Verhaeghe hands Deila the ball: “I think we were too strong for the previous coach”

Club Brugge qualifies for the European semi-finals for the first time in 32 years. “We are very happy,” said Chairman of the Board of Directors Bart Verhaeghe. “This is a credit to the players, the coaching staff, coach Nicky Hayne and the wider framework.”

Exactly a month after Ronny Deila was sacked, the club appear to have found their second wind. “I have always believed in the quality of the kernel,” the president said. “We felt like not enough was being done about it.”

“I think we were too strong for the previous coach. Then you have to draw your own conclusions and look for a coach who can work with that strength and mold everything from it. Heine did that and I'm very proud of that.”

Can the club be too strong for the coach? Peter Vandenemppt also needs further clarification. “It's not that difficult,” Verhaeghe explains. “The organization can be so strong that the coach only has to focus on the things he was hired to do.”

He added: “We ask the coach to win the next match, to have a clear tactical plan, and to know how he will deploy the players and analyze the opponent.”

“He shouldn't care if the players are in good shape, how they eat, sleep and drink…we all do it.”

Verhaeghe confirms that this strong organization is the source of Club Brugge's strength. “We are very professionally organized as a club. This makes sense, because I invest in these players and they cost a lot of money. We want to give the best to the players and get them out of this crisis.”

“The coach then has to make it complete. This is not a scouting group, but a football team that has to win at the professional level. This is different from winning by a team that plays well by chance and has a good season because the atmosphere was good.” good. “

“We are not a team like that. We are a team that always has a good atmosphere, but we also want to win game after game. This is the mentality of a big team and I don't want to leave that mentality anymore.” “

“Club Brugge is a top team year after year. There may be a bad year – you can't play champions every year – but we want to do our best every year.”

All this praise for Hayen: is he definitely T1 for next season? “We are not saying that Hayne will be No. 1 next season, nor that he cannot be. We have said that we will focus on this season.”

“We want to achieve the strongest performance with this group of players and the technical staff in the matches we have left. We will make the most of it. The semi-final match against Fiorentina will be very difficult.”

He added, “In the tournament, we try to provide the best match after match. First and foremost, we want to get a European ticket for next season. This is what we are doing, and after this season we will see who will become a coach.”