Ajax fumbles their chance for Champions League football…

I am not certain, but don’t the top two clubs in the Eredivisie become seeded for the Champions League competition with direct entry, and the third(likely Ajax) gets to compete in the Champions League knockouts rounds in July?
In England,Spain,Italy the top 3 gain direct entry and the 4th competes in the qualifying knockouts rounds.
Just b/c Ajax did not do well does not mean Van Basten is an “awful” coach.
Rijkaard’s Sparta Rotterdam(2001-2002) “was relegated to the first division for the first time in its history, and he was fired as a consequence”.
In addition, how can a club like Ajax ever do well, when all their top talented players are being sold to the highest bidders of Europe.
There is a lack of cohesion within such teams.
Although Van Basten is partly responsible, it does not mean he is an “awful” coach.
After all, Klinsmann led Germany to 3rd place in the 2006 World Cup, and although he had a talented squad at Bayern with some of the best players in the world, he too has been sacked.
AZ and Twente will be out of the Champions League in the 1st round as always , and if they make it to the UEFA Cup, they will be swiftly eliminated again.
The problem lies with the Eridivisie and the system in place. They ought not sell their best players, and they should make the league more competitive which then attracts the most talented players in the world to come and play.
I am tired of the clubs from England,Spain,Italy making the news…and how I miss Ajax of the early 90s.

Posted from  United States

Barcelona and the Idea of the Beautiful Game:
“Holland ‘74 category: inspired sides who thrilled everyone that saw them but couldn’t quite take the crown”.

http://www.runofplay.com/2009/04/30/barcelona-and-the-idea-of-the-beautiful-game/

Posted from  United States

Hi vB…actually Holland used to have 4 seeds for the CL in the heydays of a strong CL showing by Ajax n PSV and somewhat Feyenoord. However those days are long gone. We now only have ONE certain seed and one playoff.The rest go into the newly formed Europa Cup.
If Ajax wants to dominate again they should do what van Gaal did with AZ. His budget is much lower, he’s a better coach. Marco still has a lot to learn.

Posted from  Singapore

@van baten @ carlos-The coaching job is now becoming precarious.its natural.
@finn and co finally i became fan of kuyt.Now i will prefer kuyt over ROBEN acn you belive this???????????yes belive it or not recently i did a study on roban,vanpersie and kuyt.the result was interesting.if we play with kuyt we can score more goals than you play with roban or persie.eventhough kuyt is not a talented natural finisher.So my current dutch team.
——hunter——
Elia—Vanpersie—-kuyt
Znijder—Dejong
Braphied–Mathijenson-Maduro–Vanderweil
the smiling skekelenburg.

Posted from  India

At long last Tiju, welcome to the club! You’ve seen the light. Nice to have you on board. Regards, Dirkie

What Ajax did on Het Kasteel was just shameful. And I don’t think Marco is one of the main responsibles. As Jan wrote at the start of the piece, the schedule was good, and the opportunities to grab the spot on CL were big. But the team did rubbish against PSV and now Sparta. It seems the “reconstruction” was not that good… maybe they want to call JC again.

The fight against relegation is awesome, isn’t it? De Graafschap was the last, won at injury time and passed Volendam and Roda JC. And there’s still danger for Den Haag and Heracles… wow, the last round will be a hell of a time for the supporters!

And I read at Voetbal International site Elia wanna leave Twente to grow up on a bigger club… and that Soren Lerby, Pranjic’s agent, said that Liverpool is interested on the Croat… what do you think?

Posted from  Brazil

heitinga apparently played very well for atletico for a clean cheet
http://www.goal.com/en-us/news/88/spain/2009/05/03/1244714/player-ratings-real-betis-0-2-atletico-madrid

maduro played a poor game with a 5.5 for valencia in a 3-0 loss but was still rated better than his other centre back (5)

Maduro wasn’t really able to turn the tide as Valencia came under fierce pressure, midfielders let their marks go left and right. But still did what he could do. Heitinga stepped up and did a great job. But Rauk Alboil, “Spanish international!” couldn’t impress in this game either, actually was more to blame.

Posted from  Netherlands

It’s funny with Twente making the CL again. Elia and Arnautovic are both courted by Ajax and said: nah…we want to play top European football .

Elia could do well in Germany. A good step up (Vaart, De Jong, Mathijsen) for players like him. England and Spain is too high up for now. But these lads should pick the coach they want to work with, not the paycheck.

I read that Liverpool wants Pranjic, yeah. And it makes sense. The guy is tremendous. Albeit a tad light for week in week out EPL maybe… But Benitez seems to love the left wing. He has Riera (pretty good), Babel (pretty good potential) and now this player. Maybe Babel does leave Liverpool?