Dutch Football Quotes

When I came to Arsenal years ago, I saw things from Dennis Bergkamp and Thierry Henry I'd never seen before.

I think we have very good facilities for the youth in Holland. We have very good youth coaches and I think that is some of the reasons that always Holland has very good football players.

Every club has legends, and at Barcelona, Cruyff and Pep are going to be spoken about forever, knowing what they've achieved and in what style.

When I was a teenager, my idol was the Dutch footballer Johan Cruyff. He's the only person I've ever asked for an autograph.

As a young centre-back at Ajax, I played with Wim Jansen, and of course you learn a huge amount. I made some mistakes, because we Dutchmen want to solve situations by playing football. So we look at the ball, try to judge where it will come.

In Holland you go into amateur teams, come up through the ranks and are generally spotted for senior or professional football. At 16, I had made it into a men's amateur team, and was picked up professionally from there.

Louis van Gaal is one of the most successful managers in the world.

I experienced great professionalism in Dutch football. I don't want to give a stereotypical view of them, but they are needy in terms of wanting to know exactly what the game plan is, what their role is, that information.

To play Holland, you have to play the Dutch.

Someone said that my coaching is a combination of Milan's defensive discipline and the Dutch propensity for attacking football, and I think that is a fair description.

I'm not going back to Amsterdam, though it would be very comfortable there with Frank de Boer, Danny Blind, and Dennis Bergkamp. When I left 12 years ago, I said I would return, but I did not know then what great years I would have with Manchester United. I might occasionally visit training with them, but I will not be going regularly.

It was always my dream to be at Ajax.

I'm not going to say the Dutch league is naive but they all play to win. In the Premier League, you have teams with a different idea.

When I was younger my idols were Marco van Basten and Ruud Gullit.

Holland I think is the best school to learn football. I think its a great league for that because it's not the strongest league in Europe.

Becoming Netherlands coach could be a nice end to my career.

The Dutch public always wants to see a team that is trying to be dominant, trying to play attractive football, and after that, hopefully, a team that is winning.

You hear all these people saying, 'Oh, Pep, what a good manager he is.' Forget about it. Cruyff was the best, by far.

Frank de Boer definitely showed in the Netherlands that he's a good coach.

I was ready to leave Holland and Serie A is a big step for me.

Louis van Gaal has nothing more to learn.

In Holland we have always viewed Villa as an important club with a tradition of being powerful in Europe when I was younger, so I would be very interested in managing them if the job was offered to me.

It's simply amazing to have the chance to play for PSV.

With Ajax and Liverpool, you win about 80 per cent of matches.

If you're a dope like me, you get every sports channel you can get. I'm watching, you know, Netherlands soccer.