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The "Ali Dia of DoF's" seems to be a good description with what we know (or rather "don't know") so far.

According to my source he is NOT a "registered agent" in Holland.

I emailed the writer. Turns out he also has a blog on the site for De Volkskrant, which is a national newspaper. I was able to send him an email there. Will let you know if he answers.

Good plan. Will attempt to do so right now.

He recently wrote another article involving Sainst for Voetbal International. About a player named Jeffrey Hoogervorst who came here for a trial (and failed). http://www.vi.nl/web/show/id=494992/langid=43/contentid=159297 He seems to be a staff writer.

It has been confirmed to me that the article is indeed from issue #51 2008 of Voetbal International

Picture has been forwarded. i will let you all know if we identify him

If anyone has a picture I will direct that to my brother in Holland (see previous post). IF this guy has ever had any roll of importance in Dutch football we will find out exactly who/what he is.

Voetbal International is the MOST RESPECTED football magazine and web site in Holland. The article i received does not specify the writer's name, but I think it is safe to assume that this article is pretty accurate (although it provides the personal view and opinions of the writer) if it was allwoed to be published in this magazine. It was issue 51 of 2008.

The article provides no answers to any of that. It paints Poortvliet as a very nice guy with good intentions, but "maybe not the best manager in the Championship", and as being in a very difficult situation. Mostly the article mocks Van Der Waals and wonders about his powers inside the club.

Interesting add-on to this: My brother is a professional football scout in Holland, and I asked him about Van Der Waals. Here is his answer: "I happened to see this article a few weeks ago in Voetbal International. The common thread throughout the article was this vague figure of Kim Van Der Waals. Bottom line is that nobody in the football world here (Holland) knows of him, what he does, or has done, or even who he is. It seems that one day he walked into SFC out of nowhere and became extremely close to your chairman. I hear he is impossible to work with and even harder to get out, due to his protection from Lowe. His added value is ZERO.

I just received the article. It is pretty big mess in terms of format as well as content, and almost untranslatable, but here is a brief overview and some translated snippets: ----------- The whole thing seems to be a “day in the life of Poortvliet” kind of article, where they describe the various things that happen in Jan’s life at Saints. Van Der Waals describes himself as “a nobody” in the article and Ru**rt describes him only as “our adviser”. ---------- Wotte is quoted as saying that when he first came here he was shocked at the player’s salaries, and that the previous management brought the club to the edge of the abyss. ----------- Every time the writer describes the scene at the trainings facilities he also describes Van Der Waals as sitting at the trainer’s table. At one point Van Der Waals says: “Jan is a great trainer. He has proven at Helmond Sport what he can do with limited means. No-one here realizes that. I should know, because I have defined the strategy inside this club together with the chairman” --------- The writer goes on to say that Van Der Waals is a great admirer of Poortvliet, but an even greater admirer of himself. ------------- He describes a scene where Van Der Waals walks on to the training field, takes a ball and starts to kick the ball around, showing of to others, saying "look how good I am". The writer continues: “He seems to irritate a lot of people on the field, but strangely enough nobody says anything, not even Wotte” ---------- Wotte is, according to the article, referred to by everyone, including the players, as Mr. Chocolate, after a figure from a TV commercial. The slogan to go with that is “The man who likes himself so much he could eat himself” ------------- There is also a scene described when Ru**rt walks onto the training pitch, and is willing to give a brief interview. The interview is immediately cut short however when he is asked about Van Der Waal’s role. Ru**rt says; “he is our advisor”, then turns and walks away. -------------------- One other scene is described where the coaching staff has a meeting with Ru**rt about the situation with our forwards. Van Der Waals is in that meeting too. After the very loud “screaming match” that the meeting was, Van Der Waals tells the reporter that he told Jan not to give any more interviews!

Someone send me the article and I will translate. No worries

Too late. We will not have a choice anymore. We WILL be relegated, which WILL require us to go into administration (or the other way around, take your pick), whether or not Ru**rt and Quisling stay on or get booted. There is no other scenario possible anymore.

Wait for the apologists to say; "They were not ejected, they were asked to leave". We've already seen that ridiculous response from some posters on the David Armstrong thread.

Optimist. If you know of 2 or 3 spots it's plenty!

Wow, all this because of a very silly disclaimer? The ownership of this board must be running really scared of Ru**rt and Quisling if we are now concerned about "aggressive demonstrations". As stated in earlier posts, demonstration are, in most cases, not illegal, aggresive action does not imply anything criminal, disagreeing with the club's management is not a crime, telling the club's management that we want them to f#ck off is not illegal, telling the Quisling that we perceive him as a spineless traitor is not illegal, etc. etc. This board is a legal entity, designed to facilitate freedom of speech. FFS keep it just that.

Good letter, disappointing disclaimer.

gutless two faced coward

What an apologist load of claptrap. That's like saying NP wasn't fired, but his contract was cut short. Total and utter BS! Armstrong was asked to leave? That's semantics! he was thrown out.

It'll soon be over. Division amongst fans will soon be a thing of the past. Surely it can't be more than a few weeks before even the very few Ru**rt supporters see the light, and every supporter will make his/her feelings known to the coach, players and management. No division, no fights.

Nah, it saved 5000 in wages, and look what it did for our income from attendance .... Oops!

There's all kind of talk on here about the need to get a new manager, to get Ru**rt and the Quisling out of here, to get better players, etc. Today, after this absolute debacle of a match, and after the disgraceful episode involving David Armstrong, I have come to the conclusion that none of that matters anymore. The club isn't dying .... it is dead! Gone. Over. We may still physically put some people on the pitch each week, we may still be listed as a going concern, but this club is dead, it just doesn't know it yet. Relegation and/or administration is a certainty (and don't bother commenting that mathematically there is still "all to play for"), fans are fighting eachother in the stands, Ru**rt doesn't even show up anymore), but most importantly, there is no "family club", no sense of belonging and mostly no pride left in the club as it currently is being operated. We could get a gazillion pounds Monday from some rich oil sheik, who than hijacks Kaka away from Man City and brings him to Saints, and then spends another 300 million before the transfer window closes - it wouldn't matter anymore. League 2 is a certainty and the fan alienation will be complete

Armstrong just said that fans should "not go to matches, to make the club think" He is of course right, but it is very sad that even loyal ex players and people in his position as radio commentators are getting to that point

Ru**rt may be doing the dirty deed of killing the club, but the Quisling put him in a position where he could do that. Wilde is the biggest traitor this club has ever seen!