Danny Blind insists he will not quit as Netherlands boss – despite their shocking failure to qualify for the European Championships next summer.
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Despite the finals being expanded to 24 teams for the first time, the Dutch limped in fourth in their section, behind the Czech Republic, Iceland and Turkey. Third would have been good enough for a play-off.
Their 3-2 home loss to the 10-man Czechs on Tuesday was the final nail in the coffin of a dismal campaign which saw them lose five of their 10 games.
Blind was in charge for the last four games, losing three of them, but he wants to stick around and start the rebuild. The 54-year-old said: “We didn’t make it and it is very disappointing for the players, for me and for the whole of the Netherlands.
Looks like Danny Blind is gonna survive as Holland coach after all. Tremendous news for France and Sweden!
— Michael Yokhin (@Yokhin) October 14, 2015
“But we have to look towards the future now. We have to look forward and qualify for Russia 2018. That is our next goal. I want to stay with the Oranje. I don’t feel damaged myself. Above all else, we now need to analyse where we went wrong and look ahead.
“I have taken this job for a long period of time. It is not for me to talk about my position. I can only say that I am not stopping.”
Blind appears to have the immediate backing of his federation, with KNVB director Bert van Oostveen telling NOS: “Blind will keep going as coach. We have entered a process together, but everything that could go wrong did go wrong.
“The match against the Czechs is symptomatic of the whole qualifying campaign. We, as the KNVB, take responsibility for this staff and that means that Blind will be allowed to build for the future. We started with a fairly young team and the national coach must keep going to assist that process.
“If I had felt that I was the reason for this situation, I would be long gone. We continue together.”
Blind’s son, the Manchester United player Daley, also backed his father to continue.
“I support the coach and the whole group does too,” he said. “Today was a big disappointment, but we are fully behind the coach.
“Criticism is part and parcel of this profession. Any coach, who would have been appointed, would have had a hard time.”
