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The Rise of Ajax in the 1970s

October 17th, 2009 | By: Jan | 255 Comments »

The Ajax group is training on the airstrip of the Cape Verdian Islands (1972, on their way to the world cup match against Independiente in Argentina). From left: Gerrie Muhren, Sies Wever, Johan Neeskens, Arnold Muhren (Ruud Krol behind him), Horst Blankenburg, Piet Keizer with sunglasses, Barrie Hulshoff, Gerrie Kleton, Coach Kovacs and Johan Cruyff.

In the second half of the 1960, the little Amsterdam based suburb-club Ajax grew out to become a European top team. A new study reconstructs the why: money, professionalism, Cruyff and the psycho-analytical method of coach Rinus Michels.

Author Menno de Galan writes: “It’s January 2, 1965 when Rinus Michels drives his second hand Skoda to the Ajax stadium De Meer.” The new Ajax coach had only trained amateur clubs before. He did go after the Heracles Almelo job before, but they decided to pick another coach. Rinus Michels was going to make 800 guilders (400 euros) per month. He’ll do three evening training sessions and keeps his other job: gym teacher for deaf and mute children. There is no press conference when he’s signed and there are no interview requests.

On this birthday of the Golden Ajax, the first team consists of players who all have jobs beside their sports. And they’re almost all white working-class city kids. There’s a committee which would pick the starting eleven every week. In those days, Ajax plays relegation football and internationally, Dutch football doesn’t even exist.

Michels wanted to reach for the stars with this amateur club. He wanted to turn it into a European top club. It took him six years to do so. How did this transformation take place? De Galan answers the question in his book “De Trots van de Wereld” (The Pride of the World”).

De Galan interviewed dozens of players and Rinus Michels himself, a year before his death. His main source, however, is the obscure and forgotten psychologist Dolf Grunwald, who worked for Ajax until 1970. When Grunwald died in 2000, his family gave his notes to De Galan. There have never been more astute observers of Keizer and Cruyff.

The times were in Michels favor. The Dutch economy was thriving. The brothers Van der Meijden bankrolled Ajax and this meant Ajax could present the first full profs in The Netherlands.

Michels used international clubs as his role model. He didn’t want to even compare Ajax with another Dutch club. The European Cup became more important in an increasingly unifying Europe. And every season, the Dutch clubs were slaughtered. But everyone could see – thanks to tv – how Real Madrid, Benfica and Manchester United operated. Since Michels, the bar was raised. We wanted to get exactly where these clubs were.

Michels said the Ajax players suffered that “typical Dutch mentality”. Which was a criticism. They lacked ambition, couldn’t stand pain, didn’t fight enough, etc etc. Johan Cruyff, who grew up without a father: “Michels was our father, we were his kids. We trained three times a day and then he’d let us play a game in the evening.”

Before Michels, sentiment ruled the Dutch clubs. Even when Michels had left Ajax to coach Barcelona, in 1973, no one at Ajax had the heart to tell Sjakie Swart that he was getting too old and that he had to give his spot to Johnny Rep. In those days, Ajax was the best team in the world, but the club offered Swart a compromise: Swart would play the first half, Rep the second half.

Michels despised that soft stuff. Whenever Ajax had lost in Europe, he’d immediately replace the weakest links. Player with history and big reputations were kicked out. The only problem was, he didn’t have the heart to tell them himself. Most victims are still bitter about that decades after the fact. Frits Soetekouw was laid off after a defeat against Dukla Prague: “I still think about that…”. Ruud Suurendonk, who expected to be able to play at least one last minute in the European Cup final: “In silence, I still loathe Michels for that.” Long time serving masseur Salo Muller was asked to leave after an argument. The next day, he received a telegram from Ajax: “I remember telling my wife: look…Ajax is asking me back. But no, it read “please return all Ajax belongings to De Meer today, including your key”… That was what it read.” Klaas Nuninga, laid off in 1969: “We were all semi profs transforming into full profs. But we all expected to find some humanity within the club.”

The only player who’s on Michels side, is Johan Cruyff. The striker made Ajax better, but also harder. Keeper Stuy: “During training, we’d pick the teams as we did on the streets. Keizer and Cruyff would verse each other and by their picking, you’d know where you stood in the hierarchy.”

