I will be fired at Fortuna Sittard

After the painful 4-1 home defeat against Cambuur, Fortuna Sittard trainer Sjors Ultee takes a look at Instagram in bed. There he sees on the club account that all training sessions that week have been decided. “I was not aware of that, as a head coach. So I already knew that I had to come to the office the next day,” Ultee said.

That Instagram post came after a period when Ultee had already gotten the impression that the end of his employment was approaching. “I felt the tension and pressure build,” he says in Along the Line And Surroundings.

That was often the case, but now the tone also changed, the young coach looks back. Ultee was indeed fired a day later.

By who? “When I came to the club the next day, I had a conversation with the technical management. They thought I had decided to keep the training sessions. But after a call they found out that this was not the case and someone else came in. the club had decided this.”

Ultee had just started his third season as head coach in Sittard. In his first season, he finished eleventh with the newly promoted Fortuna. The following year was difficult, but on the last day enforcement was a fact.

In that hectic final phase of the season, Ultee had sometimes doubted himself, or his vision. But the club did not, they even wanted to extend his contract.

Everything was different after the summer, because after defeats (calculated by Ultee) against Ajax and FC Twente, the pressure was already increased. Ultee talks about force fields in football, he got the impression that he couldn’t do it right anymore. “I noticed that the conversations went differently. The differences of insight in conversations became bigger and bigger.”

According to Ultee, Burak Yilmaz is not the reason for his departure. Ultee has nice words for the Turkish superstar, who was brought to Sittard by the Turkish owner of the club. “People who are very good always have something special. But when it’s exciting, they get up,” says Ultee.

The Utrechter had never worked with such a great player before and therefore had to get used to the greatness of Yilmaz. “People sometimes say: nobody is bigger than the club. But he may be bigger than the club.” Still, Ultee describes the striker as “humble” and “super sociable”.

Now Sjors Ultee has plenty of time to think about his future. For the time being, it is not located in Belgium, Japan or Poland. He has been fishing for his services from those countries, but he does not want to think about a new club until after the winter.

Until then, he’s trying to become a better coach. With the help of Louis van Gaal. Ultee was allowed to visit his great example in Portugal to talk about the profession. The most important lesson he learned there: have a vision and stick to it and be a good person.

“I think the latter is the most beautiful conclusion of the trainer profession,” says Ultee.