Al Jazira manager Henk ten Cate has revealed he has turned down the Netherlands vacancy as the search for Danny Blind’s successor continues.
Ten Cate, 62, arrived at Al Jazira in December 2015 and led the UAE club to the President’s Cup in his first season, after which he signed a two-year contract.
This season, in Ten Cate’s first full campaign, the Dutchman has led Jazira to the brink of their first top-flight league title in six years.
The National understands Jazira have now offered him an improved contract.
Ten Cate’s success in the UAE has seemingly caught the attention of the Royal Dutch Football Association (KNVB).
"I was offered the job on Monday, but in the end I decided not to do it," Ten Cate told Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf.
“If you accept such a responsible job — to me the most honourable in Dutch football — it is essential that the whole organisation is behind it, or it will not be a success.”
At the weekend, he revealed that he had long talks Saturday in an Abu Dhabi hotel with Hans van Breukelen, the technical director of the KNVB.
Blind was sacked as Netherlands manager on March 26 after a 2-0 defeat to Bulgaria that left the team’s chances of reaching the World Cup finals hanging by the slenderest of threads.
The loss in Sofia put the Dutch in fourth place in qualifying Group A, trailing six points behind leaders France.
The Netherlands, three times the World Cup runners-up, also failed to qualify for the Euro 2016.
Ten Cate, a former manager for Ajax and Panathinaikos, said he believed the Dutch could “still qualify for the World Cup in Russia.” The next qualifying match is on June 9 against Luxembourg.
And he wished Van Breukelen “every success in his quest for a new coach.”
Breukelen said on Tuesday that he hoped to present the new manager in the next few days. He is also said to be in talks with Dick Advocaat, 69, the current manager of Istanbul’s Fenerbahce.
The Dutch national team is facing two coming friendlies, against Morocco on May 31 and the Ivory Coast on June 4.
* The National staff
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