Former football journeyman Doesburg heads up Scottish revolution in Holland

Michel Doesburg could have a big influence on the future of Scottish football.

He has revealed coaches and players are heading over to AZ Alkmaar to tap into the club’s philosophy and enhance their own careers.

The Dutch side is gaining an excellent reputation around Europe for their work on the training ground and their scouting and recruitment policies.

Former Motherwell and Dunfermline favourite Doesburg heads up that part of Alkmaar for the age group from 9-18.

With a staff of 30 scouts to organise, it’s a rewarding job for him and he enjoys sharing his views and ideas.

Doesburg said: “It’s nice when people recognise what you are trying to achieve. Indeed, we’ve had David Weir and Lee McCulloch over here to study our set-up as part of their UEFA Pro-Licence.

“We’ve also had coaches from the SFA and Celtic over to take a look. I know they enjoyed it and the feedback from them all was excellent.

“I am the Head of Scouting and Recruitment at youth level. I’ve been doing it for eight years and I love my job.

“We target kids in the local area and we also scout in Iceland and Scandinavia. I also go to Brazil and Argentina once a year to check their teenage footballers to see the comparison between the youngsters we have.

“AZ Alkmaar is a small club and we only have a fraction of the budget of Ajax. But we try.

“Sometimes ‘smaller’ can be more appealing and we use that to our benefit. Right now we have four players in the first team who graduated from the youth set-up so that is very encouraging.

“Of course, Ajax will always have a special appeal to parents and kids and the connection with Johan Cruyff.

“When Cruyff speaks, everyone says ‘Wow’ so we need to be more creative and inventive. And, dare I say it, I think our academy is at least as good as that of Ajax.”

Doesburg spent three years in Scotland, playing at total of 90 games for Motherwell and Dunfermline between 1998 and 2001.

He wouldn’t say it himself, but our clubs could learn something from him right now.

He said: “We are a modest club and we don’t shout from the rooftops but we know we are getting it right.

“This week we’ve had a coaching delegation from Russia at our training complex for a few days. We share our ideas with them all.

“We don’t have any secrets. But we also look to improve every day and become the very best in Europe. We will not stand still.”

Doesburg fancies doing the job for maybe two more years and then wants to make the step into a similar role at top team level.

He said: “Eventually I want to move up to doing a similar job at the senior team level. I’ll know when my time is up.

“Just now, I’m happy here and it’s been good to have the influence and knowledge of top coaches in recent years, such as Louis van Gaal, Dick Advocaat, Marco van Basten and Co Adriaanse.

“They all encouraged me to put this in place and we want to continue developing the stars of tomorrow, and selling them on for big pieces.”