Eredivisie

Vitesse Arnhem - Shrewed or Abused?
Posted by Sam Cox.

Eredivisie has grown into the great crèche of European football, with the top clubs taking the opportunity to send their finest gems out to Holland for the finishing school of a top player. With Barcelona taking up the opportunity to send several academy graduates off to the flat land of Holland and experience the technique and class of Dutch football, Isaac Cuenca one of the latest to make the trip North East from Spain to join Ajax on loan after failing to nail down a place at the Catalan club. The falling of European prevalence for Eredivisie has seen Holland shift to a development centre for others, from the great Ajax side that seems a lifetime away given the level of performance from Dutch sides in this century.


However, the loan system has found itself under strain and clubs jumping through loopholes since its beginning, Vitesse Arnhem just one of the latest to exhibit some initiative in their signing of players. This is not a tactic that has been exclusive to Vitesse, or Dutch football, with Watford adopting a similar strategy with their questionably close relationship with Udinese – but its Vitesse and Chelsea that have drawn criticism from rivals. The six loanees that Chelsea have allowed to go to Vitesse Arnhem have drawn expected criticism and NEC Nijmegen’s technical director openly criticised the relationship and asked for investigation – always going to grow in significance when Vitesse have climbed to the top of the Eredivisie.

Vitesse’s six Chelsea players are; Sam Hutchinson, Lucas Piazon, Gael Kakuta, Christian Atsu, Cristian
Cuevas and Patrick van Aanholt. Six players that are proving influential to the campaign and Lucas Piazon’s key role in the sides success will no doubt have highlighted issues other clubs have been wary of – the Brazilian youngster having netted seven times and assisted four others in just twelve league appearances. Despite the loophole in the system, is this ethical and sporting from Chelsea and Vitesse or a dangerously close link that should be looked in to?

The relationship between the clubs is reportedly through friendship of the owners and was contributing to Marco van Ginkel’s £8 million move to Chelsea, as well as Wilfried Bony leaving to Swansea – but the side (after losing two of their top players) still find themselves at the top of Eredivisie. As the system is currently running, Vitesse are beginning to look more like Chelsea’s version of Barcelona B or Real Madrid Castilla (but that debate is for another time) a trend that is quite reasonably irritating others in both the UK and Holland.

Ultimately, there has been sly thinking and dealing from both Vitesse and Chelsea to manipulate the regulations for their own equal benefit that is difficult to argue with whilst Vitesse are top of the table – although questions always remain over Chelsea’s ability to develop youth players for their squad rather than continuous investment, ie. Willian being signed when Moses and Piazon are loaned. Although not the only relationship between clubs that could be deemed questionable, many questions are thrown up from the whole story and when the end comes to building a ‘B’ side around Europe that there can be a basis of Chelsea-owned players potentially winning the Eredivisie (although a long way off) seems wrong to many and unfair on the rest, not benefitting the division in the long-term whatsoever. Vitesse and Chelsea are piercing a loophole to the point of bringing the loan system into disrepute, damaging the Dutch game and makes Chelsea’s own development of their young players questionable, despite great for Vitesse in the short-term and good to see the young players given a chance; I wonder what Vitesse fans think of the concept.

By Sam Cox.

 Dutch Football - Truly A Beautiful Game.
Posted by Sam Cox.

The Eredivisie may not be regarded as the strongest league in Europe, but its impact upon the world game is still sensational. The state of Dutch football may not be at the magical heights of Cryuff’s days and the total football revolution, but a national team that reached a world cup final hardly reflects the strength of the Eredivisie – with the finance available to most around Europe proving to have the clout to belittle Dutch strength in elite European competition.

Rather than the Eredivisie being a place to make your name and become a Ballon D’or contender, the Dutch national league has become much like the Kindergarten of European football, setting up careers for many of the best around and a league of technique and quality but ultimately posing no threat to the order of European football despite having a club of Ajax’s size. The Netherlands national side have shown signs of a change in style, with the brutal tactics employed by De Jong and co. in the 2010 World Cup final as they attempted to obliterate the all-conquering Spain, rarely reflected by the play in Eredivisie that is spouting out players of the best quality for consumption by giants across Europe.

Class oozes out of many of the top Dutch players, Champions League winners included playing at some of the biggest teams in the world as Ajax once where, but turn providers for the very best. By no means doing the Dutch clubs an injustice with transfer fees, the other European leagues are willing to invest in players making their name in Holland before their chance to make their career at the top level – but the risk is hardly negligible, with plenty of big money investments from success in Eredivisie proving embarrassing, Mateja Kezman’s brief yet telling spell at Chelsea an indictment of the mistakes made on successful spells in Holland (Kezman netted 105 times in 122 outings for PSV before his transfer to Chelsea).
Contrastingly to Kezman’s spell in the limelight, we have seen recent moves for Wilfried Bony and Jozy Altidore to English football as a result of prolific spells in Holland as they signed for Swansea and Sunderland respectively. These two are the latest in a line of Dutch exports to hit the English leagues, Ivorian and
American but very much earning their chance in English football with spells in Eredivisie following in the footsteps of some top players who have dominated Europe.

Most notably we have seen the move from Ajax to Liverpool of the trouble-making yet tantalisingly gifted Luis Suarez, followed this summer by the £12million move of Danish playmaker Christian Eriksen to Tottenham after a transfer battle between many of Europe’s giants. Previously, we’ve seen Wesley Sneijder make his name in Holland before travelling Europe including a sensational treble winning season, Rafael van der Vaart begun to impact European football with his time in Holland before he later joined Tottenham and Real Madrid – a running theme in these hugely investable talents has been exquisite technical ability, something heavily lacked from British players, hardly unsurprising they are such a prized asset to their clubs.
Dutch football may no longer have teams competing for the top podium of the European game, but Ajax’s recent Champions League endeavours have won hearts with the style at which they’ve taken on some of the
World’s best sides – their best national team stars around the top clubs, both Robin van Persie and Arjen Robben proving the difference in big games throughout the last season – after Robben’s origins at PSV playing a pivotal role at several big European clubs but topped it all with the winning Champions League goal and van Persie’s season proved massively influential to Manchester United’s regaining of the Premier League title.

The best of the Dutch players may no longer be in the Eredivisie but the league’s influence on European football cannot be underestimated, the popularity of top clubs to loan players to hone their skills in Holland is a testament to the importance of the division on the quality of football played across the world.

By Sam Cox.