Typically, given his forthright style, Charles van Commenee confronted UK Athletics with controversy yesterday before he had even started his new job with them.

Typically, given his forthright style, Charles van Commenee confronted UK Athletics with controversy yesterday before he had even started his new job with them. The Dutchman flew into Heathrow to be confirmed as head coach of UKA from January 1. He takes over the mantle of performance director Dave Collins, whose post has been done away with and whose contract has been terminated.

UKA chief executive Niels de Vos has appointed him as part of major restructuring. "Performance director is just too broad and wide a role in a sport as complex as athletics," he said. Redefining the role critically will restore coaches to the heart of the elite athlete programme.

"Dave did a very good job at putting systems in place, but, at the end of the day, systems do not win you medals."

But Collins was also criticised for ambivalence towards drug cheats Dwain Chambers and Linford Christie. This sat uneasily with his employers, and in his opening remarks to the UK media, Van Commenee threatened to reopen that sore when he made it clear he has no issues with Chambers.

Though British Olympic Association rules blocking the disgraced Chambers from any GB Games team remain intact, that does not apply to any other event. Van Commenee underlined that, saying Chambers would be free to return to the British team for any other event.

That could mean international meetings this winter (in which British promoters have refused to include Chambers), the new-style European Cup next summer and the World Championships in Berlin.

"Dwain has served his sentence," said Van Commenee. "He is a very good athlete. Everybody who serves their sentence is welcome . . . I'm fully aware of restrictions given by the BOA, and we'll live by that. If an athlete wants to challenge that, that's okay, and we'll live by the result."

It is, of course, a matter of concern that Chambers, on a shoestring, qualified for Beijing while Collins, despite the resources at his disposal, couldn't deliver any Brit to beat him.

I campaigned for Van Commenee's appointment four years ago. The prevarication and procrastination which caused him not to be named then has rebounded damagingly on UKA. I unequivocally support his appointment now, but believe his support of Chambers to be as inappropriate as it was by Collins.

At the very least his remarks may encourage Chambers to reopen his BOA challenge. With European TV figures in decline, and sponsorship threatened by crumbling financial markets, the reputation of athletics is increasingly fragile. The last thing the sport needs is to provide ammunition for those ready to take shots at it.

The next four years will shape the future of athletics. As a leading European track nation, and Olympic hosts in 2012, Britain is in the van of protecting the sport. Van Commenee is central to shaping that reputation. He must know he has inevitably raised hackles at UKA and UK Sport's anti-doping headquarters.

Selectors, unanimous in not wishing to name Chambers for this year's World Indoor event, but powerless in the face of threats of litigation, will be frothing today over what their new head coach has said.

UK Sport funds the World Class Programme, and Van Commenee may have to fight them even before he takes up full-time employment over a cut in the number of athletes they are prepared to support. It seems less than prudent to unsettle them before any such discussion.

Yet this is no more than was to be expected. It was a belief that he could not be controlled or constrained that caused the hierarchy to shrink from endorsing him first time around.

Van Commenee was head-hunted even as he was masterminding the best Dutch Olympic performance in a century. Blunt, but disarmingly honest, he can be expected to provoke further unsettling moments. He steered Denise Lewis to Olympic heptathlon gold in 2000, but famously split with her when he believed she wasn't giving 100%.

Then he described Kelly Sotherton as a "wimp" and "weasel" when she settled for bronze rather than try for silver.

"It is about getting the best out of athletes and there is no time to waste," he said yesterday. "For some reason I have the image here of having been the most miserable person that you can walk into, of having a knife in my pocket all the time. I'd like to think I'm reasonable and fair. I'm always clear and some people perceive that as rude. I try to be honest and clear.

"I will be tough at times and on the occasions when it's needed. You don't have to be tough every second of the day with every person.

"I will look at the coach and athlete and see what is needed. Sometimes it's toughness. Sometimes it's encouragement. Sometimes it's being positive. I have to play 20 cards, and toughness is only one of them. Not everybody will be happy, but that is what you are paid for.

The important thing is progress, and it is my job to make that continue, turn finalists into medallists.

"Let's count medals in the end, and whatever attitude is required for that, that is what it takes."

He is ready to "hit the ground running", given four previous years at UKA, but he has no illusions about a hidden seam of 2012 medallists: "To say there's a lot of talent is maybe over the top. We have to cherish the talent we have, and have a clear pathway to success and make no mistakes. Then we can have a very good result."