He has just been in the saddle for three weeks as general manager of FC Emmen. In that period, Rinse Bleeker (55) already fired a technical manager and saw chairman Ronald Lubbers resign. “It’s not a crisis here.”
He had undoubtedly imagined his start as top boss of FC Emmen differently. After having held sway at Sportstad Heerenveen for fifteen years, Rinse Bleeker started his new job in good spirits at the beginning of this month as general manager of the football pride of Southeast Drenthe. The Frisian could not have imagined at that time that things would be as turbulent as the past few days after a few weeks.
Tidings of doom
On Friday, the news first came out that another technical manager, Mike Willems, was killed in Emmen. The Zwolle native received the bad news during the training camp of the Drenthe professional club in Delden, where he was immediately suspended. Irreconcilable differences of opinion with other policymakers are said to be the basis for the drastic decision.
That same evening, the club announced that Ronald Lubbers no longer wields the gavel in stadium De Oude Meerdijk. The president, who saved FC Emmen from destruction several times in the past and has been the permanent face for the past decade, has been out of the running since March due to personal circumstances. He decided to withdraw permanently last week.
‘A lot happened’
Bleeker is therefore partly on his own in the first month of his employment. The former handball champion is still supported by the only remaining board member Herman Harms, the recently appointed financial man Herman Rozema and a battery of loyal employees.
,,A lot has happened in a very short time”, Bleeker looks back on the past few days. ,,Both the departure of Willems and the farewell of Lubbers are intense things. Certainly Ronald has meant a lot to FC Emmen and still does. Very sad that he has to stop. Even though I don’t know him very well yet, we have spoken a few times, I would have loved to see him at the club for much longer. He is an icon of FC Emmen.”
Not a decision out of luxury
Bleeker also regrets Willems’ departure. Without wanting to go into details, the director says: ,,It was certainly not a decision out of luxury. In our view, no other outcome was possible and we stand behind the decision we made, but that doesn’t mean it’s fun to make these kinds of announcements. With Ronald Lubbers’ decision, everything comes at once. We now have to deal with that. We have to make do with it and I have to learn quickly.”
Bleeker does not want to speak of a crisis situation or chaos at the club. “That is out of the question. Fortunately, many things are also going well. The season tickets are sold out, business is going well. We have to take a step back in the first division and the financial resources are more limited than before, but we still have ambitions. We want to reach at least the play-offs and preferably promote immediately. That’s all straight up. The process to arrive at a new stadium is also continuing. There is plenty to do.”
additional emotion
The general manager also says he has no complaints about the atmosphere at the club, despite all the events. ,,The mutual relations in the office are just good and the atmosphere within the group of players is also fine when I go by my visit to the training camp. Of course FC Emmen remains a football company. There is extra emotion around that, but that’s also the nice thing, that distinguishes a club from other companies. There’s always commotion, that’s part of it. Again, we’ll just move on. I certainly don’t regret getting into it. No. Of course you don’t think in advance that events follow each other so quickly, but we have to make do with it.”
The preparation is by the way the most annoying time to be without a technical manager. For the time being, FC Emmen is sailing on the compass of trainer Fred Grim and Bleeker is the first point of contact on a technical level. “We are now looking at how we are going to fill it in further. Something is possible, although the trees no longer reach the sky. We may also have to sell something before we can actually take steps. In any case, we can’t sit back and relax, that’s for sure. We have to continue from today and we will.”
Not a happy combination
Bleeker does not have the ambition to keep technical matters in its portfolio for a longer period of time. ,,That doesn’t seem like a happy combination to me, that’s not where my expertise lies. I will take on the duties for as long as necessary, but directors who do combine technical matters with their other activities often come from football themselves or have previously been director of a club. That doesn’t apply to me. There will undoubtedly be technical managers reporting. I’m going to take a look at that together with Grim.”