“It is remarkably fast or rather: ridiculously fast,” says Mario Captein, director of the professional association Coaches Professional Football (CBV), about the dismissal of Sjors Ultee (35) at Fortuna Sittard. The head coach was fired after three lost games in the Eredivisie. This equaled the record of this century by Alex Pastoor, who was forced to leave NEC in 2013. “This is of course not good for the image of coaches in professional football,” says Captein.
Fortuna Sittard kept it to a short announcement on the club’s website on Monday. „Fortuna Sittard thanks Sjors and Robby [Alflen, assistent] for their enormous effort and dedication during their period in Sittard”, it read. Technical manager Sjoerd Ars is aware of the impact of the decision. “It is painful to have to make such a difficult decision so early in the season. We don’t just make this choice based on the last three games. We see insufficient progress in the development of the team in various areas. This led to a growing difference of opinion, which made this decision necessary in the interest of the club.”
Captein had a brief telephone contact with Ultee and Alflen on Monday. “It is customary for us to approach our members to ask how they are doing,” says the former football player of PSV, Helmond Sport and FC Eindhoven. “We ask them, for example, whether they need legal assistance with the termination of the contract. In the Netherlands, such a dismissal is usually arranged quickly because provisions are usually included in the contract.”
‘Part of the job’
As director of the coaches union, Captein knows that his members always run the risk of being fired if performance falls short. Ultee will undoubtedly be the first in a row of trainers this season. Two years ago, fourteen trainers in Dutch professional football were sent away prematurely. Last season there were twelve. „A layoff is part of the job become. I am concerned about the speed with which the decision has now been made in Sittard,” says Captein over the phone. “You can’t exactly say that Ultee has had time to rectify disappointing results. But unfortunately we’re not talking about it. We can only observe that.”
Captein cannot overlook whether Ultee has fallen victim to a new wind blowing through the club under Turkish chairman Isitan Gundat. The Turkish-Dutch entrepreneurs Atilla Aytekin and Umut Akpinar of the game and advertising company Azerion, play an important role. Due to the entry of the entrepreneurs, the budget has grown to 9 million euros this season. Expectations at Fortuna Sittard rose especially after the famous Turkish striker Burak Yilmaz was captured. Furthermore, the Turkish midfielder Dogan Erdogan, the Spanish attacker Inigo Córdoba and the Brazilian defender Rodrigo Guth came to Limburg. Captein: „Fortuna Sittard did not do so well for the winter last season, but Ultee managed to maintain its position. And with that, the target was achieved. This season the ambitions are apparently much higher.”
Shock effect
According to Captein, the shock effect that a dismissal must sometimes cause is only minor in practice. “Research shows that in many cases this is not the case at all. Take PEC Zwolle last year. Art Langeler had to leave there when his team was in last place. Dick Schreuder took over and finished in the lowest place in the Eredivisie. Schreuder is still there,” explains Captein. “There are often all kinds of things that we have no idea about.”
The director of Professional Football Coaches closely monitors whether clubs process the dismissal according to the correct rules. Fortuna Sittard must now first deal with the agreements with Ultee and Alflen before a new trainer can be registered. The other assistants of Ultee, Jeroen Schepens and Dominik Vergoossen, are temporarily taking over the tasks at the number seventeen from the Eredivisie. An away game against sc Heerenveen is scheduled for Saturday evening. Captein: “These trainers do not have the required diplomas and can take over a maximum of four games from Ultee.”
Ultee did not get any further as a football player than the Utrecht amateurs of DVSU. He followed his own path as a coach in professional football. Unlike many trainers, he climbed up step by step. He did the Pabo, went to work in special education, but in the meantime also worked for FC Utrecht. In a few years he worked his way from clinic employee to assistant to then head coach Rob Alflen. In recent years, their roles at Fortuna Sittard had been reversed. Until Monday, Ultee was the youngest coach in the Eredivisie.