Falling forward

My mother told me: “When opportunity knocks, it doesn’t send an email. So you have to be ready.”

This was the moment.

And it started at a petrol station! I was on my way to the club, AZ Alkmaar. The day before, the internet was full of information about the head coach, Arne Slot, being in talks with Feyenoord.

I was his assistant, and was thinking about whether to send him a message. Maybe he wants to talk about it? I decided I wasn’t going to send him a message. Instead, I’d talk to him at the club first thing next morning, face to face, and see what was going on.

So there I was, on my way, when I had to fill up at the petrol station. I got a missed call from AZ’s technical manager, so I called him once I got back into the car. “When you get in, come to my office first,” he said.

He was already waiting for me down the hallway. We sat down with the other director; they told me what had happened, and asked me to take over.

"I had started out as a player at AZ, but came to a crossroads around the age of 19"

I didn’t immediately say, “Okay, I'll do it.” I asked them to let me think about it, because that’s the type of person that I am.

We had a game the next day, so I said: “I’ll think it over. The first priority is the team, because everybody has to be informed what’s going on. I will inform them, inform the staff, get the training done, get everything back to normal and stay calm with each other. Then I’ll let you know.”

We did the training session. I had a word with the two captains from the team, made sure the session went well, and got back into the building. That’s when I thought back to what my mother had said.

I’m also a big fan of Denzel Washington, and his speech about falling forward. He told a group of graduating students: “Your parents will tell you to make sure you have something to fall back on. Make sure your education is right, so you have something to fall back on.

“I’d rather fall forward, then I see what’s coming. Just go for it.”

I was thinking about this and what my mother had told me. This was the moment. So I took over, initially as a caretaker until the end of the season.

I had started out as a player at AZ, but came to a crossroads around the age of 19. It was at that step, of going into the pros, when I got an injury. I had also started my coaching licences, so when I got injured I had to make a choice: keep striving for the dream of being a player, or go the coaching path?

"I had the pleasure of meeting Rinus Michels, one of the best coaches there has ever been"

I wasn’t talented enough to be a top player, although I could have made a living. Physically, though, because of the injury I wasn’t good enough, so I made the choice to go for the coaching career. I set my mind on becoming the best coach in the world. And I always say, since then I’ve never worked a day in my life, because I love coaching. It is my passion.

Someone who shaped me from the beginning, and has been there through my career, is Joop Brand – my football dad, as I call him. When I started at AZ Alkmaar, he was coaching the Under-18 and Under-19 squads. He was also one of the teachers at my school and responsible for the coaching courses. Joop told me in those early days that I had a talent for coaching, and should make sure I worked to get everything from it.

Haarlem was the first professional club that I worked for, starting in 1993. I came in as an intern and initially coached the Under-18s. I was there for almost five years in the academy. During that time, I was a part of the first-team staff for six months. That made me one of the youngest coaches in Holland to assist in professional football.

I had all the badges except the Pro Licence. Because I didn’t have a big history as a player, it was hard to get into the course. When I was in my mid-20s, I got accepted for one of the Pro Licence training days. There, I had the pleasure of meeting Rinus Michels, one of the best coaches there has ever been. Talking football with him was a wonderful moment.

I didn’t get into the course then, but I was confident enough to ask the association why. They told me I was still very young, to try to get into a club abroad and work with seniors.

I went to the 1998 World Cup on a trip with the Dutch football coaches’ union. The guy who set up the union, Jan Reker, had heard good things about me. He asked if I would be open to going abroad to expand my experience.

"It was a fantastic period, with Marcel Brands – who later became Everton’s director of football"

That was when I got the opportunity to assist Rinus Israël in the United Arab Emirates. He was the first captain to lift the European Cup for a Dutch club, when Feyenoord won it in 1970, and had gone on to become their manager. Now he was going to manage Al Jazira in Abu Dhabi.

We were the only two coaches in the Emirates who finished that season. All the other clubs changed coaches two or three times! The next season, we were at the next club, Al Wahda, and took off again. For me at the time, it was a huge part of becoming more mature as a coach.

Back in the Netherlands, I started working in Vitesse’s academy and got accepted to the Pro Licence course. At that time, I was the youngest person in the Netherlands to do it.

In 2009, I made the decision to leave Vitesse after nine years, to become academy manager at Sparta Rotterdam, one of the best academies in the country. At one point during my time there, I was in the running to become head coach, but they chose Michel Vonk. I became his assistant, building the bridge from the academy to the first team, and did that for two seasons.

When Michel got released, I had to follow as well. That made me reflect and reset. I had the opportunity to go into a coaching job with the association, as national team coach for the Under-17s, combined with teaching on coach education courses, or I could start with PSV Eindhoven’s Under-19s. I chose PSV.

It was a fantastic period, with Marcel Brands – who later became Everton’s director of football – in charge of a five-year project, and Phillip Cocu as head coach of the first team.

"We had kept in contact over the years and did the Pro Licence together, in the same group as Frank de Boer and Erik ten Hag"

I coached some great players there, including Cody Gakpo. He was in the academy as a 15-year-old and played for me in the Under-19s and Under-23s. We brought players through from the academy to the first team. Ajax are well known for bringing academy players into the first team, but it was quite exceptional for a club like PSV.

