Alfred Schreuder was often under pressure during his career and even when criticism at Ajax increased, Schreuder always remained calm. Until Sunday. Nota bene after a night of partying against Excelsior (7-1), the Ajax coach hit back in a seven-minute tirade. Was that a trainer in the corner or does this site also belong to Schreuder?

“If people think I’m a softie, they’ve never been in the dressing room with me. Never before,” Schreuder grumbled last Sunday. The coach looked back on his otherwise prepared dig at the media on Friday. He himself did not consider it “atypical”. “Wasn’t it the Alfred Schreuder that you know from the outside? There are people who know me differently.”

The outside world had actually never seen Schreuder so grim, his cabin friends were less surprised. “Even as a child he could be very convincing,” says Jürgen Streppel with a smile. The current coach of Roda JC was a player in the dressing room at RKC Waalwijk in the 90s.

Lie

“He never had room to lounge around, then you heard it straight away. If the hat was thrown at him, he also made it clear that he’d rather not have it, just to put it nicely. So always social, don’t yell.”

Streppel and Schreuder were part of an RKC team that also included Erik ten Hag, Marcel Brands and Zeljko Petrovic. A team full of leaders and personalities. “But he wasn’t that smart back then,” jokes Petrovic. “Then I had the biggest mouth.”

And then seriously: “But he was certainly a player who had something to say. He has considered the game very carefully and has already worked to put players down. As is the case for all of us now, so is Erik (ten Hag note) and Jürgen (Streppel ed.), who worked on the profession, had already started at RKC.

Whoever you speak of Schreuder – former teammates, colleagues or former players – the word “sense of justice” is used by all. Schreuder felt his integrity had been compromised by a number of journalists and analysts, so it was time to strike back.

“I thought it took a long time,” Ali Boussaboun defended his old football pal at NAC and Feyenoord. “I felt like it wasn’t about the content anymore, it was getting personal. You attacked the man Alfred Schreuder, so I understood that he would freak out.”

After Ajax-Excelsior, Schreuder reacted violently to the story that his agent Milos Malenovic played a role during the transfer period.

Boussaboun joined NAC as a youth when Schreuder was captain and Henk ten Cate coach. Schreuder was clearly the extension of Ten Cate. In fact, in some games, Ten Cate even left it entirely to his captain.

“If we were joking around, he would have let you hear it too. Then he got up and yelled: What the hell are we doing?!”

Boussaboun was later Schreuder’s team-mate at Feyenoord in 2005/06. It was also the season that Schreuders’ six-year-old daughter died of a brain tumor.

“He was very strict about it. You didn’t see a man who was a wreck. Not only did he behave like a captain on the field, but he was the captain of his family at the time.”

It strengthened Schreuder as a person and, according to Petrovic, it was easier for him to let go of criticism and put it into perspective. “But even for someone like Schreuder, with everything he’s been through, it might be enough.”

In 2004, RKC supporters supported Alfred Schreuder after the game against Ajax.

As a coach, Petrovic could also bite off if he felt it necessary. For example, when he was annoyed with the management of ADO Den Haag, which lay down at the last minute before Sheraldo Becker was transferred.

Jan Pipo the clown

“Then I said: Do you think I’m Jan Pipo the clown? This interview has always haunted me. As a coach, I just wanted to avoid the word Jan Lul! That could also happen at Schreuder now.”

Petrovic didn’t see Schreuder’s outburst coming. “I didn’t expect him to openly do that. I expected that from someone else. I don’t mean that in a negative way, because I also think it’s good that he throws out all his frustration for once.”

Streppel understands the excesses of his former teammate, but has his doubts as to whether that is wise. “You shouldn’t do that too often as a coach, then you lose credibility.”

Petrovic: “We are humans, not robots. Even the calmest man in the world can get irritated.”