Dutch coach Bert van Marwijk looks stunned while he gets lectured by Van Persie after he was being substituted during the World Cup in South Africa

COMOX, BC   ●   First it was Fabregas who revolted so in the end he could play for his first love Barcelona, right now Robin van Persie and Luka Modric are pulling a ‘Fabregas’ to force a transfer from respectively Arsenal and  Tottenham Hotspur.

Both players claim they want to move on to other teams to win ‘silver ware’.

Nothing wrong with that you could say, but really all I’m hearing is Jessie J’s hit Price Tag in my head.

Modric has always said Tottenham Hotspur would not be his end station and in fact he may sign with Real Madrid within the next couple of days. On the other hand, last year we heard that Modric was on the brink of signing with Chelsea and we all know what happened then. Nothing.

Modric stayed with Spurs, had a fairly decent season, and saw manager Harry Redknapp after the season ended being replaced by Andre Villas-Boas, the manager who was so keen to get him to Chelsea last season. You would think that would be a score for Modric and Spurs.

The fact that Chelsea by winning the Champions League took away Spurs spot in the most prestigious competition in the world, obviously changed the ball game and it is now hurting Tottenham.

Even luring Andre Villas Boas to White Hart Lane could not change Modric’s mind and now AVB already lost interest in a not interested Modric.

Villas Boas already noted he could live with a Modric departure as long as Rafael van der Vaart stayed put in London.

That really does not show much confidence and trust in Modric, who did not much to help his own case by not showing up for practice and the trip to the USA.

Words were said, fines were issued; not really something you would need as a player and a club at the beginning of a new season and a new chapter. It just gives unnecessary friction.

A couple of miles down the road in London, Robin van Persie who so desperately wants to win prizes is certainly not winning any popularity prizes either.

The captain of Arsenal had a wonderful season for the Gunners in a year he finally was injury free.

Arsenal profited during that horrible opening of the season with Robin van Persie almost on his own keeping the Gunners afloat.

The fans awarded him with a devotion only equaled by Thierry Henry and Dennis Bergkamp in earlier days.

With the four tweeted words ‘I will leave Arsenal’ Van Persie threw all that away. Just like that.

Arsene Wenger, who certainly is not without blame by not willing to open ‘his’ wallet to give a bit more security for Van Persie himself, his wife, his kids, his future grandchildren and great great grandchildren, still is hoping Van Persie will be persuaded to stay at Arsenal.

It seems a bit weak from Le Professeur, but it is also endearing. Wenger still believes in The Greater Good, sees the best in his players, but in the end, like Fabregas before him – Nasri and Adebayor were totally different cases – he will see Van Persie, who also is not traveling with his team, pack his bags at The Emirates.

And maybe he should wrap Van Persie up and send him off to another club. Why put your trust in a player who shows no loyalty and really thinks only about himself and not the bigger picture. You can ask Dutch coach Bert van Marwijk how that worked for him. It eventually cost him his job at the national squad of The Netherlands.

Let the Modric’s and Van Persie’s find other pastures. Preferably not on the British Isles, but if they must, let future clubs be warned. Players like Modric and Van Persie may be appealing, but maybe they should also ask around before letting them in their dressing rooms.

And let’s not talk about what will happen if, Heavens forbid, once again these sulking and dissatisfied players will end up empty handed and with no open bus tour through the streets of Manchester, Madrid, Turin or Paris.

Carla Boers

COMOX, BC   ●   The Netherlands have appointed Louis van Gaal as their new head coach.

Well, in fact not that new, as the 60-year old already had a stint with the Dutch twelve years ago, when he became the last coach who failed to qualify with The Netherlands for a major tournament, in this case the World Cup of 2002.

Therefor Louis van Gaal now gets the opportunity to set the record straight.

It is an opportunity Van Gaal, undeniable one of Holland’s most successful coaches, has been eager to accept.

“This is the challenge I have been waiting for”, he said in a short statement after being appointed by the Dutch FA.

Nothing more, nothing less.

The reactions in The Netherlands on the appointment of Van Gaal have been much divided.

If you are a fan of Ajax Amsterdam you probably will be delighted with the return of Van Gaal, as a supporter of Feyenoord and PSV you may have second thoughts and if you are a reporter you probably already dreading the upcoming press conferences.

While Louis van Gaal is a coach who favours the style of Ajax and the way Holland used to marvel the world, he is notorious for his ‘dislike’ of the press.

His cynical remark ‘Am I so smart, or are you so stupid’ towards a journalist who asked him a question, is famous and still well used by many on the fields and in the streets of Holland.

Also famous are his tirades and lectures on and off the field, which for instance drove Franck Ribery crazy at Bayern Munich.

With his appointment the Dutch FA did not opt for the easy way and we probably can wait for many headlines coming out of the woods of Zeist, the headquarters of the KNVB (Royal Dutch FA).

They did on the other hand choose a manager who probably has the best credentials to get Holland back on the rails after the disaster in Poland and Ukraine.

With a team that is getting a bit long in the tooth, the time is there to start building a whole new Oranje team.

And except for maybe Pep Guardiola, I had my hopes set on him, there is no one better than Van Gaal, The Builder.

Because the KNVB probably never will hire a foreign coach, even though the Guardiola style is based on Dutch ingredients from Johan Cruyff, Frank Rijkaard and even maybe a sprinkle of Louis van Gaal, we all can only hope Van Gaal and his friend Danny Blind during the next two years will create something amazing, which will leave us, every single fan of football, in awe.

