FC Twexit

A quarter of a century ago, teaching was quite different from what it is today. Take, for example, lecturing. Most lecturers prepared slides manually in advance, with some rudimentary equipment. Then, we put them on one of the two overhead projectors that were present. The students had to copy these slides by writing swiftly, unless we had been so friendly to put them in a syllabus. Therefore, some lectures were exhausting affairs, whereas other lectures were far more relaxed. Sometimes, I decided during the lecture, that part of the contents could be skipped. Then, I would inevitably write ‘exit’ in front of that part. Some students immediately understood what it meant, while others would ask for a clarification during the break. Nowadays, this remark would cause no problems whatsoever. We have had lengthy discussions about both a Grexit and a Brexit.

Some commentators even want a referendum about a Nexit. Many people leave Twitter for a while and then write Twexit.

Currently, the Dutch soccer world is talking about an FCTwexit: a bankruptcy of FC Twente that then would have to leave professional football for at least a number of years. I cannot imagine Dutch professional football without FC Twente. My first season as a football fan was the 1968/69 season. The club from Enschede then experienced a breakthrough, three years after the merger between SC Enschede, a white collar club, and Enschedese Boys, a blue collar club. They were title contenders for most of the season, despite the presence of Ajax (with all-time greats like Johan Cruijff, Piet Keizer, Wim Suurbier and Sjaak Swart) and Feijenoord (with legends like Wim van Hanegem, Wim Jansen, Ove Kindvall, Eddy Pieters Graafland and Coen Moulijn). FC Twente beat Ajax sensationally 5–1 at home, only losing the away match due to Eddy Achterberg missing a chance in front of an open goal mouth. However, Feijenoord was twice too strong for the team from Enschede: 3–0 in De Kuip, 1–0 in Twente. The Rotterdam club won the title, with Ajax as runners-up and a tired FC Twente finishing third. Nevertheless, their coach, the legendary Kees Rijvers, had built an excellent team, with, amongst others, goalkeeper Piet Schrijvers (from DWS, Amsterdam), central defender Epi Drost (from Heracles, Almelo) and the forwards Dick van Dijk (from SVV, Schiedam) and Theo Pahlplatz. FC Twente played in a fresh, attacking style. Feijenoord won the European Champions’ Cup, the predecessor of the UEFA Champions’ League, one year later. After that, by the way, they changed their name into Feyenoord. Ajax reached the semi-finals of the Fairs’ Cup, one of the predecessors of the UEFA Europa League. Thus, FC Twente had competed with European top-teams. Ever since that 1968/69 season, I have had a weak spot for this club.

However, their policy has always been aimed at buying players. SC Enschede gave their first shot at the Dutch title in professional football in 1958. Their trainer-coach was Frantisek Fadrhonc, who had guided Willem II to the Dutch amateur championship in 1952 and to the very first Dutch professional title in 1955. Notable players included the internationals Abe Lenstra (from sc Heerenveen), Joop Odenthal (from FC Haarlem), Rinus Schaap (from ‘t Gooi) and Gerrit Voges (from PEC Zwolle), as well as forward Arend van der Wel (from Ajax) and goalkeeper Jan van de Wint (from VSV). However, DOS (Utrecht) beat them in a decision match 1–0 after extra time. Abe Lenstra saw his last attempt to win the Dutch title vanish into thin air, due to a goal by fellow international forward Tonny van der Linden. Some years later, SC Enschede even hired the services of Helmut Rahn, who had captured the World Cup with West-Germany in 1954. For the first time in Eredivisie-history, a world champion was active in this league. The team that came close to the Dutch title in 1969 was also built around players who had been purchased from elsewhere. The same is true for the slightly rebuilt team that finished as runners-up in the 1973/74 season. The memory of their title win in 2010 is so fresh that most readers will realize that the share of home-grown players in the FC Twente-squad was rather low.

Building a team mainly by purchasing players is risky. Some new arrivals are hits, others turn out to be clear misses. They will exit with a loss. Moreover, the board of FC Twente formulated a target that was rather ambitious: a structural position in the top-32 of Europe. Reaching that level by smart purchasing with a tight budget constraint, at least from a European perspective, might have been just too much. This is what my head tells me. My heart tells me other things. It takes me to legendary matches against Borussia Mönchengladbach, Ipswich Town, Juventus and Rangers FC. An FCTwexit would be hard to accept. However, at least everybody immediately knows what it means nowadays.