Dutchman forced to choose between country and future club career
Dutch boss Marco van Basten is perfectly within his rights to field a weakened team against Romania tonight (”It’s not against the rules, it’s a fact of life,” said UEFA spokesman William Gaillard), and eliminating the possibility of meeting France or Italy in the semi-finals would appear to be a wise move. However, former Italy gaffer Cesare Maldini has claimed the Dutchman can forget about coaching in Milan if he rolls over Portugal-stylee tonight:
“Van Basten has a two year contract [with Ajax after the Euros] but I know that after he wants to come to coach in Italy.
“Will it be at Milan? We will see. But for sure he will want to arrive in Italy with a clean slate, and he cannot do this by losing to the Romanians on purpose.”
The word ‘vendetta’ comes from Italian (I know, I was surprised too), so there’s little chance the boot-shaped nation will forgive and forget the coach if he fields a weakened side against Adrian Mutu and co tonight. But will he succumb to Italian pressure? Is he even interested in the AC Milan job? Let us all know your thoughts with a comment below.
[Goal.com]
4 responses so far
1 Tony Oldwin // Jun 17, 2008 at 10:03 am
Why not field a weakened team??? Holland won their first two games and are guaranteed qualification, so why should they do Italy or France a favour and beat Romania? Why shouldnt Holland eliminate Italy or France tonight? They both played badly in their first two games, so they do not deserve to go through, whereas Romania do. Why should Holland risk playing France or Italy in the final?? I think that Holland have the right to do whatever they want, cos they have earnt the right to lose if they want!!! Hopefully both of the World cup finalists will join the European champions by tomorrow!!
2 M Jacobs // Jun 17, 2008 at 12:13 pm
Holland doesn’t have a weaker side, I think people regard the subs a little too lightly.
Let’s just see for example and build a team with out Ooijer and de Jong (Both have a yellow card each, so that would be logical to let them out), Boulahrouz and van Bronckhorst arguably the best defenders in both games?, Mattijsen and without Sneijder, van der Vaart, Kuyt and Nistlerooy.
Then van Basten could put up a team consisting out of:
Van der Sar: Melchiot, Heitinga, Bouma, De Cler: De Zeeuw, Engelaar: Van Persie, Afellay, Robben: Huntelaar
How exacly is that worse? Ok sure, its different, so they won’t have Sneijder and van der Vaart, but instead they will field Van Persie and Afellay, no Kuyt and van Nistlerooy, but then they will have Robben and Huntelaar…that would still make a better mid-field and attacking line up than most other teams have in this tournament.
Roemania might be able to win, but truly…I doubt it, because although the Roemanian team will be motivated, the dutch subs will as well, since this would be their ticket to get into the first team for the rest of the Euro2008 and no-one is going to give up on that I would expect.
3 George Costanza // Jun 17, 2008 at 12:53 pm
Tony is spot on. No manager can complain about weakened sides - teams only have themselves to blame for whatever befalls them.
4 Marc // Jun 19, 2008 at 5:50 am
Van Basten signed a four year deal with Ajax so MIlan have to wait a little longer.