The decline of Dutch football was perhaps best pronounced this very season. And very likely it was the bottom: the national team did not qualify for the World Cup finals, not a single club was in great shape, and the championship was not competitive. In terms of ups and downs on club level, Feyenoord was clearly down. The pleasant surprise was the newcomer Haarlem. Apart from that even the top teams had plenty of problems. Most of the league was pretty much equal and was not concerned either with winning, or losing. Three outsiders at the bottom – De Graafschap, last with 12 points; FC Den Haag – 17th with 13 points; and MVV Maastricht – 16th with 23 points. Down and out.
PEC Zwolle finished 15th, but 3 points ahead of MVV, so they were not really in danger of relegation for a good chunk of the season. Standing from left: R. van Wijnen (fysiotherapeut), A. Raven, Y. Hamming, J. Hendriks, I. Wildenburg, R. Jans, G. van Moorst, R. Israel, A. van Geffen, trainer F. Korbach.
Sitting: G. Fuhler, R. Ijzerman, A. Booy, G. Visscher, C. Riemens, P. v.d. Hengst, J. Holshuysen, A. Kamstra, K. Drost, ass.trainer G. Verword.
One good veteran often made the whole difference – with Rinus Israel PEC was weak, but out of trouble. Without such a player, MVV was relegated.
Twente was 12th with 31 points. Standing from left: J. Steenbeeke (verzorger), A. van Gerven, E. Bleuming, M. Jol, H. Snelders, F. Rutten, T. Dilling, J. Bos, A. Gritter, E. Drost (ass.trainer), S. Groener (trainer/coach).
First row: M. Sanchez Torres, T. Harleman, S. Lindsted, P. Leyenaar, R. Zondervan, A. Kila, J. Scheve, J. Cooke, F. Ronde en M. Mentink.
Good days over… nothing was left of the exciting team of the first half of the 1970s. Martin Jol and H. Snelders were the only strong players now and neither of them became a truly big star.
NAC Breda – 11th with 33 points. They played as ever – more a testimony of Twente’s decline than anything else. Standing from left: Jo Jansen (trainer/coach), Guust v.d. Borgt, Ton Lokhoff, Hans Neeskens, Fritz von Seydlitz, Ton van Eenennaam, Gerrie Damen, Anton Joore, Geert v.d. Wiel (verzorger), Dick Buitelaar (trainer).
Sitting: Koos Waslander, Martien Vreysen, Hans Heeren, Tom Smits, Ad Krijnen, Edy de Schepper, Ton Spranger, Jack de Kroon.
Roda JC – 9th with 36 points. Nothing new… Dick Nanninga was seemingly enough to keep them in the middle of the league.
FC Groningen – 7th with 37 points. Third row from left: Sip Bloemberg – Walter Waalderbos – Bert Mooibroek – Peter Houtman – Ronald Koeman – Leen Swanenburg
Middle row: Theo Verlangen (trainer) – John Visser (verzorger) – Eddy Bakker – Henk Veldmate – Karel Hiddink – Jan van Dijk – Jack van Loon – dr. Hoekstra (clubarts)
Sitting: Theo Keukens – Anne Mulder – Herman Dijkstra – Johan Tukker – Peter Leiseboer – Wim Schokker – Hans Boer – Bert Wiebing.
Not bad, generally speaking, but another typical mid-table club, also displaying the chronic problem such clubs had, have, and will have – young and promising Ronald Koeman here, but no chance to build a team around him – he was to go elsewhere instead. Having an young talent was more of a curse than blessing.
Feyenoord – 6th with 38 points. Rubbing shoulders with Groningen… and no wonder. Third row: Ben Wijnstekers, Luuk Balkestein, Ivan Nielsen, Joop Hiele, Ton v. Engelen, André Stafleu, Sjaak Troost, Stanley Brard.
Middle row: Vaclav Jezek (Hoofdtrainer), Mark Wotte, Karel Bouwens, Wim van Hanegem, Paul van der Blom, Jan van Deinsen, Clemens Westerhof (Assistent), Gerard Meijer (Verzorger).
Sitting: Richard Budding, Wim van Til, Hans Groenendijk, Johnny Jacobsen, Jupp Kaczor, Marcel van der Blom, Pierre Vermeulen.
A pale shadow of the wonderful team they were 10 years ago and nothing to hope for with such a squad. Van Hanegem was by far the most famous player here and he was ancient. Sure, there were few current national team players and few players eventually becoming familiar names like Dane Ivan Nielsen, but this was not a promising team at all. One may blame Vaclav Jezek for that – or not. The bitter fact: Feyenoord was not strong enough even for a currently weak Dutch championship.
FC Utrecht – 5th with 39 points. Enjoying a good period, sure, but also they were a testimony of the general decline of Dutch football: without much of a team, Utrecht was able to climb up among the best. Even finishing above Feyenoord. Even achieving more than the big boys. However, Utrecht was unable to really compete.
The big and pleasant surprise: Haarlem was just promoted from Second Division and in their first season they finished 4th. Not just 4th, but clearly above most of the league – Haarlem finished with 42 points. This was fantastic, but… someone was noticed already. This someone Haarlem was unable to keep for long. It is ridiculous that a single player could be entirely responsible for the fate of a club, but wait a little – until Gullit moves away. A great season, though. Even if Haarlem was well bellow the top three.
Which were strongly divided as well. AZ’67 was 3rd with 47 point. As good as Haarlem was able to play, AZ’67 was just at another level. But as good as AZ’67 was, they were not good enough to challenge PSV Eindhoven. Which was not that good anymore… still stronger than the bulk of the league, but nothing more. 51 points. 4 more than AZ’67, but 5 less than the champions.
And coming to them, no point even to mention the name. No point to mention the number of this title either. Who else, but Ajax, the magic name. Just look at their record: 26 wins, 4 ties, only 4 matches lost. 117-42 goal-difference. They scored 117 goals! They left everybody else way behind. Fantastic season? Hmm.
Let us take this title with a grain of salt. Superior this year, yes, but consider the weakness of their main rivals. And the decline of Dutch football as a whole. Compared to the others and particularly to the arch-enemy Feyenoord, Ajax was seemingly in good shape – Schrijvers, Jansen, Lerby, Kieft, Boeve, Schoenaker, La Ling, Ophof, Olsen, Vanenburg, Rijkaard. However… Olsen and Rijkard were only promising players at the time. Most of the others were not great stars. Lerby was not to stay for long. Schrijvers was old and even in his best years he was not exceptional goalkeeper. The key was perhaps Wim Jansen – already a veteran, he was the new recruit. The policy of Ajax after the end of the great team of the early 70-s was not very fruitful: they tried to keep afloat by buying strong, but not young, Dutch players. This helped them to stay at the top of Dutch league, to maintain its leading domestic position. But there was no new great team emerging and this team was not promising in the long term either. That is, nothing happened so far – clearly, there was not to be a strong team made around Lerby. The search was still to go on – the hope would be to create something around Rijkaard and Vanendurg. Eventually. For the moment – just stay on top at home and add domestic titles.