Tag: Ajax Amsterdam

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[1567] Of revamping Ajax

Time off politics.

AFC Ajax is undergoing change.

Major change:

The board of AFC Ajax discussed the report with the club’s Members’ Council and members of honour on Tuesday evening. Much to everybody’s surprise, member of honour Johan Cruijff showed up at De Toekomst.

The outcome of the meeting was surprisingly spectacular: the club’s executive structure will be changed in accordance with the report. The board of AFC Ajax (chairman John Jaakke, board member of technical affairs Hennie Henrichs and board member of finance Joop Saan) will step down at the end of the current season.

The Members’ Council asked Johan Cruijff to effectively re-design the club’s technical policy and appoint people for the key positions. Much to everybody’s surprise, Cruijff said ‘yes’: 27 years after he returned to the club as a player, and 20 years after he left the club as a head-coach, Johan Cruijff will do official executive work for Ajax. He will not be the new chairman or technical director, but he will totally re-design the club’s technical structure on a ‘project basis’. In other words: Johan Cruijff will be the architect of the ‘new Ajax’.

The future of the current Board of Directors is highly uncertain. Remarkably, general director Maarten Fontein was not there when Uri Coronel presented his report. According to his lawyer, Fontein was “not invited” for the presentation. Chairman John Jaakke denied that Fontein will be fired, but on the same day football magazine Voetbal International published a draft for Fontein’s notice, which was ‘leaked’ by an unknown employee of the club.

Johan Cruijff can fire technical director Martin van Geel, but refused to comment on the positions of Fontein and Martin van Geel. “They’re not in my way,” he said. [Board to resign; Cruijff to re-design Ajax. Menno Pot. AjaxUSA. February 20 2008]

Finally, change in Amsterdam!

This is sorely needed. This season so far has been marked with missed opportunities and frustration, which is not too different previous recent seasons. Currently second and 9 points behind PSV, even the second spot is not guaranteed for Ajax as the season progresses slowly toward the end. Immediately below Ajax is NAC Breda, Feyenoord and Groningen. The only consolidation is that Ajax has done relatively better than Feyenoord. The bad news is that, other clubs outside of the traditional big three are threatening to break the monopoly.

Ajax certainly has the quality to perform in Europe but somehow or rather, the team has been terribly underperformed. This mocks the status of Ajax as one of the big clubs in Europe. Hopefully, this change is the first step toward a return to the glorious 1990s.

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[1396] Of a mixed day

First, out of European competition:

LONDON, Oct 4 (Reuters) – Former European champions Ajax Amsterdam made a shock exit from the UEFA Cup on Thursday after a 3-2 home defeat by Dinamo Zagreb gave the Croatians a 3-3 draw on aggregate and victory on the away goals rule. [Ajax dumped out by Zagreb, Bayern through. ESPN Soccernet. October 4 2007]

Second, Chelsea secured the service of Henk Ten Cate:

LONDON, Oct 5 (Reuters) – Henk Ten Cate’s agent said the Ajax Amsterdam coach has agreed to join Premier League club Chelsea as assistant to Avram Grant, according to reports in British newspapers on Friday.

It’s true we have an agreement with Chelsea,” Ten Cate’s agent Sigi Lens was quoted as saying by the Sun.

Chelsea want to take the coach now so if there is an agreement between the two clubs then everything will be clear.” [Ten Cate leaving Ajax for Chelsea, says agent. Reuters. October 4 2007]

He would have probably been sacked if he had not move anyway. So, whatever. But still, I am developing strong suspicion against Ten Cate and Chelsea; his move was announced on the same day Ajax was booted out of the UEFA Champions League. Given this, it is hard to believe Ten Cate invested all of his effort on that UEFA match. Perhaps, that is just me, a lot of other fans, looking for scapegoat. Nevertheless, there is a growing tendency in me to support anybody that plays against Chelsea, including ManUre.

Chelsea to met used to be a bugging mosquito across the Channel. Now, the relationship is becoming personal.

Amid that the flurry of bad news, at least a piece is there to lighten up the day:

ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) — Michigan won’t have to forfeit any football games for using an ineligible freshman player.

Michigan last month reported an administrative error involving safety Artis Chambers to the Big Ten. Chambers played in three games, including a 14-9 victory over Penn State, but wasn’t eligible under the conference’s freshman rules. [Big Ten rules Michigan won’t have to forfeit games. AP via Yahoo! News. October 4 2007]

The Big Ten crown is still in sight.

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[1377] Of first leg of the UEFA Cup: Ajax 1, Dynamo 0

I am relieved. With Ajax’s recent run, I had expected the worst but there is still hope:

LONDON, Sept 20 (Reuters) – Former European champions Bayern Munich and Ajax Amsterdam started their UEFA Cup campaigns with 1-0 wins in Thursday’s first-round matches.

[…]

Ajax also look in better shape than Bayern after winning at Dynamo Zagreb. Dane Dennis Rommedahl went round keeper Georg Koch to score the winner from a pass by strike partner Klaas Jan Huntelaar just after the hour mark. It was a mixed time for the money-spinning English Premier League clubs. [UEFA Cup: Bayern, Ajax get narrow wins. Soccernet. September 20 2007]

The away goal rule will be precious for the return match at Amsterdam scheduled in two weeks time.

