Louis van Gaal is once again praised for his qualities as a coach in Qatar. As a player, there was much less admiration for the Amsterdammer. The midfielder who was lured to Velsen-Zuid in the autumn of 1977 to prevent Telstar from being relegated from the premier league, “wasn’t the man we needed”, says former teammate Fred Bishot. With a laugh: “He almost didn’t get out of the center circle.”
It is autumn 1977. Telstar is desolately last in the premier league. Something has to happen, otherwise the club will play in the first division next season. The Romanian trainer Mircea Petescu is offered Louis van Gaal through an intermediary. Van Gaal, trained at Ajax, is currently playing for FC Antwerp. He is interested in a switch to Schoonenberg sports park and so he makes his entrance before the winter break. Fred Bischot (74) will be there. Of course Fred Bischot is there. He has the record number of games for the White Lions to his name (372).
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The 1977/78 season has erased Mister Telstar from his memory as much as possible, because it was by no means a highlight of his career. “There was a team that I don’t think was good enough for the Eredivisie, a logical consequence of the policy. The best players were always sold, so that it was slightly less every year.”
Reinforcements
Bischot is assisted in midfield by up-and-coming talent Jos Jonker, who would later cause a furore at AZ. Monne de Wit is still there, Frans van Essen, Hans Driessen, Arno Wellerdieck and the attacker Peter Caljouw hired from Haarlem. Henk Medik also comes over from NEC at the same time as Van Gaal. But despite the reinforcements, there is no stopping it. It soon becomes clear that the team will be relegated. The 1977/’78 season appears to have been the last ever in the premier league.
Fred Bischot leafs through the scrapbook of his career and occasionally shakes his head. “The team was too young, too inexperienced.” And it was bad buying. He does not know exactly who took it into his head to bring in Van Gaal, but one thing is certain: the current top coach was not the player Telstar needed. Bischot: “Louis was a technically skilled player. Only, he hardly came out of the center circle, while that was really necessary. We needed tough guys, but he wasn’t that type of player. Louis wasn’t that into defending.”
Tactically he was strong, you recognized the later trainer by that. “But it was not a chatterbox, which people sometimes think. He was good in the group. He was just a nice guy. Still. When he coached Telstar against Young AZ once last season and he saw me, he immediately reacted very spontaneously with ‘hey, Fredje!'”
The Knowers
Van Gaal left for Sparta immediately after the relegation. Bischot stayed for another season and then went to FC Amsterdam and then to Go Ahead Eagles. In 1983 he returned to Telstar. Nowadays he is a trainer of Saturday fifth division club De Kennemers in Beverwijk. He has always followed Van Gaal and appreciates his game concept. Although Friday’s game against Ecuador was less, he thinks the Orange can go far in Qatar. Bischot: “He knows how to make a team again. I think that’s great. I don’t see them becoming world champions, but maybe they will reach the quarter finals.”