The Daily Mail report this evening that Dutch coach Andries Jonker, who is currently assistant manager at Bundesliga side Wolfsburg, will succeed Liam Brady as the head of Arsenal’s youth Academy.
The Gunners confirmed a year ago that Brady, who assumed the role of Head of Youth Development in 1996, was planning to step down before May 2014 season and after an extensive interview process it’s being claimed that 51-year-old Jonker is the hot favourite for the coveted position.
The Dutchman has managed three clubs in his native Holland – Volendam, Maastricht and Willem II – and (arguably more impressively) held assistant coach positions at Barcelona and Bayern Munich where he worked closely under Louis van Gaal.
Arseblog News doesn’t really know much about the chap, his own playing career appears to be pretty low key, but trusts Ivan Gazidis has done his homework.
We’re taking a bit of a punt here, but perhaps we can garner an insight into what might be in store from Jonker via Dennis Bergkamp’s dissection of Louis van Gaal’s methods in his book ‘Stillness and Speed’.
Ahhh!! i thought it was that other particular DUTCHMAN!, and no rvp is the cuntman.
I read the book recently, and I dont think he really liked Van Gaal’s style to be honest. Assistant coaches are often a lot different from the head coach though so it could mean nothing at all.
True, Bergkamp and van Gaal certainly didn’t see eye to eye on a lot.
That being said Van Gaal was the one who gave Bergkamp the No.10 shirt at Ajax and gave him a central role. (Yes I’m talking to myself)
Oh, I thought I made a friend.
Van Gaal is a genius. I hope he learned everything he knows from him.
As a counterpoint, mourinho and villa boas are both twats so they must pick something up from each other
Sometimes I feel dick law doesn’t get enough credit
What happens to Brady?
He’s Retiring!
I’m just gonna say that we currently.have a senior team manager that had an unspectacular playing career and, before us, a pretty unimpressive coaching career. I totally trust that Joker can do the job if everyone more informed than us readers think he can.
Wenger had an unspectacular coaching career before us? Is that why he managed some of the best players of their generation at Monaco and why Bayern wanted him to be their manager before he decided to move to Nagoya Grampus?
Zach, seems to me you are the real joker here.
He’s got pretty solid stats in football manager 🙂
*sheds a tear* There’s only ONE Dennis Bergkmap! 🙁 🙁 🙁
*Bergkamp
Tears cloud my vision and made the typo ~~
correct spelling goes like this….god
I prefer Bergkmap because it makes him easier to find.
unimpressive career before us? you are aware arsene wenger is our manager and not tim sherwood , right?
I love hearing players talk about how Wenger is as a coach. He really does seem like the absolute dream-coach for any player. You can easily see how a player like Özil came here pretty much because of him. “The special one” my ass, Wenger is unique. NEW CONTRACT!
I thought this was the ideal position for the Arsenal legend Bergmamp. Come on Arsenal time to get something right.
A lot is going on in the background then? Hopefully this all leads to couple years of consistent trophies.
Whoop dee doo!!
Exactly the kind of person I was hoping for to replace Brady. Well played Ivan and the recruitment team.
Was wondering how those of you who have actually read bergkamps book rate it? Looks like it’s worth a try… Or other recommendations if id like to know more about wenger and his methods and style w players, staff etc?
I really enjoyed it. Fascinating insight into the man!
Andries Jonker is best known for being a clown in Holland. Nobody takes him serious and pundits always joke about him. The only thing he has done so far is following Louis van Gaal. Nothing more, nothing less. This would be a huge mistake from Arsenal.
A clown in what way? He may not have had a successful career as a manager of a top club but that doesn’t mean he isn’t an excellent youth coach. They’re different things, requiring different skills, and anyway you’d hardly expect (or indeed want) Mourinho or Fergie to be taking a job with our under-16s. What is it about him that is disliked? Too opinionated, too theoretical, too intellectual-sounding? If so, no surprise he doesn’t go down a bundle with the pundits, but a coach with a strong sense of how he wants football to be played might be just… Read more »
Think you hit the nail on the head there. The way football has progressed and moved over the years mean that there is more emphasis being placed on allowing kids to explore their technical skills on their own terms and to recognise their strengths and to help them identify what they should work on as well as helping them learn key aspects such as tactical discipline, team work etc. As such, youth coaches should be able to understand the psychology of players and how they can help them fulfil potential. As the youngsters progress through the age groups, more emphasis… Read more »
To all “why not Bergkamp”‘s, if you read his book, you’d see that he prefers a more active coaching job, which the head of youth development isn’t. It’s more of a watching and organizing and administrative jibber jabber kind of job I’d imagine, whereas Dennis prefers to work with players directly.
If we’re talking about dutchmans, one more suited to the job than Dennis would be Overmars, but going from a director of football to a head of youth development would be kind of a downgrade for him I’d think.
I trust they picked the right man.
Really hope bergkamp comes back someday, you can see what the dressing lost when he retired, just pure class. As for wenger as a coach, I’d say one of his only but main faults is his faith in shit players e.g, eboue, almunia, senderos, etc, ironically, it’s one of his strengths too. I really hope he signs for 3 more years and wins us some trophies. Almost 10 years since the invincibles. Wow.
So far its not the Dutch skunk, any Dutchman will do
This is a Daily Mail story? Presumably about foreigners coming to Britain and taking our jobs etc etc
He looks sharp.
Well, I for one would like to thank Liam Brady for his hard work. I first became a Gooner during that F.A Cup run during the late 1970’s. Brady was always the player I wanted to be on the pitch. Shed a tear when he went to Juve.