Dutch Eredivisie season kicks off

The first game is on this friday evening. Newly promoted Willem II will be fighting off NAC Breda in one of the 'North Brabant derbies'. The 2012-2013 season promises to be one of the hectic in years and almost certainly some managers heads will roll and some players will go for the big bucks in Germany, Italy, Russia, Spain and England.

The 2011-2012 season ended with the championship for Ajax, the FA cup for PSV and a great season for the Dutch clubs in Europe, gather a total of 13.600 points coming in fourth place, above Portugal, Italy and France. But the summer came and a lot of top shot players left.

Bas Dost left SC Heerenveen and went to Wolfsburg.
Luuk de Jong went to Borussia Monchengladbach
Rasmus Elm went to CSKA Moscow
Vertonghen went to the Spurs
Holman, El Ahmadi and Vlaar all went to Aston Villa
Ola John went to Benfica
Otman Bakkal went to Dinamo Moscow

These are the biggest transfers so far and we still have a couple of weeks left in the open season. And if you think that was much, the internal market within the Eredivisie went haywire. Narsing went from Heerenveen to PSV, Tadic costed Twente 7 million euros to get him from FC Groningen. Feyenoord reïnforced their squad with Janmaat, Vormer, Immers, El Adellaoui(Loan from ManC), Ajax brought in Sana from Sweden and Schöne from NEC.
Money has been spent on a level, rarely seen before in the Dutch league. And the managers are going to feel the pressure. Whilst Ronald Koeman and Frank de Boer stayed put after tempting offers(Koeman Dutch head coach, Frank de Boer Liverpool), new managers arrived on the Dutch battleground. Marco van Basten and Dick Advocaat both return to the Eredivisie.

PSV to start with, has become the Manchester City of The Netherlands. After a bail out by the local authorities of 48 million euro's, the club from Eindhoven went on a spending spree, 24 million pounds in 2011-2012 for striker Tim Matavz, attacking midfielder Georgino Wijnaldum, winger Dries Mertens and midfielderwith a bad temper Kevin Strootman. This season they already dashed out 5.8 million pounds on winger Luciano Narsingh and Polish goalie Tyton. During the summer period they sacked coach Fred Rutten(who now is manager at Vitesse) and hired 'world class' manager Dick Advocaat and the club demands the championship title, the last time they won the league was in 2008, over five years ago. Advocaat has an immense selection worth probably over 40 million pounds in total. And heads will roll if they don't claim the title. The season started well for them, claiming the Johan Cruijff Schaal(similar to the Community Shield) in a 4-2 victory over the current champions Ajax.

It's sunny in Amsterdam

The big club from Amsterdam won a back to back championship title last season and the Capitol was in a eurphoric state during the summer although dark clouds were already rolling in. And in the storm Vertonghen took the trip across the pond to another Capitol, London. Midfielder Aïssati was too expensive and was waved off, wingers Boerrigter and Sulejmani both got injured for the third time in a year. Christian Eriksen was given a long leave and only returned a week before the big game against PSV for the Johan Cruijff Schaal and wasn't fit to play. Right back Van der Wiel was injured most of the summer. Some goes for central defender Boilesen. It wasn't a big surprise the Ajax side suffered a big defeat in the Amsterdam Arena.

With PSV being the big contenders for the championship title the position of Frank de Boer is very secure. After two unexpected championship titles the club realizes this season is going to be very tough for them. With the loss of Vertonghen and a big influx of youth talent this team just is not even likely to win the championship. Theo Janssen, the free kick wonder, has been out of form last season and he seems to be uncomfortable in Amsterdam since his move from FC Twente. It is likely that the midfielder will move to Vitesse, the club where he played for many years in the past. Ajax brought in Lasse Schöne, a Dane, from NEC Nijmegen and he is likely to replace him if that happens.

