NOS Football••Amended
“I have never experienced this. As a player and not as a trainer.” The German trainer Rüdiger Rehm does not know what he is experiencing at Vitesse. Every day, players come to the training complex Papendal who may strengthen his selection.
A day before the game at Jong AZ, Vitesse recorded enough players to play. Only Thursday morning three players were presented: Nathan Markelo, Marco Schikora and Maximilian Brüll.
The expectation is that Vitesse will announce more acquisitions today. “I only saw some players for the first time today and are in the selection tomorrow. That is very strange,” says Rehm.
Players of training field picked
This morning, two players were picked from the training field this morning and directed to the main building. The 19-year-old midfielder Yuval Ranon and the 21-year-old defender Michel Driezen still had to put a signature, so that Vitesse could hand in the players list for the game of Friday evening at noon.
Vitesse trainer Rehm today got to know players on training: ‘Never experienced it’
The German striker Elias Huth, who, just like the above football players, is announced as a new player later today, was also registered just in time.
Captain Alexander Büttner saw it all happen. “You know what situation you are in and that everything has to happen at the last minute. But it all worked out well. Of course it is separate that you play a match tomorrow with players that you hardly know, but I am already happy that we can play again tomorrow.”
The Arnhem club had to look hastily in search of reinforcements because many players had left the first team after the judge in summary had ruled that the professional license had been withdrawn.
When the club was allowed to return to professional football after an appeal, the selection was not in order. Vitesse had fewer than ten contract players after the deflation.
‘Hectic day’
This week a lot of transfer -free players were offered at the Arnhem club and several have been tested. For example, there has been a friendly match on Papendal to judge players.
As a result, there were 24 players on the training field on Papendal on Thursday morning and a few keepers. Among them also youth and test players, such as Patrick Joosten (former Willem II and FC Utrecht).
“It’s a hectic day,” says defender Justin Bakker. “Fortunately, if you are on the field, you don’t get much of it. But a lot happens around the club.”
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Nathan Markelo signs with Vitesse -
Maximilian Brüll also signs a contract in Arnhem -
And Marco Schikora also connects to the club
With all the new players, Vitesse has to perform in the first division. The Arnhem club starts at -12 points, due to a punishment that the club received by the KNVB at the end of the previous season.
‘First brush those -12 away’
“I think the biggest challenge is to grab as many points as possible in the coming period. First brush those -12 points away and then look further,” says Bakker.
But that is easier said than done, says the German trainer Rehm. “We are in a very special situation and that also creates a special task. It will be a tough task to quickly make a team of this.”
This morning Rehm shook hands with new players. “I can’t estimate how it will go until the winter break. I can’t do the work that you normally do in six or seven weeks in one week. Okay, we may have had a longer preparation period, but we didn’t have a team.”
“We hope to be a unit as soon as possible that will compete for yellow and black. I already have the eleven names for tomorrow in my head.”
