Ronald Koeman has won a European Championship in Germany after a group-stage defeat. Admittedly, it was 36 years ago, as a player and not a manager and to a country – the Soviet Union – that no longer exists as the same entity. But if the precedents from the past offer encouragement, the present bodes less well. Koeman had said the day before facing Austria that he did not want to finish third in Group D. The Netherlands lost and duly did.
“We knew that if we are third in the group then we will get a big nation in the next round, if it is England, if it is Spain,” sighed Koeman. The probability is that it is England and if Dutch pessimism may be misguided, given the resounding mediocrity of Gareth Southgate’s troops so far, a reaction to the loss to Austria was to suggest Koeman’s latest venture across the border might not end in continental glory, but with a different type of finality. “If we fail, please ask me again,” said Koeman, when quizzed if his future contained the sack. If he, like his team, is into a form of sudden death, a battering in Berlin came with a warning for their prospects; and, by extension, his.
