Van Gaal ready to give youth its fling

It only seems a few weeks since they left it after the Netherlands' elimination from the European Championship but the Dutch media were back in Honderloo this week. Talking to a new manager, looking for interviews with some new players and looking forward to a new World Cup campaign.

So much has changed in the few short weeks since Italy beat the joint hosts 3-1 on penalties in the semi-final of Euro 2000 in Amsterdam that now only the levels of expectation seem to remain the same.

Yesterday the main topic of interest at the Dutch training camp, an isolated clearing in the woods in a picturesque area not far from Arnhem, was the fitness of Patrick Kluivert. The 24-year-old striker had damaged some ligaments in training on Thursday and was suddenly a major doubt for this evening's game at the Arena.

As is common after big championships, the squad has changed radically: close to half the players which were involved in Frank Rijkaard's squad in June have cried off for one reason or another.

But for those studying the actions of new Netherlands coach Louis van Gaal, weighing up his decisions as he prepared for his first game at the helm, the absence of Kluivert would be of a different nature to the other changes of personnel.

There are fairly obvious replacements for most of the absentees, and van Gaal has opted for them. With Kluivert doubtful, though, all eyes were falling upon the young and inexperienced Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink, a 21-year-old FC Twente striker who has never been capped at this level.

The youngster's potential is not really in question, his 19 goals last season were almost enough to take a fairly run-of-the-mill club side into Europe and he has been a consistent performer for Dutch underage sides. Van Gaal has gambled, however, in deciding that the newcomer as the only serious alternative to Kluivert while omitting from his squad more obvious candidates such as Pierre van Hooijdonk and Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink.

The two more experienced strikers were fifth and sixth respectively on last year's European Golden Boot table. Reports yesterday that van Hooijdonk had been called up were dismissed by the Dutch FA as being based on rumours.

Even taking into account the confidence in the Dutch camp regarding this evening's game it's a brave move by van Gaal, but one that is not entirely out of character for a coach who won the European Cup five years ago at Ajax with a team that included a sprinkling of teenagers.

Back then, van Gaal made the most of the famed Ajax youth academy production line. Against AC Milan in the final he started with Clarence Seedorf, Edgar Davids and Michael Reiziger and threw on Kluivert and Nwankwo Kanu during the game. By the end, a team that had cost less than u1 £1 million to build had won the biggest prize in club football and for many who were involved things would never be the same again.

For the manager, a lucrative move to Barcelona followed and once at the Nou Camp he signed many of the young Ajax stars as well as the more experienced de Boer brothers. As time went on, though, the coach showed that he was always on the lookout for a new name, a fresher face.

By the time of his departure from Barcelona earlier this year, following the terrible collapse against Valencia in the Champions League semi-finals, young locals like Xavi and Gabri had been given their chances and seized them gratefully.

Van Gaal is now expected to start the reconstruction of the senior national team. With all four "Oranje" sides - senior, under-21, under-18 and under-16 - having competed at their respective European Championships over the summer months, the conveyor belt of talent appears to be in good shape and confidence for the future remains strong.

In fact, three of the players who until recently featured in the under-21 squad were included in the original senior panel for this evening with Vennegoor of Hesselink being joined by PSV pairing Mark van Bommel and Wilfred Bouma.

PSV's success in helping to launch this new generation of Dutch stars while achieving domestic success - they won the league last year and are strong favourites to retain it - is breathing new life into the youth development structure of Dutch clubs after a difficult few years when relatively cheap imports from eastern Europe cluttered the league as young stars from the Netherlands left for greener foreign fields.

"The Bosman ruling presented our clubs with difficulties, especially in the short term while they tried to live with the new conditions," says the Dutch FA's youth development coach Arno Pijpers. "But now I think you will see them commit themselves again to the young players.

Tonight van Gaal will give at least one young Dutchman, Bouma, a senior debut and nobody appears to be questioning the 22-year-old's ability to step in for the injured Boudewijn Zenden.

Others will follow over the course of this qualification campaign and while managers at the richest clubs will rub their hands, rival international coaches like Mick McCarthy can only look enviously on and wonder how they do it.