And oh yeah, did I mention that Michigan razed Notre Dame to the ground?

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[1331] Of Sneijder goes to Real Madrid

When Real Madrid expressed interest in Wesley Sneijder, Ajax said EUR27 million and no less. Initially, Real refused to pay for such amount in a grand fashion. Later however, Real relented and so, Sneijder will be leaving Amsterdam for Madrid:

Ajax and Real Madrid have reached agreement about the immediate transfer of Wesley Sneijder. The transfer fee for the 23-year old midfielder is 27 million euro. [Wesley Sneijder joins Real Madrid. AFC Ajax. August 12 2007]

This is a sad day but all the best to him.

And so, Ajax has sold two star players this year for over EUR44 million. The other star is Babel, sold to Liverpool for over EUR17 million.

For your information, EUR27 million is the largest sum Ajax has ever received for the sale of a player. That also makes the move as the second most expensive transfer in the Eredivisie. The most expensive transfer honor belongs to the crybaby Ruud van Nistelrooij. And yes, both players are now playing for the same team.

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[1328] Of Ajax wins season opener yet again

Only one goal differentiated between the winner and the loser and Ajax came up on top for the third consecutive time against PSV:

AMSTERDAM, Aug 11 (Reuters) – Spaniard Gabri struck two minutes before halftime to guide Ajax Amsterdam to a 1-0 victory over PSV Eindhoven on Saturday, earning their third consecutive Dutch Super Cup. [Ajax land Dutch Super Cup thanks to Gabri goal. Theo Ruizenaar. Reuters. August 11 2007]

The next match for Ajax will be the third qualifying round of the UEFA Champions League against Slavia Prague. Ajax last met a Czech team in the 2006/07 UEFA Cup tournament group stage; the game against Sparta Prague ended up scoreless. About a year earlier, the Ajax and Sparta met in the group stage of the Champions League: Ajax won a game and drew another with the Czech.

For the whole season in general, Ajax will be without Babel; Liverpool bought him for approximately EUR17 million. Another star that could leave Ajax is Sneijder. That however could only happened if Real Madrid could come up with EUR27 million:

There were reports this morning that an agreement has been reached over a 25 million euro move.

However, it has since emerged that Real Madrid and Ajax are still separated by 3 million euros.

Los Merengues’ final offer of 24 million euros has been turned down, with Ajax demanding 27m in order to let their star midfielder go. [Sneijder Move In Doldrums As Ajax Demand 27M. Goal.com. August 11 2007]

That might be simply be a rumor because:

20 July: Players coming or going? That’s news. But a player staying? That’s normally not very spectacular news, but there are exceptions to the rule. Wesley Sneijder had some big news to announce at a special press conference in De Lutte today: he will stay at Ajax for another season. “This decision gives me peace of mind,” the 23 year-old midfielder said. “We can have a great season with Ajax. We’re going for the title and I believe we can reach far in the Champions League.” [Sneijder has made up his mind: “I’m staying”. Ajax USA. July 20 2007]

Kenneth Perez is another player that left Ajax. He had problem the manager Henk de Cate. I think the fact that he went over to PSV expressed that problem rather well.

Huntelaar, possibly Ajax’s best buy in recent years has also been heavily subjected to rumor but the player himself has stated that he will stay at Ajax at least another year:

“People have said to me: ‘Are you sure you don’t want to make the step?’ So I gave it some thought and consciously decided that I don’t. I want to develop in Holland for another season. After that, a move abroad could be more logical. The most important thing is to keep an eye on your own development: it should continue at the right pace. Right now, I feel that I can still book progress in Holland, in every way.” [Sportweek Magazine via AjaxUSA. July 2007]

At the moment, I could only identified a few players that have been with Ajax since players like Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Rafael van der Vaart, Steven Pienaar, Nigel de Jong, Hatem Trabelsi, Julien Escudé and my favorite, Christian Chivu played together. They are Maarten Stekelenburg, John Heitinga, Thomas Vermaelen, Hedwiges Maduro, Wesley Sneijder, Jan Vertonghen and Nicolae Mitea. While that era comes nowhere to the glorious mid-1990s, I really miss that team.

There are new players too though not as much-celebrated as Babel, Sneijder and Huntelaar. One of them is a youngster Luis Suárez of Uruguay. I am unsure how good he is but Uruguayans seem to have a lot of trust in him. First brought to the Eredivisie by Groningen, Ajax managed to secure the player’s service by compensating Groningen with more than EUR7.5 million.

And then there is Dennis Rommedahl, a former PSV player and one thing I remember about him is that he is a fast winger. I am actually feeling quite uneasy about Ajax and PSV reusing each other players but I suppose the Kluivert-Stam thing kind of turned out okay, for Ajax at least.

Other new players include Jurgen Colin as well as a couple others from the Youth squad. The young player to watch is possibly Gregory van der Wiel.

Let us see how this new team will perform.

Haha, let us see how Feyenoord will perform! I can’t wait to screw them again and again, through and through!