van Hanegem

Don't know how Koeman would describe Rickie Lambert but I don't doubt that Ronald would prefer Pelle if he would have to choose.

I can hear Koeman laughing in his office: "Lambert is a ******..."

Van Gaal played 5-3-2 at the WC because of the lack of international experience of the Feyenoord defenders de Vrij, Janmaat, and Martins Indi and because Ronald Koeman played this system with Feyenoord for 3 or 4 games so they knew how to play it. To be honest, no one in Holland thought we had any chance to come this far because of our defenders (including Vlaar)... The result was there but the game itself was terrible to watch. However, don't be surprised when Koeman starts with a 5-3-2 formation against the big clubs. I agree, woud be nice to see van Gaal fail before he starts boasting himself again... More even so for Mourinho who is even a bigger *** than van Gaal.

“This man,” he said to his wife, by way of introduction, “is one of the greatest coaches of all time. He invented modern football.” Alarmed he may have gone too far, he looked at Van Gaal in embarrassment. Van Gaal just nodded. Typical van Gaal, a man who constantly needs confirmation of his success probably due to the fact that no one took him serious during his active career as a player. When a trainer/coach (i.e. Guardiola) or a club is succesfull after van Gaal left than Louis is immediately there to claim that success. It gets worse and worse with him, when the new players bus of Oranje was shown this year van Gaal told the press that it was a fantastic vehicle adding that he had helped the buscompany to make it, and that was not meant as a joke... I know that he sometimes uses the press to get the attention focused on him and not his players or to inspire a player and ther's nothing wrong with that. But look at this clip in which he says he's going to cheer (in dutch "Juichen") for Wesley Sneijder when he attempts a defensive move to win the ball. The man is not right in his mind... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XX1BxV7-30I Don't get me wrong, van Gaal is a great coach, especially with youngsters and he surely knows how to build a team. He's a more experienced coach than Koeman and he is capable to realise his vision within a club. There are very little managers in football with a vision, not to mention managers with the ability to change things within a club in order to reach success. It's just the way he presents himself in the media that's disgusting... Ronald Koeman is a more down to earth person, a more likable guy than van Gaal. As he is much younger than van Gaal he needs to get more experience to make it to the top. His dream is to be coach (or do you say manager?) of Barcelona one day so he has to prove himself with Southampton in order to get a job at a club who is able to win the league. Unlike Guardiola he needs to win a prize before Barcelona will make him an offer. The fact that he and van Gaal have come to dislike each other (they had a row when they both worked for Ajax and do not speak to each other anymore) won't help him to get to the next station...

Thanks! I guess even your scouts can have an off-day? We believed our scouts were crazy as hell when they came up with Pelle two years ago. We had had a good year with Guidetti on loan from ManC and then we got Pelle who was more famous for his ballroom dancing act (I kid you not!) than his abilities on the pitch when he played for AZ Alkmaar (well, he didn't make it very often to the pitch because they had a couple of other good strikers who did very well at that time...). Later on we learned that he wasn't scouted but that a friend of the son of Ronald Koeman met Pelle during his holidays on a beach in Spain and Pelle asked this friend to tell Koeman he would love to come to Feyenoord... We get players in the strangest ways! Now we're getting one Kazim-Kazim who played for Sheffield for a short while, looking at his name it should be some kind of wizard but I fear that his act doesn't involve a ball. So you see, our transfer policy is even worse than yours! With the exception of Hooiveld off course, geez, I can't believe that you don't have some youth player who is better than him...

Hello Saints! I'm a Feyenoord fan for decades (hence the nick "van Hanegem") and I couldn't resist to drop some lines here about Pelle, hope you don't mind and please forgive my mistakes in English grammar. It's a bit strange to see so little discussion on this forum about Pelle, who was the key player of Feyenoord for two years and I guess that's because he hasn't played many games until now. Hopefully for you Pelle will adept to the Premier League as fast as he did to the Dutch Eredivisie. Off course the Premier League can't be compared with the Eredivisie, with the ridiculous amounts of money spent in the PL the level is and should be better and the question is wether Pelle is up to it. Well, I believe he is. It will take some time for him to get used to the pace of the game and off course it will be important for him to score some goals soon to get the confidence each striker needs. When that happens you are in for a treat, you will see that he's no loner but a teamplayer, a leader who is constantly busy with his teammates (yep, shouting and cursing when they make the wrong decision or deliver a bad pass but also honoring them when they deliver a good assist). It won't be the same as with Feyenoord where he had to play with a lot of teenagers around him who needed a leader they could follow but Pelle is quite a character and I'm sure his Italian temper will surface. Needless to say his performance will also depend on the way Ronald Koeman wants to play. With Feyenoord Koeman chose too often to play the "long ball" to Pelle who controlled the ball and passed it to incoming players. That worked well against Dutch opponents because we don't have real defenders over here (although they're not all as bad as Hooiveld, how did you end up with this guy?) but a lot of physical small boys and sometimes it was hilarious to see them trying to get the ball from Pelle. That won't be the case in the PL however, not that I'm impressed with the defenders in the PL but at least they do have the body to match Pelle. So it will come to his ability to control and play the ball faster than his opponent can think and I don't know if Pelle is able to do that in the PL. I believe it will be better when he gets the ball with his face to the opponents goal, a player like Tadic is very able to deliver a crosspass from which Pelle can score. Unbelievable that you also got Tadic! No offence intended but it's a bit sad to see that the best two players of the Eredivisie of the last two years can't get to a bigger club than Southampton, despite the warm feeling I have for your club (I watched Match of the Day in the past just to see le Tissier play...). But that's football these days, Southampton has a budget for salaries that's four times bigger than Feyenoord's... I'm looing forward to see the opening game next sunday against Liverpool and hope that you'll get a result, would be nice to see Pelle score!