Adriaanse began his managing career with Zilvermeeuwen in 1979, and after four years he joined AZ for the first time as scout and youth trainer.

After a year, for the 1984–85 season he resumed his coaching career with two four-year stints with PEC Zwolle and FC Den Haag, where he would be sacked for the first time.

The team, however, finished bottom of their 1999–2000 UEFA Champions League group stage, and after failing to achieve another European spot, Adriaanse resigned on 20 May 2000.

There, the club upset Spanish side and top contenders Villarreal in the quarter-finals before being knocked out on away goals in the semi-finals by Sporting CP, in the final minute of extra time.

In the first season as Porto coach, he achieved the "Dobradinha" for the first time since the departure of Mourinho, winning the Primeira Liga and the Taça de Portugal.

On 13 March 2008, Adriaanse signed a two-year deal with the Austrian champion Red Bull Salzburg and he left the club after the end of his contract on 30 June 2009.

[9][10] On 20 June 2011, Twente announced on their website to have appointed Adriaanse as new trainer in place of departing manager Michel Preud'homme.

It was even more impressive because Willem II often played attacking football, a style Adriaanse has adopted throughout his managerial career.

[14] Adriaanse already had these strange training methods at the start of his career, because when he was a youth trainer at Ajax, he sometimes ordered his players to lie on the ground.