The Dutch top flight is one of the newest major leagues in Europe, and whilst it has only been going for 65 years, it has been dominated by a few teams. The league was formed when Dutch football went professional but that has allowed three clubs to maintain a stronghold over the title. Ajax, PSV Eindhoven and Feyenoord have combined for 58 titles and since 1965 they have won the league all but three seasons with two of those going to AZ.
Those reasons make FC Twente's win in the 2009/10 season all the more remarkable. Since 1999, PSV had won 7 of the last 10 titles and Ajax were close to completing a full rebuild since their dominance in the mid 90's. The Tukkers on the other hand, had very different fortunes in that time. At the end of the 2002/03 season, the club's parent company was declared bankrupt, but by the end of the 2007/08 season they had bounced back enough to qualify for the Champions League playoffs.
Twente would make a bold call for the start of the next season, appointing Steve McClaren as their new manager. McClaren had been out of work for at least half a year after he had been sacked by the FA as England manager. He'd left the post of Three Lions boss in disgrace, after failing to qualify for the 2008 European Championships, something England hadn't done in 24 years. It had also been pointed out that McClaren had been left with a so-called 'golden generation' of players that included the likes of
Steven Gerrard,
Frank Lampard,
Wayne Rooney and
John Terry. Therefore failing to qualify, especially with that group of players, was completely unnacceptable.
Many clubs were reluctant to appoint him but Twente ended up giving him a chance for the 2008/09 season. It would pay off almost immediately though, with the Tukkers finishing runners up to AZ in McClaren's first season in charge. Despite that, a combination of European football and finishing 11 points behind the previous champions meant that nobody was expecting Twente to make a run at the title in the 2009/10 campaign.
McClaren's squad was made up of some experienced players, some of which had previously played in the Premier League. That included the likes of Bryan Ruiz,
Dwight Tiendalli,
Cheick Tiote, Blaise N'Kufo and a very young
Luuk de Jong.
The Tukkers would stake their claim early though as title contenders. It would take until February for Twente to lose their first game in the league against Ajax. In fact, they would only lose 2 games all season on their way to the clubs first ever title.
They amassed 86 points from just 34 games, beating out Ajax by one point. The team from Amsterdam had been equally impressive scoring over 100 goals, partly in thanks to 35 from the league’s top scorer,
Luis Suarez. However, despite having very little experience of a title challenge, the Tukkers were able to close out the title down the stretch, beating NAC Breda 2-0 on the final day.
Twente have never been able to repeat the feat since and have fallen back into financial problems in the following years. They were even relegated to the second tier in 2018, although they managed to bounce back almost immediately.
McClaren would help to rebuild his reputation with the 2009/10 season but failed to reach similar heights after. Unsuccessful spells at Wolfsburg and Nottingham Forest would open the door for him to return to Twente in 2012 but he would resign just a year later in 2013 after a disappointing season.
Despite both Twente and McClaren’s failures since 2010, it’s still a remarkable achievement considering that no other team has managed to break the dominance of Ajax, PSV and Feyenoord in the decade since.
