Marco van Basten ashamed!

By: Jan | October 5th, 2008

Gerald Sibon celebrating the first goal…

Marco van Basten didn’t have one good word to say about his Ajax, after being slaughtered by Heerenveen (5-2).

He was back in his old role as superstar at AC Milan with extremely high standards and no time for losers. He took his players apart at the press conference as a samurai attacking a koi karper.

“So, this was a totally new experience for me,” said the coach, who never ever was this angry during his Oranje tenure of four years. “I have never been humiliated like this before. I don’t understand a single thing of this. You’re an Ajax player, you wear the club colors and then you’re being taken for a ride. To the cleaners. Un-be-lieve-able!! I wasn’t comfortable on my chair or we were trailing 2-0! And I was waiting for the lads to respond. To stretch their backs and spit in their hands. And I didn’t see a thing! I am sorry to have to say this, but it felt like they never played a match in the rain before. They were just standing there… Like a deer gazing into headlights. Not even helping each other out, or coaching, or whatever… They responded weird. A disgrace. What can I say?”

“Against Willem 2, we were overrun and this game deservedly went to Heerenveen. Another confirmation that our players are mentally weak. These are “nice-weather’ players. We need mentality. And quality.”

Van Basten hoped to regain the initiative in the second half, playing one on one at the back, but Heerenveen coach Sollied didn’t flinch and took the four strikers (Huntelaar, Suarez, Rommedahl and Cvitanich) on with the same tactics.

Especially the Danish center back marking Huntelaar played like the gladiator or someone from “300″.

Van Basten: “That goes to show eh? That guy just came back from injury and he had Klaas Jan for lunch. Even individually, they were on top.”

Van Basten did visit referee Vink after the game but doesn’t want to blame the ref. “We didn’t lose due to the ref. It was a bit questionable though, why he gave Van der Wiel two yellows and not to that Heerenveen player who also got a penalty against him. Grindheim should have gotten red as well. That was all. Vink said he did what he felt was needed. So, end of discussion. But we lost because of us.”

Man of the Match Pranjic, scoring another goal, said: “It’s interesting, with Feyenoord, Ajax and PSV not playing too well, maybe it’s possible this time around you know? Maybe Heerenveen can win the title this year…”

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