Excelsior manager Marinus Dijkhuizen has admitted he was not ready to take charge of Brentford but learned his lessons from his unsuccessful spell at the club.
The Dutch coach has been speaking to Voetbal International regarding his career so far and the lessons learned from his unsuccessful move to England.
Dijkhuizen started his career with FC Utrecht as an individual trainer before then becoming a video analyst with Excelsior and moving up from there, becoming a scout then manager in January 2014.
By July 2015, he had moved to Brentford but only lasted nine games at the club, winning just two games and picking up eight points in total before the Bees decided to remove him from his position following a 2-1 loss to Sheffield Wednesday.
That was undeniably a major blow for Dijkhuizen, who had missed his opportunity to establish himself in England.
He’s since returned to the Netherlands and coached various clubs there before returning to Excelsior in January 2020, where he’s been ever since.
He’s now happy where he is and looking back, admits now that he was not ready for the Brentford move but took it as a lesson to be learned.
“That doesn’t leave you cold either,” he said regarding the short-lived Brentford move.
“But if a trainer like me gets that chance, then you go. No one blames you for that. If I suddenly had to manage a staff of twenty, I was not ready for that at all.
“(Now) I am more of a manager, I have more of an overview. Making the young guys around me better is great. Times have changed. I now notice where I fell short in the past. More communication is the basis.”
