It was supposed to be the big comeback season for Feyenoord Rotterdam. A once proud franchise that stood among the greatest of Dutch sides has wallowed in abject obscurity in recent years.

With a new coach and centenary celebration for the former Champions League title holders, the storied club was poised to get back on top of the Dutch Eredivisie where they’ve traditionally belonged.

Unfortunately, as the season progressed the bad results poured in. Both in the league championship and the UEFA cup as well as the KNVB Beker (The Dutch league cup.) All ambitions Feyenoord proudly set for itself at the start of the 2008/2009 season became a humbling struggle against demotion. And it doesn’t stop there; the internal struggles gripping the team were leaked to the Dutch national media.

Behind the scenes, players complained the training sessions designed by coach Gertjab Verbeek were too intense which they believe were the cause of a rash of injuries that struck Feyenoord since the start of the season. They’re not alone. Fitness coach Raymond Verheijen sided with the players claiming Feyenoord made the error of training too intensely which may have contributed to wave of injuries.

On December 12 of last year players of Feyenoord held a meeting with the outcome revealing they no longer had faith in their coach. However, Verbeek replied he didn’t feel it was a vote of no confidence. Technical director Peter Bosz agreed with his coach. Not surprisingly, this has caused friction between the players,technical director and coach.

Clearly their vote of non-confidence played a role with Feyenoord’s board of directors. Gertjan Verbeek was fired this week on January 14. The reasons cited were bad results in league play, Dutch cup and the UEFA cup. ayed a big part in their decision to let go of Verbeek.

But he might not be the only victim during this disastrous season. Technical director Peter Bosz didn’t exactly endear himself to his players for supporting Verbeek. During a meeting between Bosz and the players today, Bosz continued to blame the players and the coach for the current situation; a final straw for the players.

The team of rebellious players took their grievance to General Manager Eric Gudde soon after the news of Verbeek’s firing was made public.

Update:

Assistant manager and Feyenoord legend Wim Jansen as well as Technical Director Peter Bosz showed solidarity by leaving their posts after Gertjan Verbeek got fired last night by Feyenoord.

Fans and supporters of the club caused minor riots in Rotterdam.

Feyenoord captain Giovanni van Bronckhorst said in a statement that there are no winners in this conflict. He also added that the entire team had lost faith in Verbeek.

Two Feyenoord legends Leo Beenhakker and Willem van Hanegem made themselves available for the vacant jobposts of respectively Technical Director (Beenhakker) and interim coach (van Hanegem)

Rumour has it that NEC Nijmegen coach Mario Been is to be the successor of Verbeek. He would start next season.

Verbeek said in his statement that the Feyenoord players sell themselves short.