And Johan has left the Ajax’ building…

March 7th, 2008 | by: Jan |

How weird is this?? The whole world has been following El Salvador’s return to Ajax. In one evening he kicked the board out, put Marco in charge, gave press conferences, “I know exactly what to do”, blablabla…

Last week Marco van Basten was presented as the new strong man for four years, and during his press conference the media wanted to know where Johan was? “He is in Barcelona working on some stuff at the background for now,” was Marco’s response.

Well, JC had a meeting yesterday with Marco to present his ideas for the youth development side of things. “It was intense, severe and brutal,” said Johan about his plan. “I think you need to do this things quick, tough and without hesitation. Change it all.” But Marco wasn’t impressed! The master apprentice told the master that he wasn’t convinced that it was needed. He thought some of the work was actually good and Marco wanted some weeks to explore things by himself. Johan apparently saw that as a “No” and decided he would walk away. Huh??

So Marco and Johan are suddenly not on the same page anymore?? “It is not a personal disagreement,” implored Cruyff. “It’s merely a discussion on the direction and strategy. Call it a business disagreement. Fine with me. If my advice is not followed, why would I bother to put my energy in. But Marco and I on a personal level are still fine.”

Huh (again)???

So, apparently, it’s Marco taking decisions on long term strategy?? He is formally not even in function. And then there’s the board, there’s Martin van Geel… What’s happening? And Johan can’t allow his friend a couple of weeks to be able to support this new plan?

Suppose you’re an Ajax fan… What would you make of this? A whole structure (management, plans, etc) is thrown out of the window in one night because JC has seen the light. And then his first product is – for now – rejected and JC walks?

And the new and inexperienced coach is the new Boss?

Gosh… This news will travel the world again, and will make us seem as bigger amateurs then we really are!!! Last season, no one wanted to become champs. This season, successful coaches are sacked and less successful coaches are either kept in the shade (Van Gaal) or promoted to team manager. The failing team manager becomes the new dictator at Ajax. PSV allows their coach to go to Valencia and are struggling to find an interim coach, because assistant coach Wouters doesn’t want to do the job. WHAT?

After reading the JC news I quickly checked if the date wasn’t April 1. April Fools. But it wasn’t.

It’s true.

JC walks. Marco is the boss. And the world laughs at us…

Tags: Ajax, Group C, Johan Cruyff, marco van basten, Oranje, The Netherlands

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Comments

By Caleb | March 7th, 2008 at 8:28 pm

What the heck is going on over there?!? I’m a little dissapointed at JC.. you can’t come in and start something like this and then just walk!

Posted from Japan

By goose | March 7th, 2008 at 9:08 pm

thats Cruijff; his way or no way… very bad pr for Ajax and for Cruijff…like Jan im very surprised in Marco’s power…

Posted from Netherlands

By simon | March 7th, 2008 at 9:15 pm

I think it’s a bit strange as well, but it’s kind of interesting to see Van Basten in action. He might not be the brightest but he surely has some guts. That might take him far.

By Jan | March 8th, 2008 at 1:08 am

I’m dumbfounded, flabbergasted… Where’s van Geel? What’s happening.

Read today too that JC wasn’t in favor of sacking Fonteyn. Not that he was a fan, but he wanted peace and quiet in the club and focus on becoming champs first. He wanted to let Fontein finish the season as manager and take care of business in the summer period. The board sacked Fontein this week and sort of put the first stake through JC’s heart… (poetic justice of course. Drama, is what we need )

Posted from Australia

By Jan | March 8th, 2008 at 2:54 am

Just read another piece on JC. He told a reporter in Spain that the whole “JC is back at Ajax” drama is enormously overrated. “I just said I wanted to say what I think they should do, and they said: please tell us. So I went in to talk to Marco – the new boss – about my ideas, but he didn’t want to follow up on them. And that’s fine. Marco is in charge, he knows what he wants, end of story. And if there’s no longer a role for me, I will go home. No hard feelings.”

So now JC downplays the whole “JC is back” thing and at the same time confirms that Marco is in charge at Ajax… Interesting…

Posted from Australia

By ferenc | March 8th, 2008 at 5:15 am

hopefully marco will do it well because great dutch football doesn’t exist without great ajax. surprising. sometimes i don’t understand cruijff but probably i’m not the only one. what the hell is going on at ajax? ridiculous. i mean compared to psv ajax is the example of bad management. psv is not a great team but they are massive, they always arrive at a certain european level (the result against spurs is great). ajax with the same players’ quality don’t get anything. only bad results. and this is really-really bad for dutch football. especially if the famous ajax youth system is falling apart.

Posted from Hungary

By tiju | March 8th, 2008 at 9:07 am

What the hell happening with ajax at the movement.
its pitty san marc denied JC.
san marc is nothing before JC.
JC has his own typical veiws on football which another stupids can nt understand.
san was a top brilliant finisher with gutz while his playing era.
But JC was diiferent its pitty other stupids where jumping up on him
Come on JC
come back with blades for our entertaining traditional dutch football.

By tiju | March 8th, 2008 at 9:23 am

by the by
when can we expect following players into action?
vanpersie.
roban
castelen
vlaar
gijs luirink
stijn schaars?

By finnster01 | March 8th, 2008 at 9:50 am

to add to the injury list, OOoohh, Ahhh, Vann Da Sah just got subbed against Portsmouth. Not sure what the injury is, didn’t look bad though. Hopefully nothing bad.

Then Kuszak got sent off, Pompeys scored on the penalty with Ferdinand in goals for Man U…hilarious stuff

Posted from United States

By Genio | March 8th, 2008 at 12:40 pm

SuperSunday is cancelled, yet again

Posted from Singapore

By Jan | March 9th, 2008 at 5:24 am

y the by
when can we expect following players into action?
vanpersie. soon!
roban he’s out for some weeks
castelen don’t know
vlaar won’t be soon
gijs luirink ??
stijn schaars? again, won’t be soon

Posted from Australia

By AJAX coding school » Blog Archive » AJAX News [2008-03-08 03:21:18] | March 14th, 2008 at 11:30 pm

[...] And Johan has left the Ajax’ building… By Jan The failing team manager becomes the new dictator at Ajax. PSV allows their coach to go to Valencia and are struggling to find an interim coach, because assistant coach Wouters doesn’t want to do the job. WHAT? After reading the JC news … Netherlands World Cup Team Blog – http://netherlands.worldcupblog.org [...]

Posted from Australia

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