There’s the moment the photographers had hoped for. Squatting on the sidelines, they patiently waited for the possibility that Arne Slot and Pascal Jansen would bump into each other this afternoon in the Kuip.
The two trainers just gave their forward-looking interviews to NOS and ESPN when they greet each other. Smiling faces, a pinch in the shoulder, a pat on the back. Click, click. Nothing suggests that the ex-trainer of AZ and his successor would no longer be able to go through one door. That would have been nonsense, Slot said last weekend. The former colleagues had just stopped texting each other.
Feyenoord-AZ. It would unmistakably be Slot’s match. The trainer had said in advance that it should mainly be about the match itself, but the more firmly he said that, the more the focus came to lie on him. They didn’t just catch up NOS Along the Line about a “spicy clash”. That was because of him, the trainer who was fired from AZ at the end of 2020 because he had entered into talks with Feyenoord, with which he would be in charge of AZ on Sunday.
Sweet revenge? “No, no resentment,” Slot swore afterwards. He’s not that type. See his broad smile between all the images of Feyenoord’s coaches in the Fred Blankemeijerzaal and you can imagine why. Compared to celebrities such as Leo Beenhakker, Dick Advocaat, Willem van Hanegem and Ronald Koeman, Slot seems more cuddly. Sober, friendly. Not a man who frowns when questions from the press don’t make sense to him.
In that sense, the role of antagonist did not suit him either. Yet he did become one. It was December 5, 2020 and suddenly Slot seemed to face the football world on his own. AZ had immediately fired him, after he had to acknowledge that he had spoken with Feyenoord after questions from the club management. Within thirty seconds he was outside again. His three and a half years of service at AZ came to an abrupt end. While those were such beautiful years.
Competitive Club
Nevertheless, they thought it was not possible in Alkmaar that he spoke with a competing club in the middle of the season. Slot did not understand the problem, which he will repeat after the duel with AZ. His contract was up, so why wasn’t he allowed to talk to a potential new employer? “Don’t we live in a country where someone whose contract is expiring can make free choices?”
That winter he had kept quiet to the press. He also had no facts to present that would cast a different light on his resignation. However, the tenor of the reporting surprised him. He felt that people who defended his choice could be counted on one hand. “In the football world, things like this happen all the time, don’t they?”
Two months later, his assistant at AZ, Marino Pusic, was also suspended when it became clear that he would follow Slot to Feyenoord. “I doubted for a while whether it was all real,” said Pushic later in The Telegraph. “But anything is possible in football. That’s why I’m like, don’t be surprised, just marvel.”
They have now both been on their way to Feyenoord for four months. Fertile months, in which Slot proved that it is possible to play offensive pressure football with Feyenoord, unlike his predecessor Dick Advocaat always claimed. This can also be seen on Sunday against AZ, which will certainly have their backs against the wall in the first half.
Hand of Lock
Pascal Jansen, his former assistant in Alkmaar, knew that Slot could let Feyenoord play football like this. He already said on Friday that he saw the hand of his former colleague in Feyenoord’s game, which sparkles more than in previous seasons. Football is once again entertainment in De Kuip, instead of a struggle that often felt like agony for supporters. The game goes faster. Players also look fitter. Only scoring is difficult.
It will come as no surprise to them at AZ that Slot benefits from new players. Gernot Trauner, Frederik Aursnes and Marcus Pedersen come from the scouting list in Alkmaar, it wrote. AD. And not only that. According to the newspaper, they also recognized the policy plan at AZ that the new head of methodology at Feyenoord, also a former AZ employee, presented in Rotterdam. “It shows a lot of similarities with the policy plan that the club wrote a few years ago.”
Feyenoord will care little. After all, they attracted Slot and his companions because of the good work he did in Alkmaar. In addition, Slot takes points. Also on Sunday, although just like last week at Sparta, the game will be decided again in the last minutes. Goalscorer: substitute Cyril Dessers. Again he. The same substitute who also made the Legion bounce with happiness at Sparta and Union Berlin.
Along the line, Slot is also ecstatic, as is his assistant Pusic. “Everything came up again the night before,” Slot would say not much later. Thinking about the thunder he endured, he must have fantasized about a victory like this.
A version of this article also appeared in NRC Handelsblad of 8 November 2021
A version of this article also appeared in NRC in the morning of November 8, 2021
