Very early, but their international showings have been
piss poor as well.
I would be surprised if teams like NAC and Groningen can last the pace, and still expect PSV to win the title, but I wouldn't be surprised if Ajax and Feyenoord finished closer to 6th than 2nd/3rd this year.
It is actually a good thing for the league I suppose, and so far their national team is doing OK based largely on the foreign-based players.
Marco van Basten, to his credit, tried to have an influence on this situation by initially picking predominantly home-based squads when he was first national team manager. He was prepared to pick some foreign-based players over a certain age, but avoided the younger ones who had abandoned the Netherlands.
His theory was that desire to play for the national team might keep players in the Dutch league for longer, but pressure on him from every direction led to a change of ethos, bringing back players like van Persie, Babel, Drenthe, van Bommel et al.
Posted By: Steve in Holland on October 20th 2008 at 12:04:49
Message Thread
- In other football... (Other Football) - Steve in Holland, Oct 20, 11:57:56
- And the Bundesliga (Other Football) - yarmyyarmy, Oct 20, 12:08:31
- Spurs fans will like that, Jol loving it (n/m) (Other Football) - pants, Oct 20, 12:11:16
- wow. (Other Football) - shoddy, Oct 20, 11:59:43
- Very early, but their international showings have been (Other Football) - Steve in Holland, Oct 20, 12:04:49
- And the Bundesliga (Other Football) - yarmyyarmy, Oct 20, 12:08:31
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