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Belgium turn on their own team as self-obsessed players hit new lows | Paul Doyle | Football | guardian.co.uk
Belgium turn on their own team as self-obsessed players hit new lows
Not content with boasting some of the best beer and chocolate in the world, Belgians have begun eating themselves. It's an absurd and obscene development, and one which has made embittered jackasses of the many respected folk who had predicted a return to past heights for the low country's national team. While Turkey travel to Brussels this weekend in search of a win that will keep alive their hopes of World Cup qualification, supporters of the home team no longer entertain any ambition beyond avoiding another bloody fiasco. Their chances? Poor to middling.
Two days after Franky Vercauteren became Belgium's manager last April, one of the country's leading celebrity news websites exclusively revealed that he'd been killed. For the 52-year-old things went downhill from there. Belgium have some of the best young footballers in Europe – Arsenal's Thomas Vermaelen, Lille's Eden Hazard, Manchester City's Vincent Kompany, Marouane Fellaini of Everton and Axel Witsel and Steven Defour of Standard Liège – but last month, five months after the erroneous declaration of his death and a couple of hours after a shambolic 2-1 defeat in Armenia, Vercauteren stepped down from his post.
He left behind him the worst managerial record in the country's history – one draw and four losses from five matches – and a set-up so infected with ill-feeling that the entire medical staff resigned too, but not before offering a damning diagnosis of a generation of players that seems more blinged-up than golden. "I won't make any comment on the sporting performances since that is not my remit," said Marc Goossens, who had been the national team doctor for 26 years. "But the mentality of some of the players is deplorable ... we got fed up with the many intolerable things that made it impossible for us to do our jobs ... they are pseudo-stars ... with the sick attitude of childish snobs."
Vercauteren had been No2 to the previous incumbent, René Vandereycken, and had been hired specifically because he was thought to have the acumen to heal the fissures that were forming between the team's older players and the cocky new breed. That task proved much more tricky than anticipated.
Throughout this campaign stories seeped out about players asking to be declared injured so they could skip training and go carousing instead; of players refusing to travel unless allowed to carry their gear in Gucci manbags; of a fight in a nightclub after the 5-0 defeat in Spain; of high jinks in a nightclub a few hours before the 2-1 defeat in Bosnia-Herzegovina; of substitutes refusing to play; and of an experienced player being dropped after turning up for a match without any boots. "The players don't know what the top level is," groaned Vercauteren after his resignation. "I tried to tell them what it means to be a professional but they don't want to listen. I picked them and they abandoned me."
One of the team's veterans, the 31-year-old striker Wesley Sonck, was no lapdog of Vercauteren – indeed, when replaced with the team 2-0 down in Armenia he was heard to sneer: "Oh, well done coach, we need three goals so you take off a striker". But he expressed sympathy for the manager after his departure. "You don't know the half of what's been going on," he told the press. "What can I say about our dear Red Devils? Not the truth, that's for sure. And I think that alone speaks volumes. I would have done exactly the same thing as Vercauteren."
Most supporters have turned their back on the team – a grand total of one fan travelled to watch those dear Red Devils in Armenia (and the reason for his trip was the subject of much speculation by the country's comedians, the most common theory being that it was his way of asking his wife for a divorce). The media, however, is all over the team's travails.
Vermaelen wrote a letter to a national newspaper to profess his commitment to the national team and call for the players to show renewed seriousness and unity, but his has been a lone pacifist voice. Vercauteren revealed yesterday that after making a mistake against Spain, the Portsmouth right-back Anthony Vanden Borre was ostracised by the rest of the squad. "Vanden Borre was dropped by his team-mates, he didn't get the slightest support from his so-called chums," said the coach. "You see what I mean when I say there was no team spirit?"
Another of the country's full-backs, AZ Alkmaar's Sébastien Pocognoli, was chided by Vercauteren for storming home after being withdrawn from a training match because the manager wanted to practise playing with 10 men so that the team would not be perturbed by red cards. "I'm not a bad apple," complained Pocognoli after press criticism. "There are players with plenty of caps who are protected in Flanders and think they can get away with anything."
"The dressing room is divided into clans," claimed 'a source close to the team' to the newspaper La Dernière Heure. "There is the [Daniel] van Buyten clan, the France-based players, the trio of [Timmy] Simons, Sonck and [Stijn] Stijnen, the guys from Amsterdam, the guys from AZ, and then, of course, the Standard and Anderlecht factions."
The media has been accused of bias too. "One of the Francophone newspapers has photos of the players in a nightclub before the match in Bosnia," claimed the Flemish daily De Morgen. "But they won't publish them because all the players involved are French speakers."
One of the few players to be considered neutral was Steven Defour, the 22-year-old midfielder who hails from Flanders but is the captain of Standard Liège, the flagbearer of Wallonia. But his status has been compromised by the toxic fallout from August's brutal Liège-Anderlecht clash, during which Anderlecht's Polish midfielder, Marcin Wasilewski, suffered a gruesome leg-break in a clash with last year's Belgian player of the year, Axel Witsel, who insisted it was an accident but was banned for three months nonetheless.
"Vincent Kompany used to be considered the brat of Belgium football," says the journalist Joost Houtmann. "But he seems to have matured and now there's a whole load of guys coming through who behave far worse than he ever did. They seem contemptuous of everyone but themselves, and they don't seem to see anything wrong with that."
Last week a new manager, Dick Advocaat, arrived on a mission to foster improved relations and harness the team's undoubted potential. This week the Dutchman got an additional demonstration of how difficult that will be when Stijnen, the team's first-choice goalkeeper, announced his retirement from international football at the age of 28 after being called "inexperienced" by a member of the federation.
