Total Disaster

Frank de Boer’s rapid hiring and firing at Crystal Palace highlighted wider problems within Dutch football – their coaches are being left behind

- David Winner

Whatever you think of Frank de Boer’s sacking by Crystal Pal-ace, his short stay as manager reminds us of the diminished state of Dutch football. A previously unthinkable gap has opened up between the Netherlands and the top football nations.

Feyenoord, Ajax and PSV have all been humiliated in Europe this season. And it’s been decades since the national team were so bad. The players who reached the 2010 World Cup final and came third in 2014 are mostly retired now and Holland’s new normal was exemplified by the 4-0 defeat by France in August.

Holland are unlikely to qualify for next year’s tournament in Russia. They didn’t make Euro 2016 either after being outfought and out-thought by the Czech Republic, Iceland and Turkey and finishing fourth in their qualifying group. The current bondscoach is Dick Advocaat, Graham Taylor’s nemesis back in 1993 but now 70 years old and only in the job because of the dearth of younger talents. With the exception of late-blooming Johan Cruyff disciple Peter Bosz, who is currently doing well at Borussia Dortmund, and Sarina Wiegman, who guided Holland’s Euro-winning women’s team this summer, the country has run out of coaching stars.

Which brings us back to De Boer. Following his failure at Inter last season, his 77-day stint at Palace has trashed his reputation as a great player who went on, as manager, to win four league titles in a row with Ajax. Yet he remains one of Holland’s best. He’s better than Ronald Koeman, now struggling at Everton, and is more highly regarded than his old Holland and Barcelona team-mate Phillip Cocu, now in charge at PSV, or Feyenoord’s Giovanni van Bronckhorst.