Sepp van den Berg knew what he needed to do. The Brentford centre-back knew what he was going to do. One other summer season, one other change; one other push to discover a footballing dwelling. It was June 2024 and as he loved a lunch within the sunshine along with his brother and pals of their hometown of Zwolle within the Netherlands, he might mirror on a wonderful season on mortgage from Liverpool at Mainz. “Then I acquired a faucet on my shoulder,” Van den Berg says.
It was Arne Slot. One other man who had grown up within the space. Slot's first job as a supervisor had been with the PEC Zwolle under-13s after he retired as a participant on the membership in 2013; Van den Berg, enjoying a 12 months up, was in his squad. Now Slot had been confirmed as Jürgen Klopp's successor at Liverpool and he was wanting ahead to the beginning of pre-season.
“I used to be a bit stunned,” Van den Berg says. “And possibly it was a little bit bit awkward. It was simply humorous … coming from the identical hometown, he'd coached me after I was a child and now he's the man at Liverpool. He was similar to: ‘How's your low season been? Have you ever been working? Are you prepared for pre-season?' I mentioned: ‘Sure, after all.' However in my very own head, I used to be considering: ‘Yeah, I'm prepared however hopefully I'm not even coming again for pre-season,' as a result of I needed to go away.”
Van den Berg's transfer to Liverpool from PEC Zwolle as a 17-year-old in 2019 had descended right into a nightmare. After making 4 appearances within the home cups, he was dropped into the reserves and got here to really feel forgotten. Dwelling on his personal, he was overwhelmed by loneliness and felt his psychological well being crash. It reached the purpose the place he didn't need to go in for coaching.
It was not the rationale why Van den Berg didn't fancy a return to Liverpool with Slot as a result of he was again on the up, having rebuilt himself initially at Preston, the place he went on mortgage for the second half of the 2020-21 season and the entire of the next one.
It's as if Van den Berg's physique lightens when he remembers his time on the Championship membership. “Life-saver is a giant phrase nevertheless it opened me up once more,” he says. “I simply loved enjoying and feeling necessary; feeling helpful … let me say it this manner.”
Van den Berg would endure a horror ankle damage on mortgage at Schalke in 2022-23 that wanted surgical procedure and virtually seven months out however Mainz might hardly have gone higher, even when what he describes because the “hierarchical” system in German soccer had uncommon penalties.
“I performed each recreation for Mainz however I used to be nonetheless 20, 21 and so earlier than each coaching I needed to test the air stress of the balls and in the event that they weren't appropriate I needed to blow them up myself – with the 2 different younger gamers,” he says. “Each coaching I needed to deliver the balls and the bibs. And each coaching I needed to deliver the balls and the bibs again in. It's as a result of you're the youngest participant.”
Van den Berg wanted common beginning soccer and he knew he wouldn't get it at Liverpool. But Slot was persuasive. He did return for the pre-season and he cherished Slot's classes, his man‑administration, too.
“It was completely completely different,” Van den Berg says. “The years earlier than, I by no means had this sense of me having a correct probability. A couple of weeks down the road, he was saying: ‘You're doing very nicely. I need you to remain.' When you have the supervisor of Liverpool saying that, it's not nothing. So, after all, I began considering once more. ‘Perhaps I ought to keep, possibly I ought to signal a brand new contract right here.' It was bizarre.
“He was open, straightforward to talk to. We're each Dutch, so we're very direct. I like that. He instructed me: ‘You're not going to begin however I consider if you happen to keep you're going to get an opportunity sooner or later to begin.'”
Van den Berg was not swayed. He knew what he needed to do. His switch to Brentford for an preliminary £20m was accomplished in the direction of the top of the summer season window final 12 months and it needed to be a wierd feeling, three days later, when he was an unused substitute on the visiting bench towards Liverpool at Anfield within the second spherical of Premier League fixtures.
The defender has discovered alignment at Brentford. The extra he talks in regards to the personnel and the setting, the extra excellent he makes it sound. It's the friendliness, the transparency, the spirit of equality and togetherness. “As a result of the constructing is small, you see everybody,” he says. “You see the technical administrators virtually each day. You see the proprietor [Matthew Benham] coming into the dressing room each dwelling recreation and shaking your hand.”
Van den Berg was an necessary participant final season for Thomas Frank, the supervisor who persuaded him to signal, beginning 29 instances within the league. And he has arguably been much more so for the brand new supervisor, Keith Andrews. As he prepares to face Slot and Liverpool on the Gtech Group Stadium on Saturday, the numbers present he has not missed a minute.
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The numbers, after all, are a giant factor at Brentford. The sport is within the grip of an information arms race and but many golf equipment are getting theirs from the identical sources. What units Brentford aside and offers them an edge is that the info they use is proprietary, in-house, coming principally from Benham, who has made his fortune out of statistical modelling.
“The primary purpose they signed me was as a result of my information was superb, particularly at Mainz,” Van den Berg says, nevertheless it goes deeper than that. Brentford get information on their gamers from fitness center classes, coaching and matches – even after matches. “There are such a lot of new locations they will discover information or new issues they will determine,” Van den Berg says.
It informs Brentford's method and so does one other, extra human element – the famously strict “no dickheads” coverage. The membership take their due diligence on signings very critically. Once they needed Vitaly Janelt from Bochum in 2020, for instance, they requested him to call his favorite restaurant. They then visited it to ask the employees how Janelt was with them. Did he deal with them with respect? When the solutions have been constructive, they pressed on with the deal.
“It's what they've mentioned many instances – we don't signal dickheads,” Van den Berg says. “I'm used to coming into new golf equipment and assembly new individuals and it was undoubtedly one of many best coming in right here. I like everybody within the constructing.”
Van den Berg has discovered a selected reference to Brentford's sleep marketing consultant, Anna West. The best way he tells it, she is extra like a psychologist – a impartial outsider in whom to confide and share, to minimize any burdens. “My girlfriend, Bente, is at college in Amsterdam and my household is in Zwolle so I reside alone,” he says. “It's simply good with Anna to have somebody I can communicate to in individual. I discover it very useful.”
It's straightforward to wonder if issues would have labored out higher for Van den Berg if Liverpool had taken care of him in a different way. “It was undoubtedly darkish days,” he says. “As a 17-year-old boy coming in from a unique nation, you're not the precedence.
“I used to be going dwelling crying at some factors after which not chatting with anybody. Do you name this depressed? I feel it's a bit too heavy a phrase. However I wasn't feeling nicely. I wasn't within the head area you're purported to be in. I had no confidence and that basically affected me as a footballer. I used to be simply consistently doubting myself, like I used to be not adequate. I didn't need to go to coaching, which isn't me. Then, you're actually down low.
“Wanting again, if somebody had taken care of me as a younger participant, it will have helped me, for certain. For younger guys going overseas, going to huge golf equipment, I'd say to folks: ‘Watch out. Ensure the child is OK.' I've pretty dad and mom, my mum FaceTimes me each day however nonetheless she didn't know 100% how I felt. And for the golf equipment, undoubtedly look out extra for the youthful gamers.
“Alternatively, I did be taught so much from the state of affairs. It made me the man I'm as we speak. My damage at Schalke, as nicely – it makes you stronger. You be taught a lot since you go into such a darkish area. It looks like your complete world dies in entrance of you as a result of soccer is your world. Fortunately, I survived it.”