If there is one team in which spirits should be high at the moment, it's Turkey.
Belgium turn on their own team as self-obsessed players hit new lows
Not content with boasting some of the best beer and chocolate in the world, Belgians have begun eating themselves. It's an absurd and obscene development, and one which has made embittered jackasses of the many respected folk who had predicted a return to past heights for the low country's national team. While Turkey travel to Brussels this weekend in search of a win that will keep alive their hopes of World Cup qualification, supporters of the home team no longer entertain any ambition beyond avoiding another bloody fiasco. Their chances? Poor to middling.
Two days after Franky Vercauteren became Belgium's manager last April, one of the country's leading celebrity news websites exclusively revealed that he'd been killed. For the 52-year-old things went downhill from there. Belgium have some of the best young footballers in Europe – Arsenal's Thomas Vermaelen, Lille's Eden Hazard, Manchester City's Vincent Kompany, Marouane Fellaini of Everton and Axel Witsel and Steven Defour of Standard Liège – but last month, five months after the erroneous declaration of his death and a couple of hours after a shambolic 2-1 defeat in Armenia, Vercauteren stepped down from his post.
He left behind him the worst managerial record in the country's history – one draw and four losses from five matches – and a set-up so infected with ill-feeling that the entire medical staff resigned too, but not before offering a damning diagnosis of a generation of players that seems more blinged-up than golden. "I won't make any comment on the sporting performances since that is not my remit," said Marc Goossens, who had been the national team doctor for 26 years. "But the mentality of some of the players is deplorable ... we got fed up with the many intolerable things that made it impossible for us to do our jobs ... they are pseudo-stars ... with the sick attitude of childish snobs."
Vercauteren had been No2 to the previous incumbent, René Vandereycken, and had been hired specifically because he was thought to have the acumen to heal the fissures that were forming between the team's older players and the cocky new breed. That task proved much more tricky than anticipated.
Throughout this campaign stories seeped out about players asking to be declared injured so they could skip training and go carousing instead; of players refusing to travel unless allowed to carry their gear in Gucci manbags; of a fight in a nightclub after the 5-0 defeat in Spain; of high jinks in a nightclub a few hours before the 2-1 defeat in Bosnia-Herzegovina; of substitutes refusing to play; and of an experienced player being dropped after turning up for a match without any boots. "The players don't know what the top level is," groaned Vercauteren after his resignation. "I tried to tell them what it means to be a professional but they don't want to listen. I picked them and they abandoned me."
One of the team's veterans, the 31-year-old striker Wesley Sonck, was no lapdog of Vercauteren – indeed, when replaced with the team 2-0 down in Armenia he was heard to sneer: "Oh, well done coach, we need three goals so you take off a striker". But he expressed sympathy for the manager after his departure. "You don't know the half of what's been going on," he told the press. "What can I say about our dear Red Devils? Not the truth, that's for sure. And I think that alone speaks volumes. I would have done exactly the same thing as Vercauteren."
Most supporters have turned their back on the team – a grand total of one fan travelled to watch those dear Red Devils in Armenia (and the reason for his trip was the subject of much speculation by the country's comedians, the most common theory being that it was his way of asking his wife for a divorce). The media, however, is all over the team's travails.
Vermaelen wrote a letter to a national newspaper to profess his commitment to the national team and call for the players to show renewed seriousness and unity, but his has been a lone pacifist voice. Vercauteren revealed yesterday that after making a mistake against Spain, the Portsmouth right-back Anthony Vanden Borre was ostracised by the rest of the squad. "Vanden Borre was dropped by his team-mates, he didn't get the slightest support from his so-called chums," said the coach. "You see what I mean when I say there was no team spirit?"
Another of the country's full-backs, AZ Alkmaar's Sébastien Pocognoli, was chided by Vercauteren for storming home after being withdrawn from a training match because the manager wanted to practise playing with 10 men so that the team would not be perturbed by red cards. "I'm not a bad apple," complained Pocognoli after press criticism. "There are players with plenty of caps who are protected in Flanders and think they can get away with anything."
"The dressing room is divided into clans," claimed 'a source close to the team' to the newspaper La Dernière Heure. "There is the [Daniel] van Buyten clan, the France-based players, the trio of [Timmy] Simons, Sonck and [Stijn] Stijnen, the guys from Amsterdam, the guys from AZ, and then, of course, the Standard and Anderlecht factions."
The media has been accused of bias too. "One of the Francophone newspapers has photos of the players in a nightclub before the match in Bosnia," claimed the Flemish daily De Morgen. "But they won't publish them because all the players involved are French speakers."
One of the few players to be considered neutral was Steven Defour, the 22-year-old midfielder who hails from Flanders but is the captain of Standard Liège, the flagbearer of Wallonia. But his status has been compromised by the toxic fallout from August's brutal Liège-Anderlecht clash, during which Anderlecht's Polish midfielder, Marcin Wasilewski, suffered a gruesome leg-break in a clash with last year's Belgian player of the year, Axel Witsel, who insisted it was an accident but was banned for three months nonetheless.
"Vincent Kompany used to be considered the brat of Belgium football," says the journalist Joost Houtmann. "But he seems to have matured and now there's a whole load of guys coming through who behave far worse than he ever did. They seem contemptuous of everyone but themselves, and they don't seem to see anything wrong with that."
Last week a new manager, Dick Advocaat, arrived on a mission to foster improved relations and harness the team's undoubted potential. This week the Dutchman got an additional demonstration of how difficult that will be when Stijnen, the team's first-choice goalkeeper, announced his retirement from international football at the age of 28 after being called "inexperienced" by a member of the federation.
If there is one team in which spirits should be high at the moment, it's Turkey.
