Johan Derksen has new teeth. That was the first thing I noticed at the season opening of Today Inside on Monday evening. And not just me. The first viewer’s question to presenter Wilfred Genee was whether Derksen had sometimes been on holiday in Turkey and had his teeth measured there. That was by no means the case, Derksen said, he already had two crowns and they needed to be replaced. In any case, he starts the season well prepared. Wise, because after two months of football-free and television vacation, it suddenly appears that a football talk show war has started.
Last Monday, RTL launched the attack on Talpa’s much-discussed Football Inside. The existing VTBL program has been renewed, with new presenters (Simon Zijlemans or Frank Evenblij) and the old recipe of rotating analysts and guests. Less than a week into the program, it was already written that the viewing figures plummeted “dramatically”. And that’s also true, that they fell, but somewhere you get the feeling that it makes it very easy for Talpa to play VTBL away. This Monday evening, at exactly the same time as VTBL, a new football program started at Talpa, Veronica offside. Wilfred Genee presents it, for him that means two football programs in one evening. When he finished VO last night (Veronica offside) he had ten minutes to change his blue jacket for a beige one (I dare not say whether he also changed white shirt) to VI (Today Inside) to present.
Two more or less fresh analysts at VO: former football players Wesley Sneijder and Andy van der Meijde. The two would have met for the first time shortly before the broadcast, Rob Goossens told us earlier in the evening at RTL Boulevard. “And then they would see what they would do in the program.” Andy van der Meijde seemed genuinely happy with his place at the table, I’m not entirely sure about Wesley Sneijder whether it is football love that drives him. Three years ago he said in the book about him, sneijder, that he must be in very bad shape if he wants to become an analyst. Well, he has just stopped his trainer training – angry, because he didn’t think the course was tailor-made. KNVB, also angry, does not even want to train him anymore. So yes, he told Wilfred Genee, he had “time to spare.” He is now considering getting that trainer’s diploma in Turkey. “Anyway”, he said, he will “search beyond the borders”. That is promising.
Ronaldo went home
All in all, it was three times last night watching four men who all watched the same football matches last weekend (I’m going to assume that they all watched). The highlight was of course the failure of former Ajax coach Erik ten Hag at Manchester United. He lost again this weekend and quite a lot, while the really difficult games are yet to come. Laughing of course at the penalty training that Ten Hag subsequently imposed on his team, running 13.8 kilometers, just as many meters as the opponent had run more during the match. Furthermore, Ten Hag also has an unruly star player, Christiano Ronaldo, who does not give him a glance and goes home after a substitution while the match is not yet over. That was fun, of course.
There is a good chance that one of the three football talk shows will have to die. It will not be VI, that program really survives everything. The VI guys didn’t even bother to say something stupid about VTBL. The only thing René van der Gijp had to say about it was about the eternal polo of analyst Jan Boskamp and the ‘Wibra-T-shirt’ of analyst Theo Janssen. And that was roaring, of course.