Former PSV player opens up about the coaching trade: ‘I realized it very quickly’

After his active football career, former PSV player Wim Kieft decided to take on a role as a football analyst. Over the years, Kieft analyzed mainly on behalf of CanalPlus, Ziggo Sport, and the native Amsterdammer was also regularly seen at the time, on the still-then Voetbal Inside.

During the World Cup, the former striker is an analyst for NOS and has also opened a little notebook about his short period as a (assistant) coach. Kieft made up part of the technical staff at PSV in the 2009/2010 season when Fred Rutten was head coach and Erik ten Hag was his right-hand man.

Very quickly, the former PSV player noticed that the job of coach was not suitable for him. ''I was not suitable for that; I figured that out very quickly'', Kieft said Thursday evening on NOS in a discussion with Rafael van der Vaart.

Then Kieft goes deeper into Rutten and Ten Hag. ''I was there with Ten Hag and Fred Rutten. Those are two real football idiots. The whole day they talked about position lines and tactical analyses. They did that incredibly well, but I quickly thought to myself: I don't see myself doing that for the rest of my life,'' the former striker says, still remembering it clearly.

Van der Vaart is of the opinion that trainers also need to be able to enjoy life and, in doing so, the former midfielder Ten Hag cites as an example. ''With them, you can't talk about where we'll go for dinner and drinks tonight, can you? That was really dreadful. Ajax won 1-4 against Real Madrid'', the former international tells.

Then the analyst continues about what Ten Hag did on the return trip. ''Then you think: well... Ten Hag was sitting in the airplane the next day, analyzing Fortuna Sittard. How sad can it be? I find that very sad. You also have to be able to enjoy life. If you win 1-4 in Madrid, you shouldn’t go and look at Fortuna Sittard the next day'', Van der Vaart said.