FC Emmen - Holland's New Glory

"Guys, yesterday was a horrible outing from you guys. We had the title up for grabs, and what did you do? You guys all decided to have a collective offday. Because I, and with me my team, find this unacceptable in how we lost 0-1, that we decided that today you guys have some extra exercise, and thats why we are here." I walked to the start of the IJstijdpad in Oranjedorp. "You are gonna run this whole path, and I see you at the finish. The first 5 will have a spot in the next game, the last 5 wont even on the bench. It's up to you to earn your place."

What a bizarre season so far. Having a 15y old who is 2nd on the scoringsheet, having a 36y old with the highest average rating of the league, having the topassister at my team, and being able to scold my team over 1 bad performerance after 20 good ones. Getting to the semi-finals against the biggest team in the Netherlands, having the oppurtunity to become champions quite early in the season. Yeah, I must say I do a better job at FC Emmen than Blind could have ever done at the Dutch NT.

I took my bike, and cycled down the path. "Come on Rajiv, I expect you to be in the top 10." Rajiv smiled, and looked up: "Yeah, Ill run the last 3km, should be enough." A few hundred meters were a small group. "Guys, remember, the last 5 wont even on the bench." And with that Antoine decided to step up the pace.

And with that, every short while I would see a few of my players, and I have everyone some feedback. Rajiv was tailing my bike now, so I was sure he would make the cut. I only saw 1 player, about 600m ahead of me. I decided to accelerate a bit, seeing if Rajiv could follow me, and check the player ahead. After I caught him, I saw it was Case. "Hey Boss, I decided to take a smokebreak after I was more than a kilometer ahead, and now I'm just relaxed jogging." I looked back, and only Rajiv was close, the others were a long way away. "Well, you still have 3 km to go, see you at the finishline."

At the end of the IJstijdpad, I sat down on a bench, and watched everyone get in. After the last one came in, I stood: "Guys, this was just a good exercise run, not even a punishment. You can go home now, and take the rest of the day off. I expect you tomorrow 9am sharp completely ready for training, as we will win the next match, otherwise some people get fines." Waving them away, I grabbed a cigar, and called a buddy: "Hey, do you still have to help me next season?"


February Results:

The beer was flowing, the liquor free, and the cup in our hands. We did it. Our first season, at least with me on the board, and we won the league and direct promotion to the Eredivisie. And what a party it was.

The guys were good enough motivated to know what was at stake: Either win the league against our main rival, or get fined so heavily they couldnt afford their carpayments for the rest of the season. And with that attitude they went into the match with out main Rival Sc Veendam.

We started of amazingly bad: 42 seconds in, and our goalie already needed to get the ball out of his goal. 1-0 behind. Luckily we were anxious to win, and Antoine van der Linder (my 36y old veteran) scored the 1-1 after 101 seconds. It became clearer and clearer each minute that SC Veendam didnt came here to win, but not to lose. 3 yellow cards later in the first half, we didnt score, and just before half time we got lucky: They grabbed a red card.

And that was our sign to come out of the dressing room as hellish as we could be. 50th min: Case 2-1, 54th min: Gouweleeuw 3-1, 56th min: Elzinga 4-1. From that moment we decided to calmly play it out. Case scored the 5-1 in the 70th minute, and Meulenbroek decided someone needed to get injured, so he kicked Jelle Wagenaar towards the 2nd ring, getting him booked and Wagenaar Benched.

Now we have just 2 major matches to go: PSV Eindhoven in the Semi's and probably Ajax in the final. Let's see how sweet this season can be, also wth my regenintake coming up:

March Madness:


Argueable a bad month. The 5-1 win brought us the leaguewin, the 1-1 was just a bad game, the 1-0 win could have been a 1-0 loss and I couldnt complain, the 2-2 draw was after being 2-0 behind. I just hope they manage to pull off an upset next match, or the season is over.

Fantastic season, glad to see you secured promotion and now you have a tie to PSV in the cup. Bit of a dream season really

Walking on the traininggrounds for the yearly open day for youngsters, I was surprised by the amount of youngsters who came around. Instead of the expected 20, we had 50 people, which we quickly divided into 3 teams, which we let train seperately for the day. I looked through the teams, and I saw a reasonable bunch of players, and 4 who were surely future stars.

After selecting 18 people, who could be added to the youthteam, and getting them all up into our shirts, I called out my own youths, and instructed them to test the youngsters, but keep them without injury. Nearing the end of the match, my own youths were 1-2 behind, and I saw that the 4 gems were really doing well.

When the match ended, I walked up the pitch, and called everyone towards me: "Well, I see 4 people who will come with me, those 4 will get contracts. The others who will get contracts will be contacted by my staff. Jordi Beukers, Jeroen van Gelder, Alexander Hofmans and Mike van der Weide. You 4 can come with me now."

Introducing the Fantastic Four from this intake:

Bloody hell, they are some players you got there You're sorted for the next ten years with them four alone!

What a day to get my first red card of the season
What a day to collectively start missing every shot
What a day to not listen to instructions
What a day to completely Fuck Up your instructions.

1 chance to win the cup as a 2nd tier team. And my team collectively fuck up. And they knew it in the dressingroom afterwards. A few broken mirrors, a few broken ego's, and some demolished players. What a complete offday.

After we came back to the stadium, I told them all to give me their carkeys, and they could walk home. No pay for that week either. First losing 2 points in extra time the match before, against the number last of the division was already bad enough. But this? This was just a shamefull day for everyone at the club, and thus so they didnt earn driving priviliges, or pay. Tomorrow will be quite the day when they will get some extra hard, extra long training, and everyone who isnt up to it, will get sold.

Cupfinal shots:

April results:

Those regens are amazing looking. Also tough loss but will you be making Europe at all if Vitesse are already lock in a spot due to the league position?

No, Vitesse has the spot. So Im stuck with being in the league.