Feyenoord's New Technical Director Under Fire Before Transfer Window

Dévy Rigaux has barely settled into his chair at Feyenoord and already the knives are out. In De Telegraaf’s Kick-off podcast, Valentijn Driessen and Mike Verweij dismantled the club’s new technical director and his first transfer window with a ferocity that leaves little room for doubt: they don’t trust his course at all.

Verweij opens the attack with a scene that, in his eyes, set the tone. That round-table with journalists, Rigaux’s big introduction to the Dutch media.

“When I look at that round-table discussion by Rigaux with several journalists, I really fear the worst,” Verweij says, before dropping the name that will make every Feyenoord fan shift uneasily in their seat. “I hope this does not become the new Sven Mislintat.”

The comparison is no coincidence. It runs like a thread through the entire conversation.

Naive View on Transfers?

Verweij points to Rigaux’s remarks about Hadj Moussa as a clear red flag. The Belgian insisted that no club is allowed to talk to the player because he has an ongoing contract. In theory, that is correct. In the real world of top football, Verweij argues, it sounds hopelessly innocent.

“That is very naive, because it happens everywhere,” he says.

The same goes for the story around Read and the alleged bid from Roma. Rigaux spoke of an “official bid” of 26 million and denied there had been an offer of 30 million. Verweij counters that version.

According to him, Roma made it clear by phone that they were willing to move towards that 30 million. On paper, Rigaux is right with his talk of “official” figures. In practice, Verweij hears the echo of another man who clung to the letter of the law while the football world moved differently around him.

Again, the comparison with Sven Mislintat.

Second Bundesliga and Slick Talk

Verweij doesn’t stop at transfer semantics. He also looks at the profile of the players Rigaux is bringing in.

“He brings in players from the second Bundesliga,” he notes, another nod to Mislintat’s recruitment pattern at Ajax. That, in itself, doesn’t have to be a problem. But Verweij sees a pattern he has seen before in Amsterdam: a technical director with a strong belief in his own scouting network, convinced he can outsmart the market.

And then there is the reception in the media.

“You can sense in the media that everyone is over the moon with Rigaux, as if a world wonder has walked in,” Verweij says. “That was also the case with Mislintat.”

For him, the warning lights are flashing: a charming talker, a clever salesman, a man who wins the press conference. The question is whether he will also win matches.

Driessen: ‘Scandalous’ Round-Table

At that point, Valentijn Driessen steps in and sharpens the tone. He calls the round-table with Rigaux “truly a scandalous round-table discussion” and focuses on one sensitive subject: the way the new technical director spoke about his predecessor, Dennis te Kloese.

According to Driessen, Rigaux did not openly attack Te Kloese, but “let all kinds of things slip” about the previous regime: too many players, far too much in wages, too many write-downs. A picture of a mess that he, Rigaux, now has to clean up.

Driessen doesn’t buy it.

“He knew what he was getting into, didn’t he?” he snaps.

The suggestion is clear: Rigaux is already preparing the alibi. If it goes wrong, it was the fault of the past. Driessen wants to see something else from a technical director at a top club: responsibility, not excuses.

Champions League Warning

Then comes the sporting warning. Driessen looks at the current Feyenoord squad and the ambitions that go with it.

“You can go into the Champions League with this team,” he says, “but you will finish bottom without a chance.”

It is a brutal verdict on the balance and quality of the selection as it stands. And it leads to a hard financial question that hangs over the transfer policy.

“And then what is the value of Read, Hadj Moussa and Zechiël?”

If Feyenoord fail in Europe, the hoped-for value development of those players could evaporate quickly. For a club that relies on smart trading and resale value, that is not a side issue. It is the core of the strategy.

‘Everyone Falls for His Slick Talk’

Verweij returns one more time to the Mislintat parallel, and this time he goes straight for the perception around Rigaux.

“Everyone falls for his slick talk!” he says.

He then cites Tjark Ernst as an example, a goalkeeper presented as potential material for Die Mannschaft. In Verweij’s eyes, that label does not match the performances.

“Every diagonal ball is a goal conceded!”

It is a harsh line, but it captures the mood in the studio: they see a technical director who talks big, sells big, and so far has delivered a transfer window that, in their view, does not fit Feyenoord’s sporting ambitions.

The season will decide whether this is just early media noise around a new face in Rotterdam, or the first serious crack in a project that has yet to prove anything on the pitch.