sport news Koeman on Holland resurgence, life after Everton axe and Virgil van Dijk

There is a huge laugh as Ronald Koeman contemplates the idea he is a changed man. 

He recently became a grandfather for the first time, a bouncing boy called Xavi, and proudly reveals at the start of this conversation that a second grandchild will arrive later this month.

Koeman is the King of Dutch football, a man who has spent his life at the highest parts of the game. Relentless pressure has been ever-present through his career, so does a more mature status means he is now contemplating a life of pushing prams?

‘Ha!’ says Koeman. ‘As a manager of a club, it is 24 hours a day but the national coach is different. The pressure is not every day; the pressure is when the qualifiers start and we are playing because then you feel the pressure, but that's normal and I don't feel it something negative.’

There will be pressure this week, when Holland square up to England in the Nations League semi-finals, but not of the kind that would be omnipresent if this was a major tournament; silverware might be available this weekend but Koeman is certainly not stressing out.

He knows what it is like to win in Orange and the memories of a glorious summer in 1988 when they became champions of Europe will never fade but when asked whether winning the Nations League as manager would be a comparable feat, the accompanying raised eyebrows are a telling response.

‘No,’ Koeman, who is now 56, explains. ‘It’s Nations League. It’s not a Euros; it’s not a world championship. Winning the Nations League, you don’t get a ticket for the Euros. It’s a tournament instead of playing friendlies. Winning the Nations League is important, but you cannot compare.’

The prestige might be missing, then, but the determination to be successful remains the same. We spend an hour at the sparkling Dutch football headquarters in Zeist, a small town an hour outside Amsterdam, and Koeman in these circumstances is wonderfully engaging company.

At Everton, when he was last managing in the Premier League, his media briefings could be blunt and difficult and there is no question the startling way his team lost form and led to his sacking in October 2017 left its mark. To spend 10 minutes in his time there, you would say he was distant.

Here, though, he is invigorated. He laughs about having to completely redecorate a Christmas tree in blue after posting a picture on Twitter in front of red tree. That was his during his first year at Goodison Park and it is something about which he continues to be reminded on social media.

But there are so many other stories, not least about Johan Cruyff, his inspiration and mentor, and the things he learned from the greatest European to play the game; methods he still employs today. Mention Cruyff and Koeman comes alive.

‘Cruyff told me that “sometimes you need to play in the middle of training because then the players can see and learn from you”,’ Koeman begins. ‘He said if you stay always outside watching the sessions or sometimes be part and involved in that session because then you see much more.’

Koeman would involve himself much more in training but operations on both of his Achilles tendons mean he has to be selective of when the boots go on. You imagine, though, he would want to play in every session given his defenders are Virgil van Dijk and Matthijs De Ligt.