Ajax: now what?

May 7th, 2009 | by: Jan | Comments(12)

After Ruud Gullit and Frank Rijkaard, Marco van Basten is the third AC Milan crack failing as an Eredivisie coach.

Like his Milan buddies, Van Basten will go down in history as the coach who got lost in the Dutch league. His two illustrious predecessors stumbled at Sparta and Feyenoord and apparently aren’t fit to do the build up work with young or not-so-good players.

Gullit enjoyed working with Dirk Kuyt and Salo Kalou. After the training, they’d train on scoring and on those moments you could see a glimps of Premier League level. But Gullit didn’t have a clue what to do with the category Pascal Bosschaart.

But he did win the FA Cup with Chelsea.

Rijkaard got relegated with Sparta but survived five years on the volcano called Barcelona and won titles and the Champions League.

Marco van Basten impressed with Oranje against Italy and France but realized he couldn’t make a team out of his Ajax players.

The Friday training right before the Sparta game. The first team against the subs. Looking back, you could see it going wrong for San Marco. The first team played lethargic. Van Basten stopped the training and wildly gesticulating he explained how the starters could have had the subs for breakfast. And on Sunday, his starters got an arse-whipping on the Sparta Castle. Sparta, the number 14 in the league, was more aggressive and efficient than Ajax.

So now what? Ajax has a plan. A plan to regain their position in Holland and Europe. The intention is to keep talents like Babel and Nigel de Jong – who left for greener pastures when 20 and 21 years old – for a couple of years longer in Amsterdam. Another aspect is to coach and scout more on physical and mental strength.

The club wants to be the alternative to Arsenal and wants to bring the best talents together in the 15 – 18 years old category. In the near future, at least half of the Ajax first team players need to be self developed.

With players who stay a few years longer, Ajax expects to be able to compare itself to Olympique Marseille. Not the absolute top in Europe, but a level just below the top. Still a level where the yearly budgets today are twice that of Ajax now.

Marco van Basten brought in many ideas for the future, but Danny Blind’s impact was at least as big. The manager technical affairs is responsible for scouting and youth development. He’s currently making an assessment of European talents that Ajax should try to lure to Amsterdam. Blind already signed Denmark’s biggest talent, the 16 year old Christian Eriksen. Blind also wanted to get Belgium talent Mats Rits but failed to do so.

Ajax’ top dog, general manager Rik van den Boog already states that he wants a head coach who will support and execute this policy. Van den Boog wants continuity. He already wanted this with Van Basten, but the latter couldn’t stay on.

Blind could warrant the continuity. And he has the experience of being Ajax main coach already. He started badly but finished with a CL-ticket. Klaas Jan Huntelaar always said that his period under Blind was the best time he had a the club. It was the only time he felt Ajax played as a team. A lot of people felt Blind was sacrificed too early. After being told he could leave, he won the National Cup and the afore mentioned CL ticket in the play offs.

Danny Blind is the perfect coach to work with young eredivisie players. Most players he worked with already in the youth system. And lately he’s been seen working a lot individually with Sulejmani.

Van den Boog likes him, the Ajax fans adore him and chairman Uri Coronel already supported him vocally when Van Basten suggested to ask Blind to come back to Ajax. Coronel said Blind “was the perfect man for the club.”