But Michels and Cruyff would have a love-hate relationship. Michels needed Johan, but the player was also a menace to the coach. He would yell at team mates, didn’t listen to Michels all the ime, smoked too much and wasn’t always present in big games. Michels would actually use two psychoanalists to help JC further. Grunwald and also his rival Roelf Zeven.

Grunwald, in his notes: “Cruyff denies authority because he compares everyone – subconsciously – with his dad. If he would accept that Michels isn’t his father, we would be making progress.”

Grunwald saw in Cruyff an urge to be the big daddy. “He has never spent time with his peers. When he was 12, he played football with kids 3 years older. When he was 17 he was one of the more dominant players in Ajax’ first team. He resembles the genius who skips classes but who will encounter emotional problems later.”

Whenever JC was criticized, he’d become more nervous and dominant. Whenever the players accepted him, he’d be relaxed. “His attitude would change, his voice would be softer, he’d sit more relaxed and he’d listen more.”

For quite some time, Grunwald was allowed to meddle significantly at Ajax. After a heated argument between Cruyff and Swart, he’d organize a role play game. Johan played Sjaak and vice versa. This game got out of hand real quick. Cruyff would later comment: “It was totally new and we didn’t know how to handle it. All the players started to interfere. I didn’t mind, I like trying new things.”

Michels still didn’t know how to handle Cruyff. Grunwald gave Michels instructions: “Don’t argue with him. Avoid talking to him.” When Grunwald later suggested to Michels to start concentration practices, Michels had enough and kicked Grunwald out. “I feel negative feelings towards me from Michels,” he’d write in his notes.

After Grunwald, Roelf Zeven was asked to talk to Cruyff. When the player visited the analist at home, Zeven had forgotten the appointment. He asked: “What are you doing here?”. Cruyff replied: “You took the words right out of my mouth…”. But Johan would sit down and talk constantly, mainly about the father of his fiancee, Cor Coster. He would be the missing link, the Freudian father-figure Johan missed.

Piet Keizer was also a fascinating study object for the psycho-analists. Michels had asked the two rivals: “I don’t get him. You tell me what makes him tick.” According to the analists, Keizer was a communist. An old fashioned rebel. “His parents never had a phone, so Keizer doesn’t have one either.”

In 1970, Michels throws the towel and decides to sell Keizer. Grunwald and Zeven are instructed to write a psychological report. They both suggest to make Keizer the captain and make him important. Michels is furious and again fires the two doctors. Grunwald and Zeven didn’t appear to be crucial. In the next three seasons, Michels achieves his goals and wins the European Cup three times in a row.

The two also weren’t able to change Cruyff’s limited social skills. These remained at the same level throughout his career.

Cruyff and money made the Golden Ajax a possibility. But Cruyff and money also destructed it. It was simply not possible for a Dutch club to pay the best players in the world enough money. In the season 73-74 Cruyff made 95.000 guilders ( 47.000 euros), while Keizer, Krol, Suurbier, Jan Mulder and Neeskens made 50.000 ( 25.000 euros). The rest made even less. And most of it was taken by taxes anyway.

It’s remarkable how the players stayed so long in Amsterdam. Only when Cruyff left for Barcelona, the others realized they didn’t have to stay.

The cliche that the Ajax players were football playing hippies and provos can be binned, thanks to De Galan’s book. The only political stance the players had was: less tax. The leftish looking Barry Hulshoff: “Top sport is a right wing game. That’s one of the most interesting aspects of Ajax in the 1960s. We needed to perform every week, we were being competitive, as a team. But also as players amongst each other. While society was becoming more left wing.

JC in his Citroen SM

When Michels left Ajax, democracy landed in Amsterdam. In 1973, the players were asked to vote for their captain. The majority picked Keizer and that appeared to be a mistake. Cruyff immediately fled to Barcelona and most players would leave the club in the years after. The next Europa Cup would be won almost 20 years later. A one off.

Ajax is still bogged down in the inheritance of that Golden Team. The fans (and Johan Cruyff!) still expect Ajax to be able to win a European Cup. But how realistic is that? Michels and Kovacs were able to build on a team for eight years, before the foreign richer clubs lured them away. In the current European climate, however, whenever Ajax signs a potential top player (like Zlatan Ibrahimovic), he’s gone the next season. Ajax players aren’t top players yet. That’s why Ajax fans are always dissatisfied. And that’s why they boo players before the game has even started. And that’s why some Ajax players play as if they’re paralyzed.

