The summer may still technically be here but already the new season has kicked-off in the Netherlands. The Eredivisie is the first major domestic league to have started in Europe, the next to follow will be Ligue 1 in France this coming Saturday. The Dutch league campaign began last weekend and so finally there is some real competitive football to report on.
There has been some upheaval in the Eredivisie since the end of last season, most of which occurred not long after AZ Alkmaar were crowned champions for only the second time in their history. The major news centred around AZ's manager Louis van Gaal deciding to leave the club. After securing the Eredivisie title it was confirmed that he was leaving to take up the manager's mantle at Bayern Munich, disappointing as this may have been to the AZ fans it is difficult to begrudge van Gaal moving on after securing a major footnote in the club's history.
The man chosen to lead AZ into their title defence and the Champions League, is Ronald Koeman. The Barcelona legend had been out of work for over a year since he was sacked by Valencia in April 2008. Unfortunately for Koeman his AZ tenure failed to start with a win in the opening Eredivisie fixture last Saturday. The defending champions fell to a 3-2 loss away at un-fancied Heracles. Worse still AZ were 3-0 down before rallying with two goals in the final fifteen minutes, only to then lose Gill Swerts and Pelle to red cards.
The only positive for Koeman to take is that AZ Alkmaar suffered a similar start to last season's Eredivisie campaign. This time last year the club lost their first two league matches, it was not then expected that they would remain undefeated for the majority of the rest of the season. It was another 28 matches until they lost again in the league and consequently they dominated, on the other hand the jury is very much out on if Koeman is as capable a manager as Louis van Gaal.
Meanwhile the last campaign's runners-up FC Twente were reassuringly consistent with their opening fixture this time around, defeating Sparta Rotterdam away 2-0. Steve McClaren went a long way to resurrecting his career with his achievements as FC Twente manager last season. As well as finishing 2nd in the Eredivisie, his team were knocked out in the first knockout stage of the now defunct Uefa Cup, by Marseille on penalties. More significantly they reached the final of the KNVB Cup but again suffered the agony of losing on penalties to Heerenveen after a 2-2 draw.
As for last Saturday, it appears that McClaren has done very well in retaining the vast majority of his compact squad, particularly the young prodigy Marko Arnautovic. FC Twente's goals were scored by the veteran Blaise NKufo, who has top scored at the club for the last six seasons, and new signing Bryan Ruiz. It was predicted in some quarters that McClaren could not do much better than his debut season in charge and that his squad would be difficult to keep together, but on the small evidence so far it seems that McClaren has strengthened and that FC Twente should be one of the favourites for the Eredivisie crown.
McClaren and his team also look likely to be participating in this season's Champions League proper. Last term they were dumped out by Arsenal in the third qualifying round but this time they have the easier prospect of Portugal's Sporting Lisbon. The first leg was held last Friday in Lisbon and finished 0-0, the second leg will be held tonight and the former England boss should be confident of trying his hand at the Champions League for the first time as a manager.
Ajax last season were a bit of a shambles as they lurched from one good result to several catastrophic ones under the guidance of the great Marco van Basten. The Dutchman then decided to resign his position with one fixture left, citing the fact that he did not feel capable of guiding Ajax to the greater heights that they deserve.
Ajax promptly turned to Martin Jol as the man they feel will guide them to those heights. The former Tottenham manager had spent last season reminding the Spurs board of their mistake in letting him go. He had taken over the reigns at Hamburger SV in the Bundesliga and after flirting with a title challenge his team eventually finished in a respectable 5th place. Despite making a good transition from the Premier League, Jol clearly couldn't resist the lure of the Netherlands’s premier club.
On Sunday Ajax won their opening fixture away at FC Groningen, who had finished in an impressive 6th place last season. The match finished 2-0 with former Charlton Athletic player Dennis Rommedahl getting the second goal. With Martin Jol's record Ajax must also be considered amongst the strong favourites for the Eredivisie this term, along with FC Twente.
As for the rest of the main pretenders, PSV Eindhoven were unable to dispatch newly promoted VVV-Venlo at home. The entertaining game finished 3-3, and on this evidence the club from Eindhoven still has some work to do if it is to regain the Eredivisie crown it lost to AZ last season. Although there is another intriguing sub-plot which again involves the Bundesliga. PSV will be managed this season by McClaren's predecessor at FC Twente- Fred Rutten, who failed to see out his first season at FC Schalke and was sacked back in March.
Finally, Feyenoord started their new campaign with a 2-0 win as well, defeating NEC Nijmegen at home. Feyenoord also have a new manager of their own, Mario Been who until the summer had been in charge at NEC Nijmegan. He will have to work a near miracle though if he is to secure the club's first Eredivisie in ten years.
All in all the new season is set up tantalisingly with many new managers and circumstances. What lies in McClaren's favour is the fact that he will have continuity on his side coupled with the progress his club made last season, his main challenger will appear to be Martin Jol's Ajax but the Eredivisie is competitive and there will be several clubs vying for the top spot. Let the games begin...