Pascal Jansen has a deep connection to England; his mother deliberately ensured that. She had long decided that she wanted her son to be born In England, her own place of birth and where her parents continued to live. And so, shortly before her due date, she flew to London and then, two weeks after Pascal was born, returned to Holland.
It forged an indelible relationship that Jansen remains staunchly proud of. He goes back and forth to England, even though his grandparents have now passed away. He speaks at his joy of speaking to English people when he returns home and the importance of maintaining his connection and his dual nationality.
Jansen, now 50, had to wait and work for his place in the game. At the age of 17, having played in the academies of both AZ Alkmaar and Ajax, a serious knee injury brought him to a crossroads and coaching became his raison d’etre.
He wrote a book, for and to himself more than anyone else, in which he mapped out a set of goals that included achieving his coaching badges, Uefa ‘B’ and ‘A’ Licences, Uefa Pro Licence and to build up a CV that took in different football clubs, countries and cultures. What’s more, he wanted to achieve all that by the age of 35. He met the deadline, becoming (at the time) the youngest recipient of the Pro Licence.
Jansen’s coaching journey started in 1993. He started at the very bottom, coaching children’s teams where he says you learn that his industry is about a love of the game first and everything else second. He did internships and took promotions, moved abroad and between clubs to work under different mentors.
The vision was clear: “You become a sponge, but you have to make yourself one: go and contact people who are further down the road and who inspire you; do a lot of reading and studying about different styles and coaches.”
Jansen namechecks Pep Guardiola, Jurgen Klopp and Carlo Ancelotti as inspirations; perhaps no surprise there. But he also studied Phil Jackson, the former head coach of the Chicago Bulls and LA Lakers, and John Wooden, one of the most successful college basketball coaches in history.
He relied upon the wisdom of Joop Brand, an Eredivisie manager in the 1980s who was also his youth coach at AZ and who, at the age of 85, was in the room when Jansen extended his contract as AZ manager. And then there’s Louis van Gaal.
“When I started off as a coach I was inspired a lot by Louis van Gaal when he was at Ajax. I was actually very fortunate to watch him coach in my younger years. I was about 13, and it was very inspiring – I can remember the session still now. In my own coaching path I have been able to meet him a few times so that we could discuss those moments and the impact they had on me. Those are the fun parts!”
Having worked for almost 30 years in various roles – youth coach, academy director, first-team coach – Jansen’s big break came at AZ when it emerged that Arne Slot had been in secret negotiations to leave for Feyenoord. Jansen had the years and the experience under his belt, but the offer (initially on an interim basis) was a huge surprise. But he was ready.
“I said to myself ‘This is what my Mum has always told me: when opportunity knocks, it doesn’t send an email.’ So you have to be ready, whenever the chance is there. I took a couple of hours and I thought ‘Right, let’s do this. This is what I have prepared for for so many years’.”
AZ are a unique football club with unique demands. They are entirely committed to “the process”, a system in which they develop young players, offer them pathways and then sell them on to bigger clubs or bigger leagues if the right offer comes in.
Selling players is not a sign of weakness, but a show of strength in the process itself. In the last five years alone, six players have been sold for €10m or more. AZ have never signed a player for more than €7m.
As Jansen says, that process stretches down way below the first team. Last week Alkmaar won the Uefa Youth League, winning the final 5-0. In the knockout rounds, they beat Eintracht Frankfurt 5-0, Barcelona 3-0 and Real Madrid 4-0. That is why, when a key player is sold, they look first to the academy.
They are busy creating the team of the future in the present because they are wholly dedicated to the vision of what their club must be. And that is where Jansen’s own expertise and experience with young players comes in. He recalls, during his time at PSV, attending a tournament in Liverpool and striking up a conversation with Noni Madueke’s father. Academy players in England were looking for a way out and saw the Eredivisie as a natural habitat. The next year, Madueke joined PSV.
“The biggest strength that we have in this club is that we are focused on more than just the game on Saturday,” Jansen says. “We invest a lot of time and energy in a lot of aspects that we believe influence the process.”
“Brighton are a very inspiring club. I follow the Premier League very closely and Brighton have a very creative mind that shows everyone in the UK that it’s not all about money. Money in England is a very major part, but how you spend it, how you develop yourselves and how you create a certain amount of consistency – that is something that is very special.”
That is why the Europa Conference League is so important for clubs like AZ. You can emphasise the importance of the process all you like, but you cannot overestimate the importance of a stage on which you can show the world what that process can produce. People get curious. People look you up online. People ask to interview your manager and ask him to talk up the culture of the club in which they are proud to work.
For Jansen, I wonder whether a semi-final against West Ham is the completion of the circle: from London and back to London, with a 50-year gap. He laughs and agrees that he is completely on board with that idea: “It’s so beautiful. I am so happy with the draw because it brings back a lot of memories. We had the faith and belief that we could get here and now we’re off to London.”
And I wonder, perhaps a little mischievously, whether another circle may be completed if Jansen was to ever manage in the Premier League. A 30-year coaching journey that he made happen and the breaks that he forced. In that book Jansen wrote many decades ago, he mentioned a dream of managing in England. Everything else has come to pass.
“I get goosebumps from that question, to be honest,” he says with a smile. “I hope one day that I might get to work with the best players in the world in the best league there is. But there is more to do first: to show what AZ stands for; to demonstrate how strong we are mentally; to prove that the process can win.”
from Football - inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/QLEAMjO
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