Rafael van der Vaart exclusive: "Leaving Tottenham was the most stupid decision of my career"
- Thread starter Indisguise
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I love and miss VDV, but I have to be the contrarian here and go against the AVB hate parade this has brought along. He told VDV that he wasnt first choice so he bailed? First off, in what world is that not a motivational tactic to get someone to prove himself and become an even better player? Second off, didnt he leave because of personal issues with his wife?
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That 2010 / 2011 & 2011 / 12 team very good... don't forget the great defense.. Gomes Charlie daws leds BAE.... VDV was just fantastic at scoring from the loose ball, knock downs.. etc, Everytime I saw him in his 2 years at WHL 60 mins he was subbed... Knackered... but gave us a high % chances to win.
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I guess we all read the bits of the article we want to read.
I read that and immediately saw this:
And the bit in bold immediately confirmed to me what I always suspected, which was that he moved back to Germany to try to save his marriage.
We all know the story about AVB telling VDV that he wasn't an automatic selection. That does show what a poor judge of footballers AVB could be, but it also reflected the degree of indulgence that VDV required: rarely up to finishing 90 minutes, needing an attacking formation to be built around his skills [and his ego] and not the best at tackling or closing down.
None of that adds up to him being "pushed out". It adds up to him needing to leave for personal reasons and AVB failing, foolishly, to give him any reason to stay.
P.S. I love him referring to AVB as "what's his name". Mischievous.
I read that and immediately saw this:
And the bit in bold immediately confirmed to me what I always suspected, which was that he moved back to Germany to try to save his marriage.
We all know the story about AVB telling VDV that he wasn't an automatic selection. That does show what a poor judge of footballers AVB could be, but it also reflected the degree of indulgence that VDV required: rarely up to finishing 90 minutes, needing an attacking formation to be built around his skills [and his ego] and not the best at tackling or closing down.
None of that adds up to him being "pushed out". It adds up to him needing to leave for personal reasons and AVB failing, foolishly, to give him any reason to stay.
P.S. I love him referring to AVB as "what's his name". Mischievous.
- Joined
- Jun 7, 2004
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I don't there is any inconsistency between that and what VDV (and everyone else) is saying. Only a fucking idiot would have "wanted" Rafa to leave and AVB is not one of those.
But AVB wasn't a sufficiently skilful manager of delicate footballer-egos to induce VDV (a) to stay, (b) to feel valued and important and (c) to fill a useful role in his intended team formation and tactics.
The whole squad was coming off nearly four years where they had a manager who knew how to make footballers feel good and feel part of a team. The camaraderie and team spirit of that lot, as VDV says in that interview, were off the charts. It was AVB's signal failure that he did not know how to preserve and augment that - I'm not even sure he could see the value of it.
But AVB wasn't a sufficiently skilful manager of delicate footballer-egos to induce VDV (a) to stay, (b) to feel valued and important and (c) to fill a useful role in his intended team formation and tactics.
The whole squad was coming off nearly four years where they had a manager who knew how to make footballers feel good and feel part of a team. The camaraderie and team spirit of that lot, as VDV says in that interview, were off the charts. It was AVB's signal failure that he did not know how to preserve and augment that - I'm not even sure he could see the value of it.
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