The revolution at Ajax is ongoing, by the will of Johan Cruijff himself the focus is now on it's youth program. No more silly money transfers, but wisely chosen bargains. Where PSV looks more like a Manchester City or Chelsea, Ajax has become the Arsenal or Newcastle United of the Eredivisie. But it comes at a price. Expectations are low and the euphoric state is beginning to fade away from the Amsterdam Arena. And on top of that, Ajax is up against AZ Alkmaar in the first round of this season. It's going to be a very long season for the Amsterdam boys.

Twente arise!

The lyrics of the Automatics come to mind when talking about Twente: "What's that coming over the hill, is it a monster?"
And my god what a monster it can be! Twente went on a spending spree in 2011 just like PSV. Central midfielder Leroy Fer was bought from Feyenoord for 5,5 million euro's, winger Wesley Verhoek costed 2 million euro's, and Glynor Plet for 800k, a total of 7,5 million euro's. Which is huge for FC Twente standards. But this year, they went berserk. Attacking midfielder Dusan Tadic was brought in from FC Groningen for 7,5 million euro's, striker Luc Castaignos from Inter Milan costed 4,5 million euro's, FC Nordesjaelland defender Andreas Bjelland's pricetag: 2 million, central midfielder Robbert Schilder 1,7 million.
A total of 17,5 million euro's has already been spent by the club from Enschede, a record for the club. The manager, Schteve McLaren is feeling the pressure because Twente CEO Munsterman has made it clear that the 6th place of last season can't be repeated. It's either second place, or higher!

Feyenoord in a manic depressed state

In the 2010-2011 was an all time low season for the club from Rotterdam. Finishing 11th and a 10-0 defeat against PSV Eindhoven marked an extremely bad season for the Feyenoorders. But after an all time low came a big high point for the club. For the first time in ten years they reached second place and the club's fans celebrated it like they won the championship title. All of Rotterdam was upbeat after this great achievement. But just as in Amsterdam, summer came and players left. The Swedish Manchester City striker Guidetti, who was most responsible for achieving a second place last season went back home to his club. Ron Vlaar, the solid defender, left along with midfielder general El Ahmadi to Aston Villa. Otman Bakkal, who had a great 2011-2012 season went to Russia and Ronald Koeman was left with a half stripped team. And so Feyenoord, who had almost been bankrupt in 2010, had to spend money. They had to scrape euro's from every pocket, every dime was needed. They brought in attacking midfielder Immers from rival ADO The Hague(Den Haag), right back Daryl Janmaat from SC Heerenveen, left back Ruud Vormer from Roda JC.

An early exit from the Champions league after a 3-1 defeat on aggregate against Dinamo Kiev put the Feyenoord boys back on solid ground. Sobered up they are gearing up for a new season but with fewer possibilities. No one in the largest city of The Netherlands expects a second place, and the pressure is off for Ronald Koeman who has to forge a new team with new players combined with an influx of youth players. You can say Feyenoord is in the same position as Ajax. But i will only write it, because people will have my head for it.

AZ on the decline

After winning the championship in 2009 with manager Louis van Gaal the club from Alkmaar is on the decline. Trainer Verbeek needs to perform this season after AZ ended up in fourth place last season. But like in Amsterdam and in Rotterdam, summer came and players left. Brett Holman went to Aston Villa, Simon Poulsen didn't extend his contract, free kick goal menace Rasmus Elm went to Moscow. AZ nearly went bankrupt aswell in 2009 when their main sponsor did. The club was in financial crisis for several years but in April 2012, the club was cleared and dubbed financial healthy again. Things are looking up for the club, the only thing missing is results and a title, be it the FA cup. On the transfer market AZ has been silent, only bringing in Viktor Elm(brother of Rasmus) from Heerenveen. Manager Verbeek is starting his third season at the club and it might be his last. He said earlier this summer that if he gets an offer from outside The Netherlands from a decent club, he will take it. If not, he will say goodbye to the football world and go back to his farms.

