Nigel de Jong ponders quitting Holland after Bert van Marwijk comments

Posted Thursday, October 14, 2010 by theguardian.com

Nigel de Jong ponders quitting Holland after Bert van Marwijk comments
Nigel de Jong feels he is being made a scapegoat for Holland's combative style at the World Cup.

Nigel de Jong is contemplating turning his back on international football after being dropped from the Holland squad as punishment for the challenge that left Newcastle United's Hatem Ben Arfa with a double break to his left leg.

De Jong missed the Euro 2012 qualifiers against Sweden and Moldova over the past week because the Holland coach, Bert van Marwijk, felt the Manchester City player had committed a "wild and unnecessary offence" during the 2-1 defeat of Newcastle two weekends ago.

Van Marwijk accused De Jong of playing with a combative style where he "needlessly looks to push the limit" and rang the midfielder to explain that he felt he had no alternative but to take a stand. De Jong was told he would be excluded for only two games but the 25-year-old feels so disillusioned he has not made up his mind whether he wants to return to the national team while Van Marwijk is in charge.

His belief is that Van Marwijk has used him to help deflect the criticism that was directed at the Dutch management for the team's abrasive style of play in the World Cup. De Jong maintains there was nothing wrong with a challenge over which Newcastle registered an official complaint with the Football Association, and he believes it was wrong in any case for the Dutch to take action against something that happened while he was playing for his club in England.

He has not aired his grievances publicly, largely because he is aware it would look insensitive at a time when Ben Arfa is facing such a long and distressing rehabilitation, but in private he has decided to see how things settle over the next few weeks before deciding whether he can work with Van Marwijk again. He has spent the international break training with the small group of City players not involved at that level and is described as surprised and disappointed about the level of criticism he has attracted, particularly in the Netherlands where it has dominated the news over the past 10 days.

De Jong's critics can cite the fact that he also broke the leg of the Bolton Wanderers midfielder Stuart Holden during a friendly international earlier this year against the United States and was culpable of the now-infamous challenge in the World Cup final in which he planted his studs into the chest of the Spanish player Xabi Alonso.

Ben Arfa is on loan to Newcastle from Marseille and the French club have threatened to take legal action. As for Ben Arfa, City were told last week that he did not want De Jong to visit him in hospital. Ben Arfa has since said that De Jong had never offered anyway and there is a degree of anger in Newcastle that the City player has still not expressed any public sympathy. De Jong, however, insists this is the right action and will continue to say nothing.