Flying Kiwis – Curious Times In The Dutch Eredivisie
Can’t imagine how frustrating this must’ve all been for Ryan Thomas. He’d finally broken through for PSV after basically a year and a half of either being injured or not quite match fit or still trying to establish his role for the club. Then the fella gets a nudge as a complimentary striker, has a month and a bit of pure quality which finally launches him at the club... and a global pandemic hits. Sorry ‘bout it.
One of the trickiest parts of the recovery (/reinvention for those optimists such as myself, no need to pick up where we left off with all the bad habits of humanity) will be balancing how different countries have chosen to handle things. The Netherlands put a dead halt on all pro sports from the date of that announcement in late-April until September. Considering how that overlaps with what would have been the start of next season, it was therefore determined that the 2019-20 Eredivisie could not be completed. Then the folks in suits had a little chat and it was announced that the season would be abandoned where it was. No champions, no relegation. The first time since 1945 that there won’t be a Dutch top flight champion which is guts to Ajax and AZ Alkmaar who were tied on 56 points with nine matches remaining each and staring down what might have been a thrilling race to the finish otherwise.
It’s also kinda stink for Thomas’ PSV because after terrible run of form around the turn of the year they’d been really picking things up, Ryan Thomas’ new role as a goal scorer/provider helping that plenty as their last five games saw them take 13 of a possible 15 points. It was enough to slide them back up to fourth having looked for a while there like they might tumble out of the European places entirely. Speaking of which, those Champions League and Europa League spots have been awarded to the teams as they stand.
Meaning that PSV will enter qualifying for the Europa League. With 49 points and having played one extra game than the three teams above them, perhaps this is where they would have finished regardless... but they won’t get to find out either way. Only the top two places in the Netherlands get Champions League admission and PSV had a lot of ground to catch up there if they were going to make Ryan Thomas just the fifth kiwi to play Champions League. Still, even third place would at least have allowed them to skip those pesky Europa qualifying games and go straight into the group stage.
September 1 will now be the start of the 2020-21 season, a month later than usual but so it goes. Most teams are already back in some form of restricted training and from July more a formal preseason is expected to begin. It was always going to be impossible to please everybody but there’s been huge controversy over these decisions, the lack of promotion being the biggest drama. PSV’s place in it all can be taken as a relief or a scourge depending on how confident you are in that squad they’ve got there. But...
... these lads on the other hand, they’ve definitely copped the shiny side of things. Willem II have had a sneakily excellent season, going unbeaten in their final ten games before the winter break as well as nursing a little cup run too. Michael Woud and James McGarry mostly only sat on the bench throughout but the team around them were going ballistic and sitting as high as third during that run of results. However 2020 wasn’t proving so kind. After returning from their break with an excellent 3-1 win away to AZ... they were then knocked out of the KNVB Cup on penalties and only won two of their next seven league games - one of those two wins being the lone game that Woudy played in this season. They were slipping, no doubt about it. But were still clinging to fifth place when things were frozen.
Fifth puts them into Europa League qualifying same as PSV. Fifth is their best domestic finish this millennium... or would’ve been if it counted. It’ll be the first time they’ve played European footy since the 2005-06 UEFA Cup where Willem II lost 5-1 over two legs to AS Monaco in the first round. Meanwhile poor old Utrecht were in sixth place only three points behind Willem II with a game in hand and a goal difference that was thirteen goals better off. There’s no guarantee that there will even be a Europa League next season given how weird all the international travel is going to be. Or what shape/form it will take if it does exist. But Willem II have their name in the hat thanks to the league being called off when it was, one more week and that might not have been the case. Pretty lucky.
Sadly that European excursion won’t include James McGarry. His contract was due to expire at the end of the 19-20 season anyway and it seems the club weren’t prepared to offer him a new one, hence he negotiated an early release so as to allow him to return to Aotearoa rather than buggering around at a club he had no future at when there was zero football to be played. According to one of the Dutch papers McGarry’s been back in NZ for ages having left as hastily as he could to avoid the locking of the borders. His contract termination was only announced this week but apparently the call was made back at the very start of April and he’s (thankfully) been home every since.
Willem II Official Website: “James McGarry's contract was terminated immediately. The New Zealander recently received news that the option in his contract will not be picked up. McGarry then asked the club to contribute to a faster return to his homeland. Willem II decided to comply with that request. McGarry joined the Tricolores in July 2018, but his stay in Tilburg was not what both parties expected. McGarry: "I want to thank the supporters, staff and players for the past two years. Because of you I have felt very comfortable at the club. I wish Willem II every success for the future”. James, good luck with the continuation of the career!”
In two seasons with Willem II, James McGarry featured in six Eredivisie games totalling 178 minutes of action (two starts, four as a sub). Only one of those games, and six of those minutes, came this season though. Instead McGarry was an unused sub on 40 occasions over his two years (they have extended benches to include extra youth players in the Netherlands so that benchwarming was more of a formality rather than a continued snub, to be fair). Not quite how things might have gone. He got stuck between a couple other left-backs in his time in Holland and never really got the opportunities.
The obvious thing to say now is that he’d be a great signing for the Wellington Phoenix... and for once that shout would actually make a lot of sense here. Liberato Cacace is destined for greater things than the A-League. European clubs do currently have bigger things to worry about than scouting prospective left-backs from the other side of the world so who knows how all that’ll come out in the wash... but if Cacace were to leave then McGarry is a ready-made replacement who does have an interest in playing A-League footy, whether with the Nix or elsewhere. His first stint with the Welly Nix ended on weird terms as he never quite got the first team chances he perhaps should have (back then he was often used as a striker too) but everybody’s a little older now and there’s a different coaching regime in charge at the Nix these days. It’ll be one to keep a watch on.
Finally, we’ve gotta return to the fates of Willem II one last time now where the rollercoaster ride that’s been this whole Eredivisie yarn gets to take one last swoop... because starting goalie Timon Wellenreuther is also out of contract at the end of this season and by all reports is expected to leave the club. Willem’s technical director has been talking about contingency plans.
Wellenreuther, a former German youth international, has been one of their star players this season but he’s already rejected a new contract offer and as a pending free agent has been allowed to negotiate with foreign clubs since January. Thus Willem have been looking for his replacement since before the season was stopped but figuring that out during the coronavirus is not going to be easy and may well be impossible while travel bans remain in place. Which means that Michael Woud has a decent chance to start next season as the number one keeper at the club unless Wellenreuther changes course and re-signs.
So three kiwis in the top flight of Dutch footy this past season and three very different situations they now find themselves in. Ryan Thomas has had to hit pause. James McGarry might end up hitting rewind. Michael Woud could be about to hit fast-forward. And that, friends, is the way the whole durned human comedy keeps perpetuating itself.
Sign up to The Niche Cache’s new substack newsletter if you want the sneaky bonus hook-ups
Also our Patreon thing’s still out there, a pledge there sure wouldn’t go astray these days
Keep cool but care