Revisiting Feyenoord: A Lesson In How To Rebuild
The Rotterdam club lost a legion of stars over the summer, and in rebuilding, have created a bright young side dominating domestically and pushing the club to new heights.
Cyril Dessers (Cremonese)
Luis Sinisterra (Leeds)
Guus Til (PSV)
Reiss Nelson (Arsenal)
Fredrik Aursnes (Benfica)
Tyrell Malacia (Manchester Utd)
Marcos Senesi (Bournemouth)
Bryan Linssen (Urawa Red Diamonds)
Jens Toornstra (Utrecht)
All of these players either started or came on for Feyenoord in the inaugural final of the UEFA Europa Conference League against AS Roma. None of them remain. That is not even including Jorrit Hendrix (Fortuna Dusseldorf) and Phillipe Sandler (NEC Nijmegen) who were in the squad but remained on the bench.
To say Feyenoord were stripped for parts is an understatement. All of those players bar Hendrix and Sandler played more than 40 games for the club in all competitions throughout the season.
How is a club, especially one without champions league money outside of a top-5 league, supposed to come back from that level of brain drain? Won’t they become crippled by mid-table obscurity whilst facilitating a years-long rebuild?
Apparently not.
The men from Rotterdam currently sit 1st in the Eredivisie, three points clear of 2nd placed Ajax, having lost only once all season domestically. They similarly finished top of a Europa League group featuring Lazio, Sturm Grax and Midtjylland, and will face Shakhtar Donetsk in the round of 16.
Feyenoord are not only an example but rather THE example on how to execute a single-window rebuild. And it all comes down to trust.
Trust in The Talent ID
Having to replace about half of your core playing personnel in the summer transfer window is a rare occurrence for any team. Although Feyenoord received close to €70 million in the Summer transfer Window, I’m sure they would have preferred to keep much of the core squad that got them to within a game of a European trophy. I’m not sure any fan would have expected that the squad would improve on the domestic front with roughly only half of that €70 million reinvested.
The majority of profiles needing to be replaced are attacking ones. None of the front four that started the conference league final remain and in their stead were signings who are not like-for-like replacements but rather tailor-made acquisitions for coach Arne Slot’s system (more on that later).
Feyenoord’s Chief Scout Mark Ruijl and Technical Director Denis te Kloese will likely have been the most important factors in the squad’s total rejuvenation.
Ruijl was previously the head of data scouting and scout coordination at the club before being promoted in late 2021. Although he had no experience at a major club prior to joining Feyenoord, what he did have was a wealth of scouting and data knowledge.
Holder of a degree in Sports Management, Ruijl founded PlayerConnect, an independent service using both data and traditional scouting to link players, agents, clubs and coaches together. The summer of ’22 was Ruijl’s first summer transfer window in the chief scouting role and it’s safe to say that it has been a roaring success.
The highest transfer outlay, the roughly €7.5 Million capture of Quinten Timber from Utrecht, is evidence of their philosophy. Undervalued prospects, for whom the underlying numbers are good but importantly fit the club ethos and tactical outlay.
Unlike his brother (Ajax defender Jurrien), Quinten Timber is a dynamic, technical and press-resistant midfielder. Although he struggles sometimes on the defensive side of the game, his intelligence and vision, as well as his interplay with teammates around him, make him a perfect signing for Arne Slot’s attacking vision.
A bad knee injury has halted his progress for the foreseeable future but expect to hear a lot more about him when he comes back next season.
A similarly shrewd pickup was the free transfer of 23-year-old Danilo from Ajax. The Brazilian’s career had stalled at the Johann Cruyff Arena, too good to play for Jong Ajax but somehow unable to nail down a spot for the first team.
He has been prized by Arne Slot this season for not only his obvious goal threat but workmanlike qualities and excellent link-up play. Eight goals and three assists in just 13 Eredivisie 90s show that he has been an absolute steal for the club on the Meuse.
For Denis te Kloese’s part, he can likely be attributed to the signings of Peruvian left-back Marcos Lopez from San Jose Earthquakes, as well as Cruz Azul’s Santiago Gimenez. te Kloese had spent the majority of career up to this point in Mexico, as well as nearby California.
Previously an international scout at Ajax, the dutchman held vital scouting and directorial roles at a number of the biggest clubs in Mexico (Tigres & Chivas Guadalajara), as well as the national team.
After three years at LA Galaxy that saw him instrumental in the captures of wonderkids Efrain Alvarez and Julian Araujo, as well as a certain Chicarito. At Feyenoord since January ’22, Santiago Gimenez may be the latest and greatest of his Mexican masterstrokes.