Another issue: Ajax youth players think they’re European top. Because they grew up in a culture where before them most players would become European top. This also implies, that because they’re so good, they don’t need a strong mentality or sacrifices… They’re Ajax players. Johan Cruyff, Piet Keizer, Johan Neeskens, Frank Rijkaard, Marco van Basten and Dennis Bergkamp went before us…

But, since 2000 no Dutch Ajax player was signed by a European top club. Rafael van der Vaart and Nigel de Jong had to make do with Hamburger SV.

Ajax will have to put their history at rest and accept the fact they’re subtop in Europe. Maybe then they’ll be able to come back to the top again….

And until they do, this book by De Galan offers more excitement than an average Eredivisie game in the Arena.

Tags: Ajax, Barcelona, Cruyff, De Galan, Group C, Keizer, Michels, Neeskens, Oranje, Rep, Swart

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Displaying the most recent 25 comments from a total of 255 comments.

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By Sol | October 26th, 2009 at 10:41 am

Can anyone explain to me btw why vPersie left those 2 free-kicks to Vermaelen (without a positive result if I might add) and didn’t take them himself (which he has been so succesful at before)?

Team orders? Location of the free-kick not ideal for an assist like he had earlier this season (in the game where Fabreguas had an identical assist from the other side)? For that matter, why was Arshavin taking the free-kicks on that side while Fabreguas has had so much success there? Same question really.

Posted from Netherlands

By Sol | October 26th, 2009 at 10:43 am

In the case of Arshavin I can sort of understand it, since Arshavin is not very tall and can’t go in the box anyway, Fabreguas was staying behind for defensive security.

Posted from Netherlands

By Andrew | October 26th, 2009 at 11:13 am

Re: the U-17 match. Saw the game. I thought the most impressive player was the centerback De Vrij; also both fullbacks looked good Ligeon and the player Tiju mentioned Martins Indi (tall, very fast), Ozyakup also. Anyone (Alex? Jeroen?)know which clubs these guys are affiliated with?…@Carlos, completely agree with your comments on Van Bommel; his defensive positonal play is excellent.

Andrew

Posted from United States

By ferenc | October 26th, 2009 at 1:48 pm

van bommel is great,i cannot imagine oranje without him. beside his exceptionel qualities,he’s an arsehole who fights all the time,intimidates the opponent, can shake his teammmates, motivates them. he has a strong influence.

By Alex | October 26th, 2009 at 2:46 pm

De Vrij and Martins Indi are from Feyenoord, Ligeon from Ajax, Ozyakup is in Arsenal’s youth academy.
But having played CB myself for quite some time, the U-17 defence really failed miserably for the winning Colombian goal, one of our CB’s left his man so our LB picked him up, but left his own man completely free, that’s football basics, that’s one of the first things they teach you as a central defender, organize your defence, LB/RB and make sure no opponent is left unmarked. Martins Indi not only has a Dutch passport, but also still has Portuguese papers.

About Huntelaar, you can easily forget that he still holds the scoring record for Ajax, before Suarez. Sorry but It’s not really fair to put things that easily about Huntelaar, if you look at what’s really going on it isn’t that odd that he hasn’t scored. Really Ajax, Twente is not his optimal level, he still scored 8 goals in 20 matches for Real, while half of those matches he wasn’t even a starter, but a late substitute. Besides Serie A is much harder for strikers than PL, when did he play 90 minutes for Milan, once or twice maybe, few times, he won’t just magically score whenever you need him to. His quality is just to score goals, and for that, he needs to be on the pitch, he needs good supply, not Ronaldinho who looks about the same age as his shirtnumber, and Pato isn’t a real winger, doesn’t give that many assists, apart from that, Milan just has an old squad, and isn’t doing well. Things aren’t as simple as you might like to see it. One thing you can say is that so far he didn’t play very much, so i wouldn’t have expected him to make progress with about 5 appearences as a late sub. He’s able to get to Milan level allright, but not in one month and little to none starts. The only real thing you can say about him as a player is that he isn’t very fast, nor does he do much with the ball.
But his dribbles aren’t what he became known for.

