Shortly before the cup final, more than three weeks ago, PSV technical director Earnest Stewart talks about the difficult first season of the ‘young starting coach’ Ruud van Nistelrooij. He must receive support from the management in the “next steps” in his development, he says in front of the camera of sports channel ESPN. “Coaching is an experience profession. You have to give time for that.”
When Van Nistelrooij is presented a little later that he will come out with the club management with a view to next season, he reacts surprised. “Hatch? You don’t have to talk about that. Isn’t that logical?”
No one then takes into account that Van Nistelrooij, former top striker, will leave. Certainly not if PSV wins the KNVB Cup that evening at the expense of Ajax. It is celebrated in a big way – it is the fourth time that they beat Ajax this season.
But dissatisfaction has been lurking for a long time. A delegation from the group of players knocked on the door of the management well before the cup final to talk about Van Nistelrooij and his difficult cooperation with the technical staff. The club management refers the players to the trainer: first talk to him, then come back to us.
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A week after the cup final, a meeting will take place that will initiate Van Nistelrooij’s departure. In a conversation with general manager Marcel Brands and Stewart, players express their concerns about the tensions in the technical staff and the departure of assistants André Ooijer and Fred Rutten after this season.
There is criticism of how Van Nistelrooij communicates with staff members and of his tactical choices. This only came out last weekend, via two stories in The Telegraph. Those articles cause a lot of excitement within the club, especially with Van Nistelrooij. Why was this leaked? Can he still trust his players? And his staff members?
Farewell in the locker room
Just after half past nine on Wednesday morning, he enters the office of technical director Stewart at training complex De Herdgang. Van Nistelrooij is determined, Stewart notices. He stops immediately. He will also inform the group of players in five minutes. Brands, who co-convinced him to become head coach a year earlier, knows nothing. At that time, the general manager is attending a staff meeting somewhere else at De Herdgang.
Van Nistelrooij keeps it short in the dressing room, says someone close to the trainer. He tells the selection that the evening before, in a meeting with the management, he heard the complaints of the players and technical staff. “I no longer feel support, no support.”
He sums up the good performances of this season: won the Johan Cruijff Shield, wintering in the Europa League, won the KNVB Cup and finished second. He wishes the players good luck in the last league game against AZ next Sunday. He grabs his bag, shakes everyone’s hand. And leaves.
Stewart and Brands say they feel completely surprised in a hastily arranged press conference on Wednesday afternoon after the departure was announced. According to them, it was agreed on Tuesday evening that the three of them – so Brands, Stewart and Van Nistelrooij – would address the group of players.
“To straighten up,” says Stewart. “And to shift the focus to Sunday’s game,” says Brands. They wanted to solve the problems that existed afterwards. But it won’t come to that.
This is how it explodes at PSV within a few days. At a very sensitive moment, shortly before the crucial match in Alkmaar, in which second place and thus a ticket for the preliminary round of the lucrative Champions League (starting premium of around 40 million euros) must be secured. On Sunday, assistant Rutten will temporarily take on the role of head coach.
The management wanted to take the talks about the coach’s future over the weekend, but Van Nistelrooij apparently lacked the confidence to wait for that. It is unclear whether he also lacked that support from the management. Brands contradicted that on Wednesday: “I cannot imagine that Ruud has had the feeling that we are not behind him.” The intention, says Brands, was to “solve it together”.
What exactly had to be solved remains unclear. Players were concerned about the farewell of staff members Ooijer and Rutten. These concerns were shared by management. And players noticed there was “infighting” in the coaching staff, a source says. Another insider says that Van Nistelrooij (46), for example, is in favor of strength training, where the experienced Rutten (60) is less so.
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Photo Rob Engelaar / ANP
The bar had to be higher
From the winter break, which lasted no less than eight weeks due to the World Cup in Qatar, Van Nistelrooij opted more emphatically for his own line. This after losing to the now relegated SC Cambuur and FC Groningen before the winter break – expensive loss of points in the title fight. Others have interpreted this as Van Nistelrooij operating ‘soloistically’. “He took little from Ooijer and Rutten, which reduced the support among players,” says an insider.
Van Nistelrooij, in turn, would have had difficulty with how some players practiced their profession. Such as the technically gifted but in his eyes somewhat ‘lazy’ midfielder Joey Veerman, who put the coach on the bench for several matches.
Van Nistelrooij himself lived as a player almost maniacally for his sport. Based on that idea, he would like to say goodbye to certain players next summer – the bar had to be higher. That would have led to discussion with the management, although Brands contradicted that suggestion on Wednesday. They agreed on “95 percent” of the selection for next season, he said.
The talented attacker Xavi Simons made it clear to Van Nistelrooij this week that he wants to distance himself from the criticism in De Telegraaf. He thanks the coach on Wednesday afternoon in a post on Twitter. Two months ago, Simons spoke angrily about the team’s poor mentality. The question is what the departure of Van Nistelrooij means for the future of Simons, for whom there is a lot of interest. PSV would like to keep him.
Van Nistelrooij, who started as a youth coach in the PSV academy in 2016, initially doubted whether he wanted to become a coach of the first team this season. He called Brands in the spring of 2022 that he wanted to spar with him about his trainer career – at that time he was a coach of Jong PSV. Initially he did not want to take over after the announced departure of Roger Schmidt. He didn’t have a good feeling about it because players had to be sold. “He didn’t get the feeling that there was ambition,” said general manager Marcel Brands later at ESPN. That feeling arose during the conversation with Brands.
But Brands could not prevent attackers Cody Gakpo and Noni Madueke from being sold for a total of about 90 million euros during the winter break to get the finances in order. It was a line through PSV’s title aspirations. Van Nistelrooij was later critical of the ‘impact’ of these ‘policy choices’. Just as he already expressed his incomprehension and dissatisfaction in September about the departure of technical director John de Jong, who resigned after the supervisory board had lost confidence in him.
For example, after the dismissal of coach Mark van Bommel in 2019 due to disappointing results, PSV now loses another figurehead. Key difference: there was something inevitable about that dismissal. Now, just like after De Jong’s departure, the club management is left with the feeling that the break with Van Nistelrooij could have been prevented. “I could not have imagined last night that Ruud would no longer be a PSV trainer today,” said Brands towards the end of the press conference.