“Congrats to Mark van Bommel for being first player to win league titles in four different countries (PSV, Barcelona, Bayern Munich and AC Milan).”
When I read this on Twitter on Sunday morning, I nearly went straight back to bed.
If there is a player who epitomises the way the Dutch national team has been transformed over the past decade from Europe’s foremost footballing artists to a group of efficient, but soulless functionaries, it is the tall, hard-tackling midfielder.