De Telegraaf don’t quite go for the Crystal Palace jugular on Tuesday, perhaps the Dutch newspaper are holding their fire back until Frank De Boer gets his compensation settlement.
Instead, De Boer’s choice of Crystal Palace is looked at and, not for the first time this week in the Netherlands, criticised. In hindsight it’s easy to say De Boer had an impossible job trying to change a nailed in style at Crystal Palace, but it’s pointed out that opinion was also available before the event.
Han Berger, a former manager who now works with a Dutch association for coaches, believes it was a task too hard for De Boer, or for anyone.
Berger explained: “If there is one club where the kick and rush is locked in the DNA, then it’s Crystal Palace. And then he had Sam Allardyce as a predecessor. The requirement to 
play another football without getting the players was an extra pitfall… The risk was high beforehand. Frank is a good guy, but this is killing his career.”
It was also easy to see Inter Milan was a bad choice before De Boer took over there, but the Dutchman still took the decision and that going wrong clearly didn’t make him swerve such a job at Crystal Palace.
De Telegraaf have brought out a string of people to back up De Boer, but the general opinion is the manager made another wrong decision, and that’s harmful to his career.
De Boer is rumoured to be the most serious candidate to take over from Dick Advocaat as Netherlands manager, and whilst that’s another hard job, with the team not in a great period, it’s one with increasingly realistic expectations.
