Danny Blind has claimed that he turned down a role working under Louis van Gaal at Manchester United before taking up the position as Holland coach this week.
Blind, father of United midfielder Daley, has succeeded Guus Hiddink as manager of the Dutch side.
The pair worked together at the last World Cup, when Van Gaal was the Holland coach.
"I had a fantastic offer from Manchester United,” Blind said. “There were talks about United and Van Gaal a couple of times last year, but I rejected that.
"If you have ambition, what is more beautiful than becoming manager of your country?”
"Do I feel confident about qualifying?” Blind said. “We know what we have to do: win four matches, starting with Iceland on Sept 3.
"We can’t afford to lose any more games. But with our quality we are more than able to do it.
"And in September we will hopefully have some ‘new’ players, with Arjen Robben coming back to fitness and maybe Kevin Strootman.
"Euro 2016 is our only goal. I don’t look further forward than that and I don’t look back.
"I can’t say what I want to change yet. These are things I want to discuss with my staff and the important players first."
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