Meerdink Travel: Lessons From a Busy Summer

Without an audience in the stands, on Tuesday afternoon at 5 p.m., the Dutch Juniors in Venlo kick off for the qualifying series on the way to the European Championship. Does not sound like a great football ambiance, but necessary because of the opponent: Jong Israel.

National coach Michael Traveler does not get excited about it, but he understands the measures taken at the front. “War is of course no one fun for anyone. If athlete you want to play for full stadiums. I don’t know what exactly is involved in practice. But let me state that we understand the decision.”

The national coach has had a turbulent summer. Football -loving the Netherlands spoke around the striker issue at the Juniors for weeks around the European Championship last summer. AZ striker Mexx Meerdink was left at home.

“We should have done more to remove the noise at the front about whether or not to select Mexx. We should have made that clear. In it we might have been able to work together with AZ or with Mexx, to make it clear why we had come to this choice.”

That did not happen now, so that the choice of not taking the Alkmaar Targetman was discussed in almost every football talk program. When asked whether traveler has surprised that, the national coach visibly takes the time to come to an answer.

According to traveler, it was not an option to take Meerdink to Slovakia this summer. “From AZ we received the signal that he would not be fit enough to play the tournament. That’s why we decided not to take him with him.”

That seemed to be finished for traveler this summer, but nothing was less true. Just before the start of the new cycle, Fortuna Sittard player Mohamed Ihattaren told the NOS podcast Offside That he had heard from the KNVB that he would go to Slovakia. It became a cold fair for Ihattaren, which was not included in the selection.

“Not neat,” Ihattaren concluded. “It was not the national coach, but ‘someone’ within the KNVB. The person who hears this may feel addressed,” said the creative left leg, which has since announced to aspire to an international career for Morocco.

Traveler washes his hands in innocence. “That commitment did not come from me. It is not in my working method to promise players certain things.”

When asked whether someone with his permission went to Ihattaren to convey this message, he says: “That doesn’t matter. The person who ultimately tells and determines, I am. That is why I don’t see that we have made a mistake towards Ihattaren.” According to traveler, this is how communication from the KNVB to players is in order.