Euro 2012 qualifying thread

Not really based on one game. He's been a stand-out player for Twente for a while now, one of the best midfielders in the Dutch league, and he also stood out at that Holland friendly v the Ukraine a couple of months ago.

Here's the thing: De Zeeuw is having an awful season so far, as is Schaars, and Engelaar doesn't want to be called up anymore. If you're then looking at left-footed midfielders Janssen is really up there fighting for a starting place, esp when considering De Jong's discipine problems which are constantly being questioned. As Derksen pointed out, when you compare Janssen to De Jong, Janssen is the more creative, has extra weapons (he can basically put the ball anywhere with that left foot of his, whether in play, set pieces or free kicks). De Jong of course brings more bulk to the team defensively and that's what Van Marwijk likes as we know. If De Jong happens to fall out of the starting XI at Man City though, I'm pretty convinced it's Janssen's spot to take.

What some overseas posters might not now is that as a youngster at Vitesse, Janssen was always considered a big talent. His character and behaviour on and off the pitch have long been a problem though. At Twente he seems to have got his act together at long last. Telling for me was his behaviour v Inter. He got grabbed in the bollix, headbutted by Mariga, then strangled by Eto'o - and he kept completely calm throughout and even managed to calm Douglas down. Van Marwijk will have seen that.

 

Janssen is just three years older than De Jong and four years younger than Van Bommel.

I'm not really getting the resistance here to Janssen (or indeed Douglas). Oh well, at least Van Marwijk knows what these players are capable of.

 

Douglas had his chat with Van Marwijk today and both are very positive about it. They are now going to set things into motion (without much chance of succeeding as in the current Dutch political climate you have to blonde blue eyed and xenophobic to be considered properly Dutch)

 

I agree. It's the same with the so-called hooliganism. In every town centre people get drunk and beat each other up every saturday night. The police just does its job there. But with football a point has to be made and we have to go on a friggin bus-combi to VVV because the mayor of Venlo wants ro raise his profile. It's pathetic.

 

Weird argument. You can only get a Dutch passport if you pledge to never leave the country for economic reasons?

Don't get me wrong, there's a good case to be made for not having his passport process speeded up, and for him just having to wait another year until he gets a passport along normal legal lines. Every other argument is just double standards at best and xenophobic at worst. There are hundreds of thousands of Dutch people who live and work abroad during their whole mature life. Why in god's name do they have more right to a Dutch passport than someone who's paid (considerable!) taxes here for four years?

The one thing that bugs me: I read an article about Dutch soldiers who had limbs amputated as a result of their tour in Afhganistan. Among them a number of boys who were not born in the Netherlands and even a couple of relative newcomers. What kind of a country is this when you're good enough to die for queen Beatrix in some godforsaken place but not good enough to play for Holland when you weren't born Dutch? You never hear Wilders and his ilk about the 'foreign' soliders in the Dutch army do you now.

I agree with Degtyarev, this is a nasty political spiel. If they used real arguments then fair enough but it's all based on emotive, populist bollix.