, staff and management.

Remarkable, because on Monday morning 18 players were gathered without their coach to gauge everybody's thoughts on the coach.

It turned out that 14 players had no faith in further cooperation with Verbeek.

Only four - Fer, Wijnaldum, Biseswar and Tiendalli – appeared pro-Verbeek.

Danny Buijs, Theo Lucius and Andwélé Slory among others did not attend the meeting.

Despite the divide it was decided to bring forward a unanimous statement to the Board.

But the players do not have to count on any rigorous measures as the three senior players - Hofland, Makaay and Van Bronckhorst - who met with Peter Bosz afterwards soon found out that sacking Verbeek was not an option.

"We had a fruitful conversation," Bosz said afterwards.

With a few of the other players the idea has stuck that the trio have played it a bit less hard than was agreed during the player meeting.

Still the Board backed Verbeek, as does the majority of the fans.

"His positions is not up for discussion," Gudde says.

"To drift about is the worst thing we can do now."

On the other side there will be no intervention in the squad of players, by for example eliminating some of the negative forces within the team.

With the fans the players are the scapegoats after a year in which there were more defeats than victories.

"I do not see a reason to remove anyone from the team," Verbeek said.

The coach didn't see the player meeting as a vote of no confidence anyway.

"We had a very constructive chat, in which the players were very critical towards themselves as well."

"The most important thing was that we have been open towards each other. And that is how it should be. With all the things mentioned we can now move forward. Of course we listen to what goes on."

In essence the club is hoping that the storm will blow over and the team will straighten it's back in the coming weeks.

The match against AZ, Saturday night, may seem like a mission impossible, it is also an excellent opportunity to turn the tide.

Emergency measures should be postponed as long as possible, Feyenoord reckons.

Besides such measures usually cost money and that is something the club has too little of.

Management and technical staff cling to the good spirit of the meetings of recent days and hope that by talking about the most persistent discontent they can still save the season.

"We will proceed down this path," Verbeek says.

"We have a good month of November that was followed by three bad games against Deportivo La Coruña, Vitesse and De Graafschap. But that doesn't mean that everything we do is wrong all of a sudden."

The coach tones down the turmoil.

"When things are not going well little grievances can grow into major nuisances. That is only human. When you have had a bad day at work you are more irritable than you would usually be. The main thing is to deal with it as grownups. And that is what we have done."