RONALD Koeman believes Vitesse have changed a lot from the club he used to manage.

The Dutch side have a close link with Chelsea, and take a number of their players on loan each season, but there has been controversy about how much influence the Blues exert over their partners.

Koeman – whose first job as a head coach came at Vitesse – has a huge depth of knowledge of teams from the Netherlands, but even he said they are a hard one to prepare for in some ways, as you never know quite what to expect from season to season.

“In most of the Dutch teams yes, but we know Vitesse is a little bit different because they have the connection to Chelsea and they have to change every season players,” he said.

“They lost again for this season five or six very good players and bring in young ones and normally you need time for a good organisation.

“We have to be prepared they have good young players.

“They don’t come defending, they try to play football, that makes the game more open and we like that.”

On his time at Vitesse, from January 2000 to December 2001, Koeman said: "It was a great experience for me. It was my first club to be first-team manager.

"At that time, Vitesse was growing. It was two years because they got some problems with the chairman at that time and with the sponsor of the club.

"After that, the club was a little bit more down and now it's in a new situation in the club because they have an owner who is connected to Chelsea.

"In my time, we played in front 25, 26,000 people every home game and now if they play against Ajax, PSV or Feyenoord, there is 20,000 or 22,000 maximum.

"Maybe the people lost a little bit of the connection, the feeling with the club because it is not really like before. I don't know. That's from a distance."

Asked if he would find it difficult working in that situation, Koeman said: "I didn't have at that time and I don't know.

"It looks like it is difficult, it looks difficult for the manager because you start every season with a new team and that's difficult.

"It is difficult to have really the spirit in the team, I think, because all the young players come to play, but they still like to go back to Chelsea or even to play at a higher level.

"I don't know if I can work in that. I don't know."