Dutch football is in the process of building itself up after a period of terrible form which has seen them fail to qualify for both Euro 2016 and the World Cup this summer.
Ruud (sitting on a shed) Gullit was speaking at an event in London on the state of his national team and blamed Holland's lack of recent pedigree on the artificial pitches in use in the Eredivisie:
I've said all along we can't have these pitches, but in Holland they were promoting it.The people who were promoting it had an interest in it and are now on the board of the KNVB [Netherlands football federation]. Now we know it's ridiculous, but to reverse it will be a difficult.
We've gone backwards. It's destroyed our football. It's a different game, totally different. If they [every league] played on plastic I would accept it, but we have six in the Eredivisie and it's outrageous. Now we are finding that players don't want to come and play in Holland because of it and young players want to leave.
The former Chelsea player was asked about England's chances in Russia and the Dutchman felt that the Premier League will have exhausted the English and that they will have a better chance in the Qatar World Cup due to it being in November:
The problem is that after a long, hard season it's so hard to re-boot and re-charge for the World Cup. It's a mental and physical thing. I think that's why you've not seen any of the big stars really producing at the World Cup since the 1990s. Nobody, not even Ronaldo or Messi, is at their best at the World Cup. You want it but your body says it needs some rest.
