We draw the wrong conclusions from the interview with Orange international Jill Roord with de Volkskrant. For those who missed it: there was a fuss because Roord, currently active at the European Championship in England, would have criticized the national coach, Mark Parsons, in that interview.
What did Red actually say?
‘Parsons gives more discussions than Sarina (Wiegman, the previous national coach, PC). Not only about football, but also about other things that he finds important: standards and values, the atmosphere in the team. He also asks a lot of questions. When I say I don’t feel good, he asks: why don’t you feel good? He likes to go in-depth and then 50 percent drops out with us. Me too. I find it interesting, but sometimes I also have to laugh: what kind of question is this?’
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Pieter Cranenbroek is an editor at LinkedIn.
She said of the coach’s team talks: ‘The first time he was there, we immediately indicated that: this is taking too long. Now they are shorter, but sometimes I think: did this require a meeting and how long? But he’s learning, it’s getting better.’
Commentators have found these statements to be at the very least ‘unwise’ or ‘clumsy’ and in a few cases even ‘character assassination’. But where many people seem to be surprised about the words that Roord dared to speak publicly about the coach, I am especially surprised about the fierce reaction of the outside world.
omniscient oracle
We, the Dutch, are proud of our empowerment and our flat hierarchy. The boss can almost always address you as ‘you’, employees are allowed to say more to their supervisors than ‘yes’ and ‘amen’ and even the prime minister goes to work by bike. In the words of rapper Fresku: ‘If you’re full of yourself here, you’ll leave empty halls.’
In addition, we are full of new leadership. We expect managers to be empathetic, listen and sometimes dare to be vulnerable. The authoritarian boss who knows everything better and won’t tolerate a reply? That has passed. Not of this time anymore.
However, in sports that kite apparently does not apply. Then the coach is expected to stand high above the group, we laugh about someone who seeks connection with players on a personal level, who listens to the group and the individual. The national coach must be an omniscient oracle, otherwise that person has no authority.
cock rose water
I draw a very different conclusion from the interview than the commentators: players feel at ease with this technical staff and dare to give feedback with confidence, while the coach is open to that feedback and actually does something with it.
Another fragment that has been talked about a lot: ‘Parsons said at the press conference that he had asked Miedema (striker and top scorer of all time for Orange, PC) about her thoughts in the dressing room. Among other things, she came up with the idea to put Roord on 10 and to move Daniëlle van de Donk to the right. ‘After that, more football just came in’, says Roord. “Sometimes it takes a little something.”
Conclusion of the media: the players are the boss, not the national coach. Funny. An acclaimed trainer would undoubtedly say: ‘How good does that coach feel in the group!’ Miedema would be called an extension of the trainer. If you are less good on it and you listen to others, then you are apparently a rosewater asshole.
Even when Jill Roord’s interview was interpreted as an undermining of his authority, Mark Parsons was not in front of the camera with a bruised ego. The national coach was stoic, saying that too many words had already been spilled on the interview and that we could use our energy better to support the team. The elephant turned into a mosquito again.
culture of fear
What stuck with me the most from what Roord said about her coach? From that same interview:
“He’s a genuinely nice man,” Roord says of Parsons, “a good man who wants to get the best out of everyone as an individual. He is passionate and busy with us and I have a lot of respect for that. He is different from our culture and that takes getting used to.’
Contrast that with the culture of fear that existed among the Dutch hockey women for years without anything being done about it. Because the results were good, right? In that team, the players could not even freely post contributions on their personal social media profiles without being flared. The contrast with a footballer who can freely tell her story to a national newspaper without fearing reprisals could not be greater. What is wrong with that?
I wish Mark Parsons and the Orange Lionesses all the success in the world. Not only as a chauvinistic Dutchman, but also to make the leadership of the national coach – which would be applauded in any other organization – gain in legitimacy in sport.