Listen to the article
Ajax Amsterdam is the most successful football team in the Netherlands and one of the most important European clubs of all time. Their style of football influenced generations who looked up highly to their players.
For context, Ajax Amsterdam has won the Champions League four times, the KNVB Cup 20 times and the League 36 times. Throughout the years, their players, such as Johan Cruyff, Marco Van Basten, Edwin Van der Sar and Ruud Gullit, have shaped the history of football by contributing to the game in the biggest way possible.
In the 2018/19 season, Ajax was seconds away from a Champions League final against Liverpool but was cruelly denied that spot by Tottenham Hotspur in the dying minutes of the game—on away goals. However, their campaign was nothing short of impressive, as their golden generation knocked out many teams such as Juventus and Real Madrid.
Today, Ajax sits at the fifth position in the Eredivisie Dutch league. Moreover, the team was also knocked out of the KNVB Cup and the Europa League group stage. Even though they are still able to scrap some wins from time to time, it is obvious that the whole squad needs a rebuild, as it is in a dire state.
It is important to understand how Ajax, the illustrious Dutch club, went from being able to win it all to barely winning at all.
Ajax Amsterdam has always been characterized by its stylish and distinct brand of football shaped by the great mind of Johan Cruyff. The club is also gifted with some of the best scouts and recruiters in world football, which has allowed them to grow and nurture talented players, the majority eventually leaving for bigger leagues.
However, this season was not kind for the Dutch club: Ajax won one of its five opening games and sat two points above the relegation zone. As the season progressed, fans got increasingly frustrated. The club seemed to have hit rock bottom when it was down 3-0 at half time against its bitter rivals Feyenoord.
In a heated series of events, angry Ajax fans threw many rockets and flairs on the pitch during the match. The game was consequently abandoned, and some parts of the stadium were damaged by the fans who demanded the board’s resignation. The match was resumed days later in an empty stadium and ended 4-0 in Feyenoord’s favor.
The present problem all started on the inside. Marc Overmars, one of Ajax’s best players of all time, was thriving as the technical director of the youth team. The first team heavily depended on the younger one, as 10 of the 18 players in Ajax’s Champions League campaign were academy graduates. This strategy enabled them to benefit from a profit of $350 million in transfers.
Overmars got promoted to director in the first team after spending 10 years in the youth. He appointed Erik Ten Hag and things began to run smoothly for Ajax. However, the entire system was built on these two individuals, who eventually left, leaving a void in the board.
In 2022, Overmars had to resign for inappropriate behavior, and Ten Hag got appointed as manager for Man Utd. Just like that, Ajax lost all sense of leadership, from both a sporting and business standpoint. These two figures were then replaced by others which proved to be incompetent, as they also got replaced soon after.
In this summer transfer window, nine players left the club for a combined total of more than €115 million. Dusan Tadic and Davy Klaasen also left on free transfers, both of them having been crucial players to the team. Upon his departure, Tadic suggested that he was surrounded with players that had “lower quality” than before. Ajax’s performance this season proved him right.
This year, Ajax did not improve as it paid $100 million in transfer fees, with $40 million covering fees for players from lower leagues. To highlight the poor new recruitment strategy, the Dutch club signed Akpom, a player who couldn’t score more than eight goals in the Greek league.
All these events happened under the supervision of Ajax’s director, Sven Mislintat, someone who was never welcomed by Ajax fans. Many controversies surround his tenure as director because of his antics off the pitch and in the dressing room. He was sacked after the infamous game against Feyenoord.
Additionally, the fact that Ajax Amsterdam and their fans are somewhat closed-minded does not help the situation. When the team needed a manager this season, many names came up and most of them were mocked, as they did not have the “Ajax DNA”—in other words, they were not Dutch. For example, Ange Postecoglou was one of the names brought up for the job, but fans rejected the idea. This season, the Australian manager is coaching Tottenham Hotspur, who are having a great season.
On top of this rather shortsighted perspective from fans, some players have started to leak stories to the press, in order to receive favorable criticism.
After the departure of many players in the last years, Ajax seemed to be immune to this situation, as it kept regenerating young talents. However, the team seemed to be very weakened since the 2022/23 season. All the events cited show that Ajax’s wounds have in fact been self-inflicted.
As the years went by, Ajax started to look increasingly more dominant, winning four successive league titles in a row. However, this success was built by a dysfunctional organization, depending on two men that were holding the club together. On the surface, a fifth place finish may not seem abysmal, but it is clear that the whole club needs to be sorted out.
