New Portsmouth coach Johnny Metgod insists his move from Feyenoord isn't a step down.
"It's true, though Feyenoord had 40,000 crowds," the 50-year-old told the Sunday Times. "But I didn't have to think for a second about coming to Portsmouth. I was coming back home in one way because I have good memories of the English game. It's a privilege to work for this club and in this country with full stadiums every week and such unbelievable commitment.
"People in Holland might think Portsmouth is a small club because they think only of Manchester United or Arsenal. But at Feyenoord we were just introducing video analysis. Here you have three guys working on video analysis. Looked at like that, it's not a small club at all."
The key to Metgod's return to a culture of football always regarded as a bit lowbrow by the Dutch was the relationship he forged during Adams' brief spell on the coaching staff at Feyenoord. When Adams was taking the reserves, Metgod was assistant coach to the first team. They shared a belief in how the game should be played.
"Tony and I would watch the under19s together and a couple of times he came for dinner," Metgod says. "We talked about football, of course, but we also talked about life. I felt I came to know him as a person and as a coach. It's not healthy to agree on everything but we can have a debate about it."