Torres isn’t actually that physically strong himself, he just makes clever use of his body, he’s actually still pretty skinny, besides, I don’t have any doubts about Torres’ quality, but Rio Ferdinand just isn’t as good as the English often claim(ed).

I think the problem is that too little Dutch attacking talent is playing for Dutch topclubs these days, the last Dutch central strikers to leave Holland ironically were Huntelaar, Babel and Vennegoor. Give Huntelaar some more time, otherwise, we better pray Babel actually starts developing and performing as a central striker and/or put our hopes in V.Wolfswinkel and Castaignos.

Posted from Netherlands

By Michel-Olivier | October 26th, 2009 at 2:58 pm

all i can say is call koevermans

Posted from United States

By Andrew | October 26th, 2009 at 3:02 pm

@Alex, No question about it; Columbia’s winning goal was a major screw up in the defense. My impression over the course of the entire game, though, was that De Vrij looked good. Thanks for the info. about the players, always good knowledge.

Andrew

Posted from United States

By miguel rosado | October 26th, 2009 at 3:14 pm

————-Stekelenburg—————

—Wiel–Heitinga–Mathijsen–Emanuelson–

—-Elia—Bommel—Nigel—Robben———

—————Sneijder—————-

—————Persie—————–

By Alex | October 26th, 2009 at 3:30 pm

Wow when I think about it, there are actually lots of young striking talents still around, let me name some:

-Stefan Nijland, 1.87m, 1988, PSV: went from Groningen to PSV, hasn’t been able to deliver yet, but was a revelation for Groningen.

-Mitchell Schet, 1.76m, 1988, Feyenoord:Promising player, played at the U-17 WC in Peru where they reached the semi-finals. Now loaned to Excelsior.

-Ricky v.Wolfswinkel, 1.85m, 1989,FC Utrecht:I sense the same qualities as Huntelaar in him, but faster and more technique, defenitaly very talented. Doing really good for Utrecht.

-Bas Dost, Heracles Almelo, 1.92, 1989:Relatively unknown player, caught my eye as part of a surprisingly good Heracles led by Gert-Jan Verbeek, looks a good talent, strong, tall, good in the air, holds the ball well, will be interesting to see where his development will take him.

-Charlie(son) Benschop, 1.91m ,1989, RKC Waalwijk(likely that RKC will dissapear):Not as obvious as some of the others, but he caught my eye, quick and lively player, a striker originally from the Netherlands Antilles.

-Nacer Barazite, 1.86m ,1990, Arsenal:Of Morrocan origin, not a deep striker, whas a blistering shot like in the category Torres Was highly rated at Arsenal, but he needs to play every week to make real steps, reminded me of Zlatan, I’d love to see him for Twente(most likely on loan) or any other Eredivisie club.

-Luuk de Jong, 1.88m, 1990, FC Twente:Not hardly as big a talent as V.Wolfswinkel or so, but still a promising player, who might surprise. He stood out at De Graafschap before moving.

-Serhat Koc, 1.68m, 1990, Groningen:Not a very tall striker, but a revelation for FC Eindhoven, went to Groningen, yet to have a real breakthrough, but still a highly rated youngster, I found him to be sensational for Eindhoven, has dual nationality, Dutch and Turkish.

-Genero Zeefuik, 1.79m, 1990, PSV:Despit making his debute at a very young age, now loaned to FC Dordrecht. Looked very promising, I wonder how he’ll develope.

-Geoffrey Castilion,1.91m ,1991, Ajax:Considered one of the biggest talents of Ajax, very physically strong, tall player, I liked him very much. Still to make a debute of any sort.

-Luc Castaignos,precise height unknown to me, but he’s quite tall, 1992,Feyenoord:Was very impressive for our U-17 youth team, attracted interest from most of europe’s topclubs, very strong player, with a good sense for goal. Considered as one of the biggest prospects around. In my eyes a very big talent, but it can all still change.

Posted from Netherlands

By Alex | October 26th, 2009 at 3:35 pm

@ Miguel, Co Adriaanse just recently said he knew Emanuelson from way back in Ajax’ youth, there he was a real number 10, always played there, he said very clearly Emanuelson is not in any way a left back, and his qualities come through best behind the strikers.