Because of my experience, Marcel asked me if I wanted to become the next academy manager. I did that for one year, but when Marcel went to Everton and Phillip went to Fenerbahçe, a lot of things changed within the club. I had a good time, but it didn’t feel right any more.

After my fifth year at PSV, I asked to be released from my contract. They asked me to reconsider, but I had made up my mind. I didn’t have a job at the time, but a few days later the phone rang and AZ Alkmaar came along.

I went in as an assistant to John van den Brom, a very successful coach in Holland, who I knew from way back. We had kept in contact over the years and did the Pro Licence together, in the same group as Frank de Boer and Erik ten Hag.

The first year there was John’s last as head coach. The other assistant was Arne, who became the new head coach, and we took it to another level again. Unfortunately, that was the season that corona came along.

We were joint top of the table after 25 games, having beaten Ajax twice. Due to corona, with nine games to go, the competition was stopped. We’ll never know what would have happened, but we were in with a great chance of winning the title.

"When we sat down for breakfast the next morning, I looked across the room. This was the moment"

The next step, taking over as head coach, came for me the next season. The team was in an interesting period. We played Groningen at home in my first game, then midweek we had to play our final Europa League group game, in Croatia.

Groningen was a tough one. We lost two of our most experienced players during that game, and lost 2-1 after going 1-0 up. Then we travelled to Croatia to play Rijeka, which was a strange game as well. We were better than them but got hit on the counter twice and lost 2-1. That put us out of Europe.

That was punch numbers one and two in the same week. I sat down in my hotel room in Rijeka, stayed up all night, and made sure I had a clear vision of what had happened.

When we sat down for breakfast the next morning, I looked across the room. This was the moment. I had to make sure that everybody understood who was now in charge, and how I wanted things to get done. You only get one chance to do that.

Once everybody was sat down, I gave my version of what happened and what I thought needed to be done, in order to become better individual players and a better squad. You could have heard a pin drop. From there, we took off – 17 wins out of 23 in the league. We finished third, which qualified us for Europe, and I signed a new two-year deal as head coach.

In the Europa League playoff round, we came up against Ange Postecoglou’s Celtic. We lost the first game at Celtic Park, which was my first experience encountering Postecoglou and how his teams play. So we were even better prepared when we met them at Alkmaar. It was a game that went back and forth – really intense, like a Premier League game. We won, but unfortunately it was not enough to get through.

"The intensity and physicality of playing a Premier League team was something that we were looking forward to"

Through our league performance in that 2021/22 season, we qualified for the Europa Conference League the next season. After losing only one game in the group stage, we were drawn against Lazio in the last 16. Under Maurizio Sarri, they would finish runners-up in Serie A that season. Everybody around us thought Europe was finished for AZ, but I could see that the Italian way of playing – for the majority of their teams, at least – leaves a lot of space between the lines.

Pedro scored for Lazio after 18 minutes in the first leg, in Rome. It looked like it was going to be a tough night, but the team stayed together. We got a goal just before half-time, when Vangelis Pavlidis got in front of his defender and put it in the near post.

In the second half we played possession and made them run after the ball, and Milos Kerkez scored the second. We should have scored a third. Instead, we had to wait until they came to Alkmaar to finish the job. Again, we came from behind to win 2-1. 

We got past Anderlecht in the quarter finals, and then we faced West Ham in the last four. The intensity and physicality of playing a Premier League team was something that we were looking forward to. West Ham were well known for leaving you with the ball, until you got close to their final third. Then they made sure they closed everything, and looked to take you on the counter-attack.

It took us about 10 minutes to settle ourselves in the first game at the London Stadium, then we took off. When they tried to press us, we just kept on playing, finding the free man, free spaces and making them run.

They fell back in their own half and waited. In one moment, they didn’t do it correctly. We got through, and Tijjani Reijnders took a shot from distance. The goalkeeper didn’t look very secure with it, and it was 1-0.

"I have been reflecting and making sure that I have a good understanding of what happened"

We controlled the game for at least an hour, and were making the stadium quiet. Then West Ham, as they’re well known for under David Moyes, punished us on set-pieces. We gave away an easy penalty, then we conceded a corner and they turned the game around.

In the second leg we were good, until the edge of the final third. Compared to the first game, West Ham made their end even more tight, so it was very hard to find the spaces. And the way they played their duels was from another level compared to what we experienced in the Eredivisie. We lost to a very late goal, but it had been a great run to the last four.

Decisions were made again in the summer, to sell the top players we had, so we came back into a well-known situation for the club. We had to shape a new team.

I had proven as a head coach that I was capable of doing this. So it was quite a surprise when the club decided to change manager in January of the next season. We had struggled in Europe, but we were fourth in the league when I left. 

We’d had one of the best starts in the club’s history, with 25 points from the first nine games. When we got to the beginning of November, we lost a few good players with injury, and a few lost their form. Of course, I wanted my team to play better, but all those things I had foreseen, having the experience from previous seasons. It didn’t have me worried.

One of the strong points of Alkmaar as a club was standing by the vision. That is what made it so strange what happened with me – it’s not like them to act this way, but probably they have their reasons. They made a decision they think is best for the club. I accepted that, we shook hands and moved on.

I have been reflecting and making sure that I have a good understanding of what happened, and what needs to be done from my end to become a better version of myself for the next job. As you well know, in the football world, things can happen fast. So I have to make sure that I stay focused and in charge of what needs to be done.