‘All of Rotterdam is waiting for you to say he’s staying’

When Michel van Egmond and Martijn Krabbendam recorded their first Dick Voormekaar Podcast about Feyenoord in late August 2020, everything was still different. “Watching Feyenoord is fine, but you have to drink something with it,” said writer Van Egmond. With Dick Advocaat as coach, the club would finish fifth that season.

Good times or bad, the stories and anecdotes kept coming. “I noticed that you never run out of things to say about Feyenoord,” Van Egmond said. “We started two and a half years ago and haven’t stopped,” said Feyenoord watcher Krabbendam of Voetbal International.

Now the club from Rotterdam-Zuid is at the top of the premier league, this weekend the national title can be secured. “You can look at this Feyenoord soberly,” Van Egmond confessed.

It’s raining Tuesday afternoon in Rotterdam as Van Egmond, Krabbendam and technician Sjoerd Keizer record the 31st episode of season three. “But for Feyenoord supporters, the sun is shining,” says Krabbendam.

There is no excitement in the city about whether it will really work out, the podcast makers note. “Everyone is confident,” says Van Egmond. “I don’t see any doubt. That’s a little different from six years ago. That was the title of redemption. This is the title of regularity. It creates pride.”

The arrival of trainer Arne Slot caused a revolution two years ago. Van Egmond and Krabbendam were initially skeptical. “In all honesty, we thought another trainer was coming who wanted to change everything,” Krabbendam states.

“My humble apologies for all that cynicism in the beginning,” Van Egmond adds.

Meanwhile, Slot is “King Arne. During Tuesday’s podcast, a fan came to hand out his merchandise with a picture of Slot with king’s robe and crown on his head. “Slot is the best trainer I have experienced at Feyenoord,” Krabbendam states.

For the podcast makers and fans, Slot is the man behind the success at Feyenoord. The nervousness among supporters is therefore not about whether or not he will take the national title, but whether or not Slot will stay on.

“All of Rotterdam is waiting for you to say Slot will stay,” Van Egmond tells Krabbendam. “Of course he will stay,” Krabbendam responded. “He has a contract until 2025 and no clause this year. Feyenoord can ask what it wants.”

Van Egmond reveals his dream, presumably the dream of the entire Legion. It is a dream about the inauguration, with a leading role for Arend Martijn Slot, as the coach’s full name is.

“My dream is that Arend will address the people and then he will unveil it,” Van Egmond says. “That he then shouts, a little cryptically, ‘Next year we’ll go for it together.’ I think Arend himself envisions that.”