There’s something terrible currently going on at Ajax. From winning the Eredivisie title
just last year, Ajax are now practically embroiled in a relegation fight. They won
just 2 of their first 9 games, losing 5, and drawing the remaining 2. This is so far from
the Ajax we’re used to seeing, especially in the Eredivisie where they are usually kings.
So, all this definitely begs the question; what the hell is happening at Ajax?
We could argue that the retirement of Van Der Sar in May 2023 and his stepping down
from the role of director general at Ajax might be the cause of this sudden decline,
but in fairness, the ship began sinking right after Erik Ten Hag left.
See, he might be under fire right now at Manchester United, but let’s be honest,
Erik ten Hag was one hell of a manager when he was still plying his trade in the Netherlands.
When he took over at Ajax in 2017, the club hadn’t won the league in 3 years. He came in and won the
league the following season while also winning the KNVB Cup. But more significantly, he took
them to the semi-final of the Champions League for the first time in 22 years.
They knocked out defending champions Real Madrid and Cristiano Ronaldo’s Juventus on
their way to the semis. In fact, they were so close to making the final,
but they were undone by a 96th minute Lucas Moura goal.
After that season, the team was ripped apart with all the big clubs in Europe
doing a shopping spree at Ajax. They lost de Jong, de Ligt, Dolberg, Wober,
Kristensen, Noa Lang, and a few more players all in one window.
But despite losing that many players, Ajax continued being the best team in the land.
They were at the top of the table in 2020 when the league season was canceled due to the COVID-19
pandemic. They would then go on to win the league once again and complete the double in 2021.
Then they won the league yet again in 2022. So, it was really the pandemic that
stopped Ajax from winning the Eredivisie 4 times in a row between 2019 and 2022.
But then, having achieved so much in the Netherlands, Erik ten Hag wanted a new challenge,
and the Man United job looked like the exact type of challenge he was looking for. So,
he left for England in the summer of 2022 and that’s exactly where Ajax’s woes started.
Ajax hired Alfred Schreuder to replace ten Hag ahead of the 2022-23 season,
but he turned out to be a not-so-good replacement. Ajax finished 3rd in the
league that season, which meant that they finished outside the top 2 for the first
time in 14 years. Something was obviously wrong, but it wasn’t yet very evident.
But what was evident was that that was way below the standards acceptable at Ajax,
so Schreuder was sacked. They then hired Maurice Steijn to replace him,
not knowing they were going out of the frying pan into the fire.
The man who was hired from Sparta Rotterdam and given a 3-year contract sank the club
so incredibly deep, and he did it in record time, too. It didn’t take the club more than 4
months to sack him after he won just two of his first 11 games in charge in all competitions.
They replaced him with interim coach John van’t Schip who was an Ajax player for 16
years. So their hopes are probably that the man’s knowledge of the club’s true identity
will save them from the rot. And we’ll only have to wait and see if it actually works,
but he wasn’t off to the best of starts.
He lost his first two games to Brighton in the Europa League and PSV in the Eredivisie,
but he was able to bounce back with a win against
Volendam who just got promoted to the top flight last year.
It’s still too early to tell if van’t Schip will be the one to save this sinking ship called Ajax
from completely sinking, but what’s clear is that the club desperately needs a savior. And
they surely have the players to get them out of this mess. Steven Bergwijn, Steven Berghuis,
Bona Sosa, among others have great quality and experience to drag Ajax back to the top.
But speaking of players, could it be that Ajax’s recent history of always letting their best
players leave is coming back to haunt them? In the last two years, they have let a host of incredible
talents go. In fact, in the summer of 2022 alone, they lost Gravenberch, Antony, Lisandro Martinez,
Haller, Tagliafico, Onana, Mazraoui, Danilo and a few other top talents. And remember they also lost
their coach that same summer. No matter how good you are at producing talents from your academy,
a system like this is just not sustainable, especially for a top club who is always
fighting for silverware. At some point, they were always going to feel the effects.
Even after the bad campaign they had last season,
Ajax still sold their best players. In the summer of 2023, we saw Timber, Kudus,
Edson Alvarez, Calvin Bassey, Daramy, and even Dusan Tadic leave all in one window.
How do you expect your club to stay at the top when there’s absolutely no form of consistency
in the team? Players do well one season, and the next, they’re off. You know what? Looking
at this culture, it’s not very surprising that the club is currently struggling.
Ajax have been so unbelievably bad this season that a team who used to be at the
top of the table is now 25 points off the top just 10 games into the season.
Will they be able to dig themselves out of this mess? Or will the most unthinkable
thing happen with Ajax dropping down to the second division? Surely, that can’t happen,
right? Do you think it can? Tell us what you think in the comments.
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