Happy New Year Ajax and Cruyff!!

January 2nd, 2012 | by: Jan | Comments(18)

We had a number of dramas in sports this year but none has affected us Dutchies more than the tremendous Greek Tragi-comedy being played out in Amsterdam. One of the most classic and normally classy football clubs has lowered itself so terribly one can only look on in shame or with a cynical smile…

Ajax appears to be a former top club, with the emphasis on “former”. This is something that Johan Cruyff wants to change, if it’s the last thing he’ll do before he joins the team up above ( with Socrates, Michels, Scirea, Ludo Coeck and Gary Speed)… Many people before him weren’t able to improve the Sons of Gods. Many tried. From Ten Cate to Van Gaal… From Adriaanse to Marco van Basten.

So who are the lead characters in this soap opera?

Well, there is a whole list. Johan leads the cast, but there is Board of Directors chairman Steven ten Have, club members Keje Molenaar and others, there is jobhunter Louis van Gaal. Candidates Marco van Basten, Tscheu La Ling, Danny Blind and Martin Sturkenboom. Youth coaches Wim Jonk, Dennis Bergkamp and head coach Frank de Boer. Then there is public company Ajax NV, the main sponsor Aegon and the Ajax fans of course…

JC using his foul look on Edgar Davids at membership meeting

What is the plot?

Johan Cruyff returns, like the saviour, yet again to help the despairing lot straighten up their spine. JC helped once as a player ( three European Cups), as a coach (one European Cup) and now wants to help as an official. In the last 10 years, Ajax “only” won three titles and never did anything special in Europe.

Cruyff presented a technical plan for the youth development and would execute this. He even took a seat in the Board of Directors to take responsibility for this. His colleages: business consultant Steven ten Have, tv producer Paul Romer, lawyer Marjan Olfers and former player Edgar Davids.

So far so good. The only thing we needed was a management team to execute this all.

What happened behind the scenes?

Everything. Politics. Nepotism. Leaks to the media. Gossip. Lying. Backstabbin. Ajax appears to be a snake pit. The different camps and factions don’t want to take prisoners. Johan Cruyff wanted to appoint Tscheu La Ling as manager football affairs. The former Ajax winger ran different businesses with different levels of success and was involved with a club in Romania. The other board members didn’t support Cruyff’s choice and decided to stonewall this decision. Cruyff felt they ( Cruyff and La Ling) were badly done by: the reasoning was weak and only two board members actually interview La Ling. Chairman Ten Have even suggested La Ling was part of a blackmail scheme in Romania. La Ling immediately sued Ten Have and that case was in court this week. Ten Have feels “demonised” by all this. The court will rule later in January.

Tscheu La Ling in court, sueing Ten Have.

When Ling was out, the other 4 board members presented Marco van Basten as the ideal candidate. Van Basten spoke with Cruyff and decided to withdraw his candidacy. “I felt there was friction between Cruyff and the others and I decided to wait what would happen and not enter this arena yet…”. A memo of the board leaked and in that memo the “other 4″ claimed that Cruyff had frustrated Van Basten and that San Marco’s withdrawal was JC’s fault. A “peace mission” was started to get the “other 4″ and JC in talking mode again, but when the “other 4″ appointed Van Gaal, Blind and Sturkenboom without consulting Cruyff – on purpose- the latter exploded in fury. Partly because of the rude and shameless way in which they wanted to railroad these appointments but also because Van Gaal is known to be JC’s biggest rival. Is JC is El Salvador, Louis has horns .

Louis would start in July 2012 as general manager while Sturkenboom and Blind immediately started in their roles. Under massive media attention, the whole circus of membership meetings and shareholder meetings and court cases started.

A furious Cruyff sued the board for the appointment of this threesome, with 10 youth coaches as his support team. The judge ruled that the appointments of management needs to be halted. Mid January, the appeal of the board members is held in court in Haarlem. On February 10, it’s the turn of the shareholders to give the final vote: will they support “Team Cruyff” or “Team Ten Have”.

These fans voted already: “board of directors: fukc off!”

So, who loses in this?

We all do!! No one wins. Maybe the direct rivals of Ajax ( Twente, PSV, AZ, Feyenoord) chuckle a bit, but Ajax loses. Big time. The Ajax 1 team must take this crap into games. I’m sure Frank de Boer loses sleep over it. Our reputation is hurt. The development of youthful talents is hurt, so indirectly Oranje hurts. It’s not fun to be Ten Have, Romer, Olfers or Davids now. While JC can probably use his peace and quiet at his age. I expect Danny Cruyff to step in sooner and later telling her husband to let it go for health reasons alone. And what was Louis van Gaal thinking??? Is his ego really this big? To have to battle JC in the autumn of his career??

And Frank de Boer keeps a brave face. He says he’ll focus on the first team. But when you are down and out…. ( you know the song). De Boer witnessed his team being ousted of the Champions League in a painful way, than last week this moron “fan” tried to molest AZ goalie Esteban ( the “fan” is put away for two months and gets a 30 year Ajax stadium ban). This year was painful for Ajax fans.

Have we even seen anything like this before elsewhere?

Nope. The weird acts come and go with Ajax. Media rows, scolding, court cases, burning of jerseys… The presidential elections in Barcelona and Madrid might be like carnivals, but they are simply trailers in this theatre.

Ajax fans and members pray that this thing will be sorted out soon, because it doesn’t take a lot of imagination to see that these shenanigans can hurt Ajax much more than it helps…

But, Louis wishes you all Happy New Year, so it will all come good