Gimenez has been by far my favourite of all the deals Feyenoord conducted over the summer. The Argentina-born Mexico international has 12 goals from as many starts (including four in the Europa League), playing the equivalent of just fourteen 90s. He has all the makings of a top striker.
His intelligence in and around the penalty box is so vital, especially with so many creative players around him. He is a classic striker in all the best ways. A true talisman for the team, Gimenez can follow the ball into spaces or hold it up just as well. He uses his body excellently to create separation and despite being just under 5’10 he is a battler who is never bullied by even the strongest centre-backs.
The main theme amongst these transfers is value for money. Gimenez cost just €4 million, in fact, none of Feyenoord’s permanent transfers have been over the price of €7.5 Million, nor over the age of 24.
The club has trusted their scouting team to identify compatible prospects undervalued by their league or the situation at their club, and have been rewarded with a hungry set of young players who have pushed the club on leaps and bounds.
Javairo Dilorosun never got a sniff at struggling Hertha Berlin and was relegated at Bordeaux, Sebastian Szymański was in limbo at Dinamo Moscow due to the Russian football embargo, Oussama Idrissi was stagnant at Sevilla.
All of these players have been vital to Feyenoord. It can be risky for clubs to bring players from difficult environments in from the cold and expect them to compete, at Feyenoord that risk has paid off big-time.
Trust In The Management
It’s safe to say that the summer transfer window, although successful, was a gamble for Feyenoord. Like all gambles, the odds vary depending on the factors at play. Having a coach of the talent of Arne Slot then surely increased the likelihood of success of the summer rebuild.
A massive job was put on Slot’s shoulders at the beginning of the season. To integrate more than 15 first-team signings, most of whom are still young, and aim to qualify for Europe while competing on three fronts will have been the most that could have been expected of the 44-year-old. That he has exceeded this is a testament to his ability.
I talked previously about Feyenoord’s uber-attacking game plan, one that has seen them catch eyes across Europe with their well-worked offensive interplay. It’s his deft squad management though that I’m going to focus on today.
Whilst the Eredivisie doesn’t have the longest campaign (just 34 games), the added stresses of the Europa League and the 3-5 KNVB Cup games Feyenoord will have to contend with mean the team is well on their way to a second consecutive 45+ game season.
In this regard, Arne Slot is doing something historical.
Translation: “Feyenoord is still active in Europe in March, leader and semi-finalist in the cup. Never happened in club history, despite the departure of countless basic players.”
Given that Slot values a small squad with an emphasis on youth players to make up the back end of the squad list, his masterful control of the players at his disposal has been something to envy.
Those who have been burdened with the most minutes are the players who remain from last year (Kokcu, Geertruida & Bijlow among others) as well as the more experienced new signings entering their prime years (Szymanski, Hancko & Dilorosun). These are players who either have experience in a top-5 European league, European competition or a number of minutes in teams of comparable size to Feyenoord.
Players such as Paixao, Gimenez and Marcos Lopez have been allowed to make the majority of their appearances from the bench. As they adjust to a new culture and language they are gifted responsibility but only in line with what they can handle. These new players are, as such, allowed to enter play at a state where the side have found its rhythm and are less likely to be overawed by the game state.
The risk here obviously is that by leaving such players on the bench results may suffer, but Slot’s confidence in his players has been unwavering and it has served him to great effect.
Slot has a great amount of belief in every player in his squad to start regardless of status. €500 grand summer signing Mats Wieffer had never played top-tier football prior to this season, and neither had academy graduate Quilindschy Hartman. Both have played around 1,000 minutes this season and were trusted to start against Ajax in January’s edition of De Klassieker.
As a just reward for their rapid development, the pair were just this week selected in the preliminary Netherlands squad by Ronald Koeman.
It may seem obvious or rudimentary but for a squad with only four players over the age of 25, and only one over 30, it’s a precarious balancing act between trust and over-reliance that Slot has balanced perfectly. To seamlessly integrate a dozen first-team players whilst simultaneously developing their skill sets is something very few coaches would be able to manage.
In my introduction, I referred to Feyenoord as an example, but may that word was misused. Not every club has as prodigiously talented a coach as Arne Slot, nor as skilled a recruitment department. Not every club has €30 Million to spend on transfers, nor does every club play in a league as small as the Eridivise with an oligopoly at the very top.
There are factors about this Feyenoord side’s impressive rebuild I haven’t mentioned, but the facts I have touched on are just the same. They have done in one summer what very few teams ever do, level up. I, for one, am just happy they tried rather than playing it safe.