AZ fires trainer Koeman after losing streak

AZ, the reigning national Dutch football champion, sacked Ronald Koeman as a trainer last Saturday morning. Dick Advocaat, currently coach of the Belgian national team, is likely to succeed him.

Advocaat said he would make a final decision on the matter later on Monday. If he accepts AZ’s offer, he would remain coach for the Belgians while serving out his new contract at AZ concurrently. He would return to Belgium to devote all of his time to the national team there after the end of the current season.

The chairman of the Belgian soccer federation has said he would not object to such a move, since his national team has not qualified for the World Cup and will only be playing practice duels until then.

Four of AZ’s players have also been selected for the Belgian national team, leaving some in Belgium fearful that Advocaat would unfairly favour this subset over the rest of the squad. In an interview with Voetbal International, a Dutch football weekly, this September, Advocaat already voiced his preference for the Dutch club.

"In my heart I wanted to go to AZ," he said at the time. "Like PSV, it’s a team where you can do some good work."

Koeman would surely beg to differ with this statement. AZ's performance this season has been lacklustre. The reigning champion has only been able to win half of the sixteen matches played so far. This Friday, AZ tasted defeat for the seventh time this season when it lost 1-2 to Vitesse of Arnhem playing in the AZ home stadium in Alkmaar.

The morning after, AZ's management informed Koeman he was fired. Management had debated the decision until deep into the night before.

Koeman was left stupefied by the move, but AZ's management said it saw no other way out. "After weeks of subpar performance we had lost all confidence that Ronald would be able to turn things around," technical director Marcel Brands stated on the club's website. "We didn't see any point in slogging on like this."

Koeman felt differently. "Both the technical and medical staff felt we would be able to reach our stated goal for this season: qualifying for European football. I am surprised and feel like crap. I really didn't see this coming," he said.

AZ's poor match record might not be the only reason Koeman was fired. The last few months saw a series of the kind of incidents that were rare under the strict discipline enforced by Koeman's predecessors Louis van Gaal and Co Adriaanse. Disciplinary measures were taken against forward Mounir El Hamdaoui and attacking midfielder Jeremain Lens because they arrived late for matches. El Hamdaoui had also misbehaved during practice.

In addition, Gill Swerts, Graziano Pellè, Ari, Simon Poulsen and, last Friday, Moussa Dembélé all earned red cards for serious fouls. Pontus Wernbloom set the bar by earning a three-match suspension for elbowing another player in the face. AZ will definitely not be winning any fair-play awards this year. The on-field aggression seems to be indicative of pent-up frustration and a major discipline problem.