Dutchman Raymond Verheijen has earned a reputation as one of football’s most prominent and outspoken coaches.
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The 43-year-old has gained extensive experience, from working under countrymen Louis van Gaal and Guus Hiddink to spending time with giants Barcelona and Manchester City.
He is a vocal proponent of the Dutch methodology, vocally criticising regimes such as David Moyes’ Manchester United which he sees as antithetical to those principles.
Verheijen shares his message across the globe, opening his World Football Academy six years ago. It was this organisation that brought him to the UAE last week, running a two-day clinic at Al Ain during the Hazza Bin Zayed International U-17 Tournament.
Professional football only began in the UAE in 2008. What are the biggest challenges that developing nations face?
First of all, in every country there are talents born. No matter what part of the world. Talent is only the starting point – it is no guarantee. You then need coaches to nurture the talent.
The most important step in developing countries is to develop the coaching structure to a high standard. Once you have coaches who know what they are doing in a structured way, then you can make talents become top players.
Just finished @WFA_ME Football Periodisation course. Interesting discussions about external factors in Middle East. pic.twitter.com/Fkf7aJ9D4v
— Raymond Verheijen (@raymondverheije) March 31, 2015
A perfect example is Australia. They implemented the Dutch Football Association curriculum a decade ago, which has a proven methodology and is not arbitrary in nature.
In the Middle East, a lot of money is spent on football but few tangible structures are present. Do you see this as a major problem?
All too often you see with people who have a lot of money that they want quick results. If you have lots of money and want quick results, you are very vulnerable to the flavour of the month.
They move on to the next flavour of the month and the next, then after five years you are back where you started. It is like a dog chasing its own tail.
The UAE national team is on an upwards trajectory, finishing third in January’s Asian Cup. What needs to happen to continue this?
It is key whether you analyse whether this is structural success or just an incident. Maybe, you have an exceptional generation of six to eight players who came together but this does not automatically mean the same is happening in the generations below.
Secondly, they have this group of players who are above average but several of them have picked up serious injuries. That is a signal of over-training and over-playing – they are being squeezed like lemons.
Everybody is putting their hopes on this small group of players. When you are overplaying players, they accumulate fatigue and the risk of injury is increased.
What do you see as the biggest problem in football coaching?
For me, it is subjectivity. A surgeon is educated in a very strict way, and within that reference you can be subjective. That is the art of surgery.
In football however, there is no objective reference. That makes subjectivity a starting point. In everyday life, we call that chaos. The survival method for people within chaos is to blame external factors.
You have opened a Middle East branch of your World Football Academy. Would you ever be interested in working in the Middle East more frequently?
No. The reason I opened the World Football Academy is that I am not interested in working with clubs, I have done that for many years. Starting the WFA in 2009 was a step that I took, as working for clubs at that stage became too one-dimensional.
It is boring when people only think about winning on a Saturday. It is like you are living in a tunnel. I help countries at the Euros and World Cups, like Argentina last summer.
You have worked with some great coaches, such as Louis van Gaal, Guus Hiddink and Dick Advocaat. What have you learned from them?
What I have learned from Hiddink and Van Gaal, is that there are two types of coaches. You have the teacher and the manager.
Van Gaal is a teacher. With them, their method is the objective and players are like tools to execute the method. They are perfect for younger players, as they don’t have a structure yet. But with older players with experience in a structure, they don’t like working with teachers as they are squeezed into their structure.
Then there is the manager, like Hiddink. For them, their method isn’t the objective but the players are. His method is just a tool to improve the players – this is the opposite to the teacher.
What are the highlights of your career?
Former Wales forward Craig Bellamy is on the front of my book, I did that on purpose, as he symbolises our message.
He was the most injured player in the Premier League. Then in 2009 at Manchester City, we reduced his volume – which he didn’t like at first. His record was 15 consecutive games, then he played 43. He symbolises the principals that less is more, quality over quantity.
With Wales under Gary Speed, we really had something going on there. Despite the tragical ending [Speed committed suicide in 2011], it was so special.
Also, the World Cup with South Korea reaching the semi-finals in 2002 was one of the craziest things I have ever witnessed.
Is there a youth player you worked with who are you are especially proud of?
I worked in the Feyenoord academy in the Netherlands. You have midfielder Jordy Clasie, who is the current captain of Feyenoord and he also played in the 2014 World Cup semi-final against Argentina.
When he was 14, he was so small – just 150cm. Every year, it was 50/50 whether to keep him or let go. He was too good, playing a few age groups up. I said because he was thrown in at the deep end, he did not have the energy to grow.
I recommended reducing his training by 50 per cent, so by 2010 he had grown 20 cm. That is still not big, but he would have never reached 170cm. We saved his career. It is very nice.
