Speed up a bit, then put the body in between, hey. While the FC Utrecht selection gathers for the warm-up, trainer Ron Jans, with a big smile, kicks off a player who dribbles past unsuspectingly. A moment later he is standing with his legs apart, pointing and clapping at a rondo, his training jacket zipped up against the pouring rain.
This is the most important training for Sunday’s match against Ajax (12.15 p.m.). Jans has worked out the game plan days earlier with his staff, but due to international commitments, the match selection is only fully assembled on the training field two days before kick-off. After twenty minutes the handful of journalists have to leave, then Jans will explain to his players what the strategy is against Ajax and who will implement it.
He looks relaxed. Jans (65) is by far the most experienced coach on the Dutch fields. Jans was the head coach of 575 Eredivisie matches. Only Han Berger and Bert Jacobs, coaches from another century, can boast a more extensive resume.
Yet the situation at FC Utrecht is in a sense new to him. Jans, who succeeded the dismissed coach Michael Silberbauer at the beginning of September, is at the bottom. After a good start, a victory at Heracles (3-1), the last three matches under his leadership were lost against Almere City, Volendam and NEC, clubs with considerably less financial resources, ambition and supporters than FC Utrecht. Only with the upcoming opponent Ajax, sixteenth in the competition, the difference between expectation and reality is greater.
“Then you can say that it is a crisis, yes,” Jans said by telephone earlier in the week. Compared to Ajax coach Maurice Steijn, he nevertheless has an easy time, Jans immediately adds. “I have been – and I hope it stays that way – relatively out of harm’s way. Of course I’m new, most people have confidence in me. Maurice is under much more pressure and at Ajax everything is much more intense anyway. I wish him the best of luck.”
He says it without sarcasm. Jans feels connected to his colleagues. He sends them messages to wish them luck when they are fired. Trainers are quickly victimized, he believes, even if the blame for disappointing performances lies largely with a club’s policymakers. Jans can talk about it. As coach of Standard Liège in 2012, he only lasted a few months. The then owner Roland Duchatelet thought it was more important to deal with his players than to put together a good team, Jans noticed. But he paid the price for the poor start to the competition.
Self-chosen sabbatical
FC Utrecht has lost five trainers in the past four years. Why did Jans embark on this risky adventure in the first place? A month and a half ago he enjoyed a self-chosen sabbatical after three wonderful seasons at FC Twente. Under Jans, the fallen club became a stable and entertaining sub-topper again. He gave the fans sporting rehabilitation, and the years in Enschede were also cathartic for Jans himself. He was able to put his painful departure from FC Cincinnati behind him after a riot because he had sung the ‘n-word’ to a rap song in the dressing room.
Now the time had come to spend more time with his wife, children and grandchildren, he announced when he stopped at Twente. “I really enjoyed it,” says Jans about the twelve weeks that his sabbatical lasted. “But when something like that comes along… I was immediately looking forward to it.” Well, right away? It took a 3.5-hour conversation with club owner Frans van Seu-meren and technical director Jordy Zuidam to convince Jans, and especially his wife, that he should become the new trainer.
“There were some reservations,” Jans acknowledges. “But we had already decided that FC Twente would not be my last coaching job and that we wanted to stay in the Netherlands. I think my profession is the most beautiful thing there is. And if you look at FC Utrecht’s selection like this, there is simply more to it than what came out. Not completely balanced perhaps, with six candidates for the position of attacking midfielder, but with many young, talented players. Moreover, they showed that they really wanted me.”
You could also have waited for a top club.
“I put that idea out of my mind ten years ago. Everyone knows me, I have been around for so long, if no top Dutch club has emerged in all that time, why now? And call it a lack of ambition, but I would like to be a trainer at a club where you can build something. Helping players in their development. That does not depend on the size of the club. I am grateful for the level I have worked at and I have always had a lot of fun. Suppose you are now the trainer of Ajax, are you happy? You just have to ask yourself that.”
What was the first thing you did at FC Utrecht?
“FC Utrecht is a club with its own culture and that requires a certain way of playing. That is with swagger, courage, aggressive and attacking. What you imagine with Utrecht schoffies, in the positive sense of the word. The public has missed that lately. So I will work on that on the training field. And I spoke to all the players for 15 minutes and asked what they think the team needs. Clarity was the answer I heard most.”
In what sense?
“Clearness about the way of playing, that everyone in every position knows exactly what to do. That went really well in the first match and it is so wonderful when a team that is struggling scores after just five minutes. Unfortunately, that did not happen in the other matches, when things kept going wrong at the important moments. Then you see that it is still fragile, although it looks really good on the training field.”
How do you explain that decline?
“You can’t explain everything in football. If you get a red card against Volendam after two minutes and 51 seconds, everything changes. We also found ourselves with ten men against Almere. And we missed the opportunity to take the lead or equalize at decisive moments. The line is very thin. This team has had so many setbacks in the past six months, which means there is a lot of uncertainty. I firmly believe that we must create a series to build self-confidence. I’m really not going to radiate depression, there is still so much to gain with these boys.”
Are you a different trainer in crisis situations than when things are going well?
“It does take some getting used to. But I have often started somewhere where everything had to be built up and that was usually successful. I have learned to assess what a club needs. At the moment, this is not so much emphasizing what is not going well, but rather giving confidence.”
Ajax coach Steijn is often outspokenly critical of his players afterwards.
“There is indeed a difference. If a very clear mistake is made, I think you can name it. But otherwise I prefer to keep it indoors. I think you should always show that you stand for your players. I once lost an away match with Groningen at FC Utrecht. At the press conference afterwards I used words such as hopeless, powerless, inspirationless, powerless. When I saw that later I thought: I should never do this again. I just blamed my players. But I was also responsible. I want to stand for my people, always.”
You will not hear terms such as ‘discipline’ or the ‘hard hand’, often mentioned as solutions for clubs in crisis, from Jans. It is not what FC Utrecht needs (“there was already good training and listening”), and it is not his style. He wants his players to feel comfortable and safe. As long as they “behave normally”, “put the team’s interests first” and “perform their tasks”, Jans gives them a relatively large amount of freedom and responsibility.
But how far does that freedom extend when it comes to political positions off the field, an issue that has become topical since the escalation of the situation in Israel? Earlier this week it was announced that Anwar el Ghazi had been suspended by his club FSV Mainz because he had expressed support for Palestine in the conflict with Israel on Instagram. Noussair Mazraoui was summoned by Bayern Munich for the same reason, he avoided punishment because he allegedly assured the club that “as a peace-loving person he resolutely rejects terror and war.”
It is the first time in the conversation that Jans hesitates. He finds it an “extremely difficult issue,” he says. “Contracts usually state that players must behave according to the norms and values of the club. But what does that mean? Our selection undoubtedly also includes players who feel involved in the conflict and the fate of one of the population groups. You have to be able to express that, I think that freedom is a great asset. At the same time, it should of course not harm the club and the team.”
Have you discussed this with your players?
“I only discussed the terrible events in the Middle East with my staff, not with my playing group. I am a football coach, I have to ensure that everyone is fit and focused at kick-off on Sunday. But I tell the boys: know that the consequences of what you post on social media may be different than you intend. Be careful.”