Posted from Netherlands

By finnster01 | October 26th, 2009 at 4:11 pm

@Alex: Thanks for the update on the young Oranje talent. I enjoyed that quite a bit. Here in the US that info is hard to get to.

Thank you, please keep it coming.

By Mohamed | October 26th, 2009 at 4:37 pm

@Alex ,
great post man ! You’re so updated , i only know 5 names from this long list !
Barazite ( similar to v.persie ) ,
castillion ( similar to adebayor ) ,
luc castaignos – the dutch new hope ,
wolfswinkel , great talent , i hope he will be like ruud ,
nijland , he looks like kuyt ., but needs time .

BUT ALL OF THEM ARE OPTIONS FOR THE FUTURE , we need only ONE OPTION for now !!! i really dunno what is the problem with huntelaar , the guy has a talent , then what’s wrong ?

By Mohamed | October 26th, 2009 at 4:44 pm

It will be nice if we reach 300 comments before jan returns

By dirk v.d.Berg | October 26th, 2009 at 4:55 pm

I’d say that Castillion is more like a Kluivert or Crespo kind of mold than Adebayor, because he can dribble the ball passed defenders, where Adebayor is more just the kind of striker that’s always around to put the ball away.

Posted from Canada

By dirk v.d.Berg | October 26th, 2009 at 4:58 pm

Anyone know what ever happened to Maceo Rigters, at one point he was a hot commodity, and then he signed for Blackburn, and I haven’t heard of him since.

Posted from Canada

By Andrew | October 26th, 2009 at 5:14 pm

Good stuff, Alex. I’ll echo Finn, we don’t get that info over here. Many thanks. (Time permitting, of course) Who should we look for as wide players…the next Elia, so to speak?

Andrew

Posted from United States

By Carlos | October 26th, 2009 at 5:44 pm

Alex – great stuff man,please continue these updates on our young talent.

Posted from Singapore

By Mohamed | October 26th, 2009 at 5:47 pm

@andrew ,
may be marvin emnes ( midlesbrough ) ,
Alexander büttner ( nac breda ) ,
roy beerens ( herenven ) ,
diego bisesswar ( feynord ) ,
georginio wijnaldum ( feynord )
leroy george ( utrecht ) .

By sonneveld | October 26th, 2009 at 5:48 pm

Andrew, i think wijnaldum has good potential on the wing

By Carlos | October 26th, 2009 at 6:09 pm

Some tidbits:
Sneijder out for one maybe 2 weeks – thigh muscle
van Gol in team selection this week(with Vaart & Drenthe)
Castelen operation successful.

Posted from Singapore

By Mohamed | October 26th, 2009 at 6:13 pm

@Dirk ,
yh , i agree with you , but castillion is really so tall , has nice skills like ade , but he also reminds me with kluivert .

By Michel-Olivier | October 26th, 2009 at 7:40 pm

out of all the players alex mention i can only see v.wolfswinkel and castaignos making the dutch team.

Posted from United States

By finnster01 | October 26th, 2009 at 9:11 pm

This is exactly why Real Madrid will not win the league. They are too distracted with marketing crap which I guess they need to in order to pay their bill.

http://www.realmadrid.com/cs/Satellite/en/1202800974448/noticia/Noticia/A_day_in_the_snow.htm

Anyway, Aksel Lund Svindal (won the world cup in skiing last year) handed out the keys to the Real players and he said in Norwegian papers that he really enjoyed talking to Ruud VanGol and the Dutch (because of their excellent English and German).

However, he was less impressed with the Spanish contingent, but he said Kaka was very fun even though he didn’t know anything about ski’s but was very willing to learn and fun to talk to.

Bottom line, I wouldn’t complain if Audi decided to ring my door bell one night and offer me the keys to a brand new car.

Those overpaid Real players surely are the last people on earth that need a free car?

By Carlos | October 26th, 2009 at 9:45 pm

hahaha Finn you should know people are more likely to buy and look at an Audi driven by Kaka then by Finn (or me). Thats why they also dont pay bills at Restaurants when they can well afford to. All part of the “some are more equal than others” syndrome.

Posted from Singapore

By finnster01 | October 26th, 2009 at 10:43 pm

@Carlos: Lol. In a way, we have the same shit in financial markets. If it is good for so-and-so firm, it is good for me as well.

I guess that can be applied to any market.