Feyenoord
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The red and white team from Rotterdam that makes up 1/3rd of the traditional top three "Eredivisie Giants", and one half of the infamous 'De Klasseiker' rivalry with Ajax of Amsterdam.
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The red and white team from Rotterdam that makes up 1/3rd of the traditional top three "Eredivisie Giants", and one half of the infamous 'De Klasseiker' rivalry with Ajax of Amsterdam.
A club with a rich history that includes 14 League titles, 11 Dutch Cups, 2 UEFA Cups, and a coveted Champions League... Bettered only by PSV and Ajax, De Club Van Zuid certainly has a trophy cabinet to boast about.
Yet as any rival fan or critic will tell you, glory lays only in the next trophy, and unfortunately for Feyenoord (minus one Dutch Cup and the second of it's two UEFA cups) the team has failed to win anything post Millenium.
Under these frustrating times it would seem that the glory of days gone by is slowly being brushed away like the dust off their nostalgic achievements.
An excellent Academy and footballing infrastructure, as well as maintaining it's loyal roots with iconic players such as Roy Makaay to Van Bronckhorst being employed across the club, this underachieving powerhouse has started to see a bright sky from between the shadow of it's heavyweight counterparts.
New Manager, New Dawn
Enter Adam Jefferson; the ex Pro who split his career between his hometown club of Blackburn Rovers and much loved Crystal Palace before a fractured knee, suffered while achieving his 36th cap for England, cut his career short at just 25.
Back in Holland - frustrated De Kuip manager Ronald Koeman has just resigned after guiding the Rotterdam club to second place in the 11/12 Eredivisie season, paving the way for hungry, ambitious and young manager Adam Jefferson to take control of an equally hungry,ambitious and young Feyenoord side.
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First Things First
Here is the the task of trying to push Feyenoord forward on what is a very limited financial situation. The club, not long since it was threatened with insolvency resulting in a transfer embargo, has been a selling club for longer than it would care to remember.
The down side of this is not being able to spend in order to regain. The plus side; it has made for a vast amount of wealth in developing young talent and built heavily, if not reliantly, on grassroots infrastructure.
Notable examples of this being the precocious defender De Vrij, the powerhouse that is Bruno Martins Indi, and the magic wonderkid Jordy Clasie.
View attachment 364791 View attachment 364792 View attachment 364793Enter Adam Jefferson; the ex Pro who split his career between his hometown club of Blackburn Rovers and much loved Crystal Palace before a fractured knee, suffered while achieving his 36th cap for England, cut his career short at just 25.
Back in Holland - frustrated De Kuip manager Ronald Koeman has just resigned after guiding the Rotterdam club to second place in the 11/12 Eredivisie season, paving the way for hungry, ambitious and young manager Adam Jefferson to take control of an equally hungry,ambitious and young Feyenoord side.
View attachment 364771
First Things First
Here is the the task of trying to push Feyenoord forward on what is a very limited financial situation. The club, not long since it was threatened with insolvency resulting in a transfer embargo, has been a selling club for longer than it would care to remember.
The down side of this is not being able to spend in order to regain. The plus side; it has made for a vast amount of wealth in developing young talent and built heavily, if not reliantly, on grassroots infrastructure.
Notable examples of this being the precocious defender De Vrij, the powerhouse that is Bruno Martins Indi, and the magic wonderkid Jordy Clasie.
As advantageous as it was to have such an excellent youth setup, it was of little use if I could not keep hold of the talents that came out of it. Therefore I decided to take the path that offered the most financial security with the least risk, and maybe at the same time provide for Dutch football as a whole too.
Therefore I chose young up-and-coming talent that could be nurtured and developed, and just as importantly, gel as a team from a young age....The Wenger philosophy had taken hold, though hopefully with better results.
Tactics and First Team
Having looked through the entire squad I found that Feyenoord actually has a pretty balanced squad. There seems to be a good mix of talented youth and experience in there, enough so that I didn't see too many changes being needed for now.
But if I could offload a few unwanted's then I could focus on developing and organising what was left, as well as bringing in a few new faces.
Starting off with the reserve and youth squads I released those that had a lower Star Rating of 1/5 and who wouldn't develop past a 3/5. Once done I went about loaning those that would benefit me in the future, but who weren't quite good enough as of yet.
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First Team:
A few average players were sent out the door to free up some funds, most notably Sekou Cisse and Gouyon Fernandez for a combined €5Mil. I had tried to get rid of Pelle (who would fetch me about €4Mil) and Kongolo (Too injury prone for my liking) Yet so far they're still on my Unwanted list.
Transfers in:
Keeping with my policy of buying young, I looked at strengthening my Def, Mid , and Att.
For this I decided to bring in cheap players that would develop excellently, most notably being Milosevic (who is a workhorse at the back), Magnus Wolff Eikrem in midfield, and the Romanian Rusescu in attack (more on him later, excellent buy for €2Mil)
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*Next up I'll post on my tactics, which have proven great for Feyenoord,who are still undefeated in the halfway through the league*
Comments, advice, or discussion very much appreciated.
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