Another huge Van Basten mistake – Derksen

Johan Derksen’s column in www.vi.nl

Ajax performed an aweful soap-opera in the last ten years. In that period Morten Olsen, Jan Wouters, Hans Westerhof, Danny Blind, Co Adriaanse, Leo Beenhakker, Ronald Koeman, Louis van Gaal and Henk ten Cate were installed and removed from technical positions. The current technical director Martin van Geel still doesn’t know if he can stay and interim-coach will be going back to the youth system. And all those coaches and managers were allowed to sign their own players. At a certain point, Ajax had 60 (!) players under contract. The coach would use 16, the rest became millionaires by sitting in the stands.

Ajax’ scouting was far from perfect. The following players failed to add value to the club: Froylan Ledezma, Andrzej Rudy, Gerald Sibon, Tom Sier, Christopher Kanu, Georgi Kinkladze, Ferdi Vierklau, Nikos Machlas, Jan van Halst, Aaron Mokoena, John Nieuwenburg, Frank Verlaat, Ruud Kras, Nourdin Boukhari, Victor Sikora, Yannis Anastasiou, Nicolae Mitea, Tom Soetaers, Wesley Sonck, Angelos Charisteas, Juanfran, Olaf Lindenbergh, Markus Rosenberg, Michael Krohn-Dehli, George Ogararu, Roger, Jurgen Colin, Laurent Delorge, Samuel Kuffour, Albert Luque, Dennis Rommedahl, Kennedy Bakircioglu and Ismael Urzáiz.

General Manager is sacrificed for 10 years mismanagement, although he was appointed only a year ago! The chairman resigned as did the rest of the board. At the moment the Coronel committee adviced to no longer allow coaches to appoint their own assistants, Marco van Basten was appointed coach and yes…the first he did was appoint his own assistants! The Coronel report also criticized the ex-players in charge of the youth teams. The only man not even mentioned was youth development manager Jan Olde Riekerink (former assistant to Louis van Gaal and head coach of Gent and Emmen).

Icon Johan Cruyff has voiced his worries about the youth system for years. He grabbed the power two weeks ago and he trusted his master apprentice Marco van Basten to be the henchman in his new plan for the club. Cruyff also wanted to make Piet Keizer important within the club, but what no one thought was possible in this universe happened: Cruyff and Van Basten collided. And no one within the skipper-less club corrected the new coach. Cruyff’s charter was to re-organize the club’s technical division, Marco’s charter is to manage the first team. Next season. But, Ajax doesn’t have any leaders left. No one is in charge. The man with the biggest mouth and the biggest ego is the boss now. And that seems to be Marco van Basten.

Cruyff saw Marco as his son. He spoke about him with love, warmth and respect. He recognized the top caoch in Van Basten years ago already. And since Cruyff will always protect his clan, he always defended the swaggering team manager of Oranje. Cruyff will – without a doubt – see Marco’s last act as a stab in the back. I therefore think the friendship between the two is over. And I think Marco doesn’t realize what he’s done. As Oranje’s team manager he showed that he lacks the ability to interact with people. This time, he has made a mistake that’s unforgivable. Van Basten had nothing to fear from Cruyff. Johan didn’t want a job, he acted out of love for Ajax and wanted to create the perfect organization, together with his protege. Cruyff is the only one capable of kicking in the holy doors of the football temple. It woould be painful for the people who work there and probably hard for Johan too, but Van Basten would have been able to work with his team in relative peace.

JC would do the dirty job and Van Basten could’ve focused on the flagship. Van Basten overestimates himself. He wants control. But he doesn’t know what he is getting into. As a coach, you don’t have time to meddle with the organisation, youth development, scouting, sponsors, the board and the member council. Cruyff put his head up, but as a result it’s chopped off. By the man he did it all for. Ajax gave him a blanc check to clean up and we all know if JC says he does something, he will.

Now, he reaps the jest from semi-funny columnists and the public opinion. And no one at Ajax responds. Before Van Basten has even started chaos reigns. Again, he acts the irresponsible manager without any experience.

But, we shouldn’t feel sorry for Cruyff. He spent last week in his holiday home in the mountains, playing golf and spending quality time with kids and grandchildren. JC can live without Ajax and without Van Basten. The question is, can they live without JC?