We might not always win the trophy (actually, we hardly ever do) but we usually win the blame game after the tournament. Whether it was 1980 Euros, with the AZ players trying to break the Ajax dominance, the 1990 WC, with Beenhakker pushed onto the squad instead of Cruyff, the 1996Euros with Davids/Hiddink or the Van Gaal debacle in 2002…

According to the well informed media, there were again two camps in the squad. Camp Sneijder (Robben, Vaart, De Jong, Huntelaar, Van der Wiel, Heitinga and the little big man) versus Camp Van Persie (Boulah, Afellay, Van Bommel, Van Persie himself). The Sneijder camp wanted all out Ajax-like attack. Van Persie wanted WC2010 style tactics. The result? Half the team played upfront, half the team pushed their behinds in their own box.

It’s not clear where Willems stood, but footage shows there were times he wasn’t even aware himself…

The tension increased and at a certain point someone in the staff told Huntelaar: “And now you shut our face or we exit you from the players’ hotel!”.

The post match interviews clearly demonstrated that some players felt they weren’t enabled to play their normal game. In particular Greg van der Wiel had tears in eyes of anger when he said this team didn’t allow him to play to his strengths and that his relationship with Oranje was disastrous.

Arjen Robben concurred “things had happened” while Van der Vaart said he “didn’t think it was appropriate to mention the reasons for this drama right now”…

And to make matters worse! The so-called Oranje fans at Schiphol Airport this time around didn’t show up as Orange Indian chiefs or dressed in traditional frocks. Instead they came in anger to lynch a couple of players and a coach. Van Persie was yelled at “arsehole!” while all the players were made out as “money wolves”…

Can you imagine?

This is unimaginable for me… You support your team through thick and thin. Sometimes they grab silver, sometimes it all goes to pieces. That is when they need the support most.

If you want these lads (or others) to bounce back, you need to support them.

People have made mistakes ( players, coach, KNVB) but life goes on and the key thing is to take those mistakes and learn and adapt.

Here, we will follow the homecoming of the Oranje team for a bit and will then move on to analysis. What went wrong? What would be a better strategy? What options do we have? Which players will be key?

While we also follow the rest of the tournament.

And look out for the new season’s warm ups…

Exciting times ahead!!