And if, or better when, he can lead The Netherlands during the 2014 World Cup in Brazil to the only Prize he and the whole Dutch nation so desperately want, Louis van Gaal will never have to say again ‘Friends of the press, I’m leaving you. Congratulations.’

Because then he will be larger than life. Larger than The One from Barcelona, larger than the Special One from Madrid, larger than any manager in the world.

Louis, good luck.

Carla Boers

Thomas Mueller can’t believe Germany lost 

COMOX, BC  ●  After three weeks of football, we are at the eve of the final of EURO 2012. The endgame will be between expected Spain and not so expected Italy.

Let’s be honest, who would have thought Germany would be put to shame like this?

The Germans who in the past always did get better and better during a tournament and in the end, often enough took home the prize.

Over the past four years this has changed. Spain beat them four years ago in the final, during the World Cup in South Africa they struggled to go past the group phase, and now, even when they did very well early on in the tournament, they were just a bleak copy of themselves in the semi-finals against Italy.

You have to admit, this was not the team we saw over the last couple of weeks. Timid and un-German like behavior did them in against an Italy, that really was not that great in the first fifteen minutes of the game.

So, where did it all go wrong for Germany? Was it a wrong line-up sent in the field by Joachim Loew? Some would say yes.

At first I thought too it was not the right plan of attack with Gomez and Podolski, but then I wondered if that ‘ueberhaupt’ had anything to do with it.

Talking as a former ‘Dutchie’, hating the Germans should be in my blood. I know, I know, so many years after the war we all should move on, but it is not something you get over so easily.

Berti Vogts and Johan Cruyff battle it out in the finale of the 1974 World Cup

So normally we hate the German teams with a passion. Mention the year 1974 to a Dutchman and see how he crumbles and starts to cry. It still and will always hurt that Germany in that year beat The Netherlands in the final of the World Cup. Compare that to 2010 and you will get a totally different shoulder raising reaction.

No, losing to Germany went straight to the core.

Holland hates the Germans. Period.

But you know what, during Euro2012 those feelings did not bubble up like they used to. I actually found myself cheering for Die Mannschaft at some points and was wondering what was wrong with me.

You simply don’t cheer for Germany unless you are a German.

And maybe we get a little bit more to the point here.

There are a lot of likable players in the German team. Frankly I can’t think of a single player I do not like. Super Mario, Reus, Kroos, Neuer, Lahm, Podolski and even a German with the most German name of them all, Bastian Schweinsteiger, is sort of ‘nice’.

We love to hate ‘m: Lothar Mattheus (L) and Rudy Voeller

They are not like the Muellers, Beckenbauers, Rummenigges, Matthäuses, Voellers, Kahns, Ballacks of the past.

Can you detest Joachim Loew, their coach? No.  He certainly is no Uli Hoeness.

Maybe that’s why Germany are not winning the big prizes anymore. Nobody hates to play against them anymore.

The respect is gone and with that a big chunk of the magic.

So, what the Germans need is anything but a new coach. What they need is one or two players who are a chip of the old German block.

Players, who are so good and have that German superiority aura around them that we so despicably dislike.

Then, only then will everything be right in the world of soccer.

We need a fairy tale with a villain in it. How famous would Snow White be without her evil step mother and what kind of a movie would Star Wars be without Darth Vader?

We need the Evil Germans, not these cutie pies….

Carla Boers

Even after another totally disgraceful decision by not allowing Ukraine an equaliser against England, former top referee and today’s boss of all referees Pierluigi Collina still says technology has no place in today’s football.

Unbelievable.

You know who that reminds me of? My math teacher in grade 11.

I can still remember clearly how he showed us students one of the first electronic calculators.

“It is a miracle machine, absolutely fantastic”, while he caressed the small grey plastic case of the Invention of The Century.

“But”, as you know there is always a but. ‘But”, he said, “You will never be allowed to use it do your home work or during your exams !”

Yeah right, see where that went not much later. Right out of the window.

It is called progress.

And so is goal-line technology.

It would be nice if we did not need it, the truth is at a professional level we absolutely do.

We can make concessions and let humans make their mistakes at amateur levels. I think everybody will be fine with that.

We don’t need it when our kids get into a discussion whether the ball crossed the line or not. Too bad, score a couple of goals more to make up for it.

At a professional level, where the stakes in today’s commercial market are that high, goal-line technology has to be introduced today rather than tomorrow.

The stakes are simply too high.

Both Sepp Blatter – now suddenly a reborn goal-line technologist – and Michel Platini have been working as dogs to get the bling into football. So much money is involved, that sometimes you wonder that there is still space for countries like Poland, Ukraine and yes even Greece,  to make it to the final of a big tournament.

Like Quark used to say in Star Trek: There is no profit in that.

The smaller football nations don’t have Messi’s, Ronaldo’s and Rooney’s in their midst who attract the big companies to spend billions on soccer rights.

But surely that won’t be the reason for not introducing goal-line technology instantly. Nobody will ever be able to blame ‘sorry, human error’ for the fact that not France but Ukraine would advance to the next round of a big tournament.

And believe me, I don’t think this is the circumstance now.

In the case of denying goal-line technology,  it is that other human element. The craving for nostalgia. The good old days. Old School. The inability to adapt to a new age and time.

Technology is here, it will never go away. Now embrace it and use it, for everybody’s and football’s sake.

Carla Boers