Henk Fraser will leave Sparta with immediate effect. The coach who would exchange Sparta for FC Utrecht at the end of the season is dissatisfied with the fact that the club has decided to replace assistant Aleksandar Rankovic for the final phase of the season.
Sparta is in severe relegation distress. The Rotterdam club is currently last in the Eredivisie with 25 points. Willem II and PEC Zwolle both have one point more, RKC Waalwijk has three points more and Fortuna Sittard has four points more after Sparta lost 2-0 to FC Twente on Friday.
After Friday’s defeat against FC Twente, there were already sounds that something was going to happen within the staff. That has become reality today. Fraser was told on Sunday evening by technical director Gerard Nijkamp that he wanted to make a change in the staff. He wanted to say goodbye to Rankovic in order to do something about the bad position in the ranking.
Since the bond between Rankovic, who also goes with Fraser to FC Utrecht, is so close, Fraser did not want this to happen. That is why he has drawn his own conclusions to resign. This is to the dismay of a large part of the players. It is known that determining forces such as captain Adil Auassar are right behind the trainer.
In the coming days, Sparta will, in its own words, look at the implementation of the technical staff for the remainder of this season, “whereby only preserving life in the Eredivisie counts”. Nourdin Boukhari will lead the training of the selection on Monday.
Fraser started at Sparta in 2018, just after the club was relegated from the Eredivisie. He was promoted with the club in 2019 and then effortlessly remained at the highest level for two seasons. Last season he even made it to the play-offs for European football.
This season it went a lot less with Sparta from the start. With no public statement, Fraser was an open secret that he had a bad relationship with CEO Manfred Laros. Fraser blamed him for making too little budget available to make the group of players worthy of the Premier League. Shortly before the turn of the year, Fraser’s right-hand man and technical director Henk van Stee was killed. From that moment on, relations between Fraser and the top of Sparta have been seriously disrupted.
Fraser recently indicated that he wanted to do everything he could to leave Sparta behind in the Eredivisie before he left for Utrecht.
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