Working with the likes of Guus Hiddink, Dick Advocaat, Frank Rijkaard among others and having been an advisor of periodisation to clubs like FC Barcelona, Chelsea FC, Manchester City, etc meant Dutchman Raymond Verheijen brought a wealth of experience to his three-day conditioning course for football coaches in the capital recently. He later spoke at some length about his philosophy for the game. Excerpts:
On his concept of a ‘football language’ and being in the ‘football world’:
What I always do is before you can talk about conditioning, you should first talk about football. Everything has to be related to football. The problem is that a lot of experts from outside the football world speak a non-football language thus, polluting the football world.
On participants’ response:
I showed the participants how to develop a universal and objective philosophy. Very often in such a course there are too many opinions. As a coach I want to know facts — information of which I know which if I apply in my own situation, will work rather than copying subjective opinion. My point is there must be a language and a structure without confusion.
On how much he learnt about Indian football:
I was told about the number of injuries which were occurring. Injury prevention methods are not in place. Now in India, if you constantly nag about the problems, you’re not moving forward and doing any good. You need to find a solution and for that to happen, you have to change.