‘Stepping down at PSV considered decision’

The sudden departure of Ruud van Nistelrooij at PSV has caused a stir. The club’s management felt overwhelmed when the coach quit on Wednesday, one game before the end of the season.

Van Nistelrooij himself does not yet want to explain his decision, but his business manager and close friend Rodger Linse does comment, “It has been a well-considered decision.”

PSV had indicated in a conversation with Van Nistelrooij on Tuesday that there were complaints about his methods. “Then we discussed all possible scenarios together,” Linse said. “Ruud is both principled and realistic. But this decision is more realistic than principled.”

At PSV, Ruud van Nistelrooij’s departure came as a thunderclap:

The details remain forthcoming for now. Linse does not want to burn his fingers on it.

“It is very difficult to lay hands on it,” he outlines the situation at PSV, as far as he has seen it. According to him, the game shown showed no signs that something was wrong. “The top games were won on the basis of unity and unanimity within the team. If that wasn’t right, that would manifest itself.”

And he also said the turn the management took in the media was striking. “First it was told that players complained to the management. At the press conference it was said that the players were sent away and had to discuss this with the coach himself.”

Van Nistelrooij was in his first season as head coach, a season of high highs and deep lows.

The Johan Cruijff Schaal was won, as was the KNVB Cup. In the league, PSV placed second, putting them on course to qualify for the preliminary rounds of the Champions League. That was not the initial goal, but halfway through the season Cody Gakpo and Noni Madueke were sold for a lot of money.

Although the game was sometimes found conservative, PSV scored the most of any club in the premier league. Xavi Simons broke through, as a great tastemaker on the Dutch fields.

PSV also occasionally sank through the bottom line, with defeats at SC Cambuur, FC Groningen and FC Emmen, among others. And Van Nistelrooij could only justify everything, especially after the dismissal of technical director John de Jong.

“Ruud was often on his own then,” Linse concludes. “A board with strong leadership could also say: this is the trainer’s line and this is the norm.”

By the way, Linse will by no means say that PSV has dropped trainer Van Nistelrooij. “It’s more like a difference of vision,” he said.

PSV icons react to Ruud van Nistelrooij’s departure:

PSV and Ruud van Nistelrooij, they seemed so inseparable.

“PSV is really his club. He has put his heart and soul into it,” Linse also notes. “When that story about those complaints came out, a lot was released in a short time. There was a snowball effect.”

Just sitting out that last game, visiting AZ to secure spot two, proved even a bridge too far. After that, there could have been extensive evaluation and further construction of PSV’s team.

Van Nistelrooij is not there just to survive, but demands the utmost of himself and his players every day. And when the working conditions no longer allow that, it is simply finished.

Linse: “A courageous decision by an independent mind.”