Arsenal: Wenger the dinosaur and what Raymond Verheijen knows about Wales
Dutch football coach Raymond Verheijen is all over the news. He’s been talking about Arsenal and the club’s injuries.
“Wenger was labelled a “dinosaur” by Raymond Verheijen, a fitness coach who used to work with the Wales squad and blamed Arsenal for the annual bouts of injuries” – Times
A dinosaur?
Speaking on the Hawksbee and Jacobs show, the outspoken Dutchman said: “If you look at the facts, what you see is that Arsenal are the number one by far in terms of injuries in the last decade in the Premier League…
“In the ’90s, Arsene Wenger came from France to England and he introduced revolutionary methods – methods that people were not familiar with yet in the UK. At that stage he was a revolutionary coach.
“He has been applying those methods for ten, twenty years and when you apply the same methods for twenty years, at some stage people will catch you up and they will develop further and then they will be ahead of you. From a revolutionary coach, you have all of a sudden become an old-school coach because you stuck to methods from twenty years ago…
“Arsene Wenger is responsible for fatigue and injuries and the medical staff can only cure the problem.” – TalkSport
Wenger repsonds:
“This guy looks like he knows absolutely everything. I am amazed that he knows more than all our physios and all our doctors”
Verheijen has spoken about other top sides before. His views are amplified in the mainstream media. But should they and we hang on his every word?
Manchester City 2010:
“During pre-season and the first half of last season Mark Hughes had all his players available,” Verheijen said. “City played each game with the same team. The team had the best Prozone [computer data] statistics of the Premier League during the first part of the season. The players had the highest number of sprints and the highest total sprinting distance of all the Premier League teams.
“After the arrival of Mancini things changed dramatically. He probably did not even look at the Prozone statistics and our best-injury record in the Premier League. He decided players had to do double sessions many times a week. Those sessions often lasted for two hours. Not surprisingly the players picked up eight soft-tissue injuries within the first two weeks of Mancini.” – Guardian
City replied:
“Mr Verheijen appears to have become a regular critic of Roberto Mancini’s training methods, perhaps not entirely coincidentally since his consultancy services at Manchester City were terminated by the club several months ago. We wish him well in his future practice,” a club spokesmen said.
Mancini’s City won a first league title for 44 years in the 2011-12 season.
Wales 2011:
Wales assistant manager Raymond Verheijen hopes the leadership of the national side will be decided on Monday by the Football Association of Wales. Wales were left without a manager after Gary Speed’s death last month . “Tomorrow FAW meet about future of Wales,” the Dutchman wrote on Twitter on Sunday night. Hopefully the board will respect Gary’s wish so [fellow assistant] Osian Roberts and I can lead the team to Brazil.” – BBC
Chris Coleman is made Wales manager.
Former Wales assistant manager Raymond Verheijen has accused the Football Association of Wales of destroying the “legacy” left by Gary Speed. Dutchman Verheijen served under Speed during his 11 months as Wales manager. “He [Speed] has left a legacy, although the dinosaurs of the Welsh FA, at least on the pitch, have destroyed [it],” claimed Verheijen.
“The legacy of Gary will be in the hearts of his players, of his staff members,” he said. “His [Speed’s] players one day will become managers and they will start managing and working based on the inspiration that Gary gave. “So, I think that within 10 years we will see Gary’s legacy at different clubs, at different levels and different countries. But for the short time I think with the Welsh national team, unfortunately, his legacy has been destroyed.”
In 2015, Coleman’s Wales end a 57-year wait to qualify for a major tournament by making it to the European Championships 2016.
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Posted: 30th, October 2015 | In: Arsenal, Reviews, Sports Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