Hello and goodbye in Heerenveen

Heerenveen had one of it's best seasons in it's existence. Finishing fifth in the league last season. Trainer Ron Jans' contract however was not extended and Marco van Basten was brought in. But when the first of July came, so did Van Basten, but days later he had to wave goodbye to star winger Narsingh, star striker Bas Dost, midfielders Viktor Elm and Svec and defender Breuer. Stripped from half his team it is very unlikely that Van Basten will repeat his predecessor's accomplishments. But being a world class striker once himself, it is expected of him to at least qualify for the Europa League. But it's going to be tough for him as star winger Ousama Assaïdi is likely to be sold to Ajax in the coming days or weeks. Which means Heerenveen's entire attack of the 2011-2012 season is completely gone. Luckily for Van Basten, a new generation of talents is in his squad. Van la Parra looks a promising winger, central defender Jeffrey Gouweleeuw looks like he could be national squad material and in midfield Djuricic looks in form and sharp in this pre-season. And maybe, just maybe, with the money that Heerenveen got for Narsingh and Dost, Heerenveen might just get in a couple of more talents and just might get that Europa League spot.

Now let's kick off this season, it's going to be a bumpy, stressfull and exiciting one!

 

Just to point out, De Jong went to Borussia Monchengladbach, not Dortmund.

Good piece though.

 

Whoopsie, took me 1,5 hours to write this, it slipped through my check, edited it now

 

Crikey, 1.5 hours?!

 

fact checking takes some time, and being Dutch i need to be carefull with translation, conversions(Euro to pound for example) and choice of words, proverbs, sayings etc.
Takes a lot of time.

 

And as i wrote this article, Feyenoord announces they signed Dutch International defender Joris Mathijsen.

 

Great effort Cove...Really appreciate it!

After 5 years of living in Eindhoven my brother is leaving to work in England again - I think he was their unlucky charm!

 

5 stars from me.. good thread Cove.

 

Thanks, It's a shame i only got to do 10.000 characters, i could've made this twice or maybe three times longer if i wanted to put in all the relevant stuff in it. What i wrote today is just a description of the surface of the league. There is a lot more going on what makes this league such a great talent pool for the big leagues...

 

At least you're up to 4*s now, makes it look more respectable.

 

ESPN are showing Montripllier or however you spell it.

Any channels showing Eredivisie?

 

Sky sports will be probably from 2013-2014 season and on, made a thread about that two days ago...
But for this season ESPN does broadcast some matches:

http://tv.espn.co.uk/oo/espl/tv-schedule?action=get-search-results&channel=ESPN&isLive=false&textSearch=eredivisie&addata=tv-schedule_eredivisie

ESPN apparently have the rights of 5 matches per month and summaries. Matches are broadcasted on mondays and tuesdays.

 

Right... toss my analysis on PSV in the trashcan, they're 2-1 behind at half time against RKC Waalwijk, relegation contenders this season

Georgino Wijnaldum injured, Matavz in for him. Mertens out in comes Depay, total chaos at PSV... Now playing a 4-2-4 formation!

 

3-1 RKC - PSV
Rodney Sneijder scoring his second, PSV in total disarray
And yes, it's Wesley Sneijder's little brother

 

PSV lost it's first match 3-2 against RKC Waalwijk, normally a team in the bottom of the table. RKC had defender Ramos sent off after given 2 yellow cards within a minute. Probably a record in the Eredivisie!

Tomorrow the biggest match of this round: Ajax - AZ at 15:30 GMT

 

iam sorry but you have no life

 

Hey mister internet tough guy, why don't you just go rot to die somewhere else would ya?
Join the GC guys, you seem perfectly fit for them...
Now GTFO and have some neg rep whilst you're at it!

please log in to view this image

 

Excellent informative stuff from our man in Holland, well done mate have some rep. Oh and send us Anita and Douglas please lol.

 

Thanks! And i doubt you really, really want to have Douglas
You can see him for yourself, Fc Twente plays against FC Groningen at 13:30 GMT

 

Link to Fc Twente - Groningen for those who would like to see Douglas in action:

http://www.coolsport.tv/stream4.php