Respected Dutch coach claims Arjen Robben after ‘Valhalla’ transfer from Birmingham City

Heracles manager Erwin van de Looi believes new Birmingham City winger Emil Hansson is a Championship player operating in League One.

The experienced Dutch coach, who has also worked with Blues favorites Maikel Kieftenbeld and Juninho Bacuna, spent the second half of last term managing Hansson and co.

Unfortunately for van de Looi, Hansson picked up an injury after just a few games of working together and the 52-year-old admits Heracles have certainly missed their star midfielder, who ended up missing the final eight games of the campaign.

Heracles only won twice in that time and dropped to 14th in their first season after being promoted to the Eredivisie. Despite playing in the Dutch top flight, Hansson ended up joining the Chris Davies revolution in the third tier – and van de Looi has seen enough to know he will be a dangerous attacking presence.

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“It was unlucky for us, for the team, because I think he should be an important player for us, but he got injured very, very soon,” van de Looi told BirminghamLive. “Of course he was there on the training ground and we saw him many times, but unfortunately there were not enough games for us.

“We had a good time without him, but in the end we were very small in number in the team, so we really struggled. His replacement did well for a few games but was not mature enough to maintain the high level for more than two or three games. We’ve dropped in quality again.

“He (Hansson) has the ability to come from outside to inside and score with his right foot, shoot or pass. He is strong in this. Especially the year before, when he became champion in the second league, he was a very important player in goals and assists.

“You can compare him to Arjen Robben on the other side, of course not at the level of a Robben, but that’s his quality. He likes to dribble. He likes to have the ball at his feet and dribble or combine. He is strong in that he has a good right foot. He has a good cross with his right foot from the left.”

Van de Looi believes, however, that there are two areas where Hansson can improve, just like his main challenger Siriki Dembele.

“He’ll do his job in defence, that’s not a problem, but the real one against one in defense or the ball between them, he can be stronger, or more relentless. Sometimes it’s a little careful.

“And the other thing is for a winger who likes to have the ball at his feet and I think he can also add some runs without the ball from deep which makes him less predictable. But at the other end, when you have the skills, we all know what Robben was going to do, we couldn’t defend him.

“I knew he wanted to step up his career and of course for someone from Scandinavia, England is always the Valhalla of football, it’s the best place to be.

“I don’t know the league very well, I have to be honest, but I know Birmingham City as a team because I had a few players who played there that I knew, Kieftenbeld, Bacuna, so I know it’s a big club.

“They got relegated, that’s a surprise to me because I’ve seen games like Birmingham City and Aston Villa with Steve Bruce, it was good, it was a great atmosphere. Normally it’s a club that should at least be in the Championship and I think the Championship should be a good level for it.

“So I’m not surprised that he chose this club and when they have a good plan, I hope they have a good plan and they don’t buy players just because they have money. I hope they will buy players because they have a plan with the players and they have a plan about the football and when the time comes, I think it will be successful there, the club can be back very soon and playing in the Championship.”

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