Ajax have more players coming through the ranks at least partly because they poach the best youngsters from other Dutch clubs.
True. Their best talents, who brought them to the 'youth champions league' final are Danes too. Which once again signals that things need improvement. In that sense Van Gaal is in both ways the right man. He is the man who wants to get involved in everything, and has an positive impact. He is also the man who can f*ck things up at times and a failure to qualify for 2014 will also set things in motion. It is either a hit or miss with him. Perfect choice.
This happens since the early 70s. A Rep or Arnold Mühren was also not their own product. Van Basten and Vanenburg are two others. But you also had top talents at relatively small clubs though. Koeman or a Gullit. That is less the case nowadays perhaps. Also the hyped 'La Masia' steals from others. Grossly underrated aspect in the media. They say 'seven first team players are raised in La Masia'. No, just no.
Eh no! Feyenoord has produced more talent than Ajax recently. Ironically this is thanks to and not in spite of the clubs' financial situation. The less money you have, the more focused you are on your youth academy. Money makes for lazy youth development and lazy scouting. Ajax may be destitute compared to Europe's elite, they're still rich to Dutch standards. I have no problem with Ajax picking up youngsters from other youth academies, I just wish they'd stop being so damn cocky about their youth development system. If you've got a pick of Holland's best talent it's not that hard is it.
I have also no problem with indebted clubs, although that is also an opportunistic stance; if 'Financial Fair Play', a plan originated from the Rummenigge circles, really has some teeth then Bayern Munich will become the strongest club in Europe. And I don't like that idea. I just wanted to note that Ajax 'steals' youngsters since the 1970s.
Of the current first team players who came up through the Ajax system, which players were poached? In fact, one could also make the argument that a number of players are prematurely cast out of the academy only to be purchased at a higher price later (Boerrigter and possibly Narsingh). Twente are not entirely innocent of wheeling and dealing either.
Boerrigter is a Twente academy product....... He refused a Twente contract so that he could join Ajax. Ajax are now trying to get Twente's Chris David. All I'm pointing out is that when you're the biggest and richest club in the country, you're going to attract the best talent in the country. I don't think the likes of Sneijder and Van Basten would've turned out as crap footballers had they grown up in the FC Utrecht youth academy. Of course Twente do their own fair share of wheeling and dealing. We don't claim to have the world's best youth academy though. And we're not even in the top five of highest paying clubs in the Dutch league when it comes to how much we pay our under 19s.
How good is the Feyenoord academy do you think? Is it really good or a case of 'in the land of the blind...'?
Allegedly. One would ponder, if Ajax were really after him and have made a better offer why hasn't he signed yet? More likely that he wants out and wants Ajax and other clubs to take notice.
Well they're back to some class of financial stability right now and they're already buying new players. Confirming my earlier statement: clubs without money let academy players get first team football much faster than financially sound clubs. As soon as clubs have a bit of money, they'll look at buying players rather than promoting academy players. I don't think there's much difference in quality between Dutch clubs' youth academy systems to be honest. There is a difference between how quickly clubs give their youngsters a chance in their first team, of course. But overall, if you're good enough, you'll get there, regardless of what youth academy you're in.
How come the most financial sound club in Eredivisie has more youth products in their squad than everybody else including Feyenoord. Kind of contradicts your statement.
The irony is that Twente doesn't give him any playing time as long as he doesn't sign, and he won't sign as long as he isn't guaranteed playing time. Meanwhile his 17-year old team mate Mirco Born is scoring for Twente proper. You tell me who's the fool here for wanting out. I've told you before, considering the midfield Ajax has, he's got a 100% better chance of getting playing time at Twente. This is clearly all about money. And if it is, then so be it. He'll hardly be the first young player Twente loses because of money issues, and he won't be the last either.
If Ajax didn't have the status it has, Vertonghen and Vermaelen and before them Sneijder, Van Basten etc would never have joined the Ajax academy. I'm not saying the Ajax academy is crap, at all. I'm saying that Ajax has the financial resources and stature in the game to attract the best talent. It would be nice if Ajax fans understood that.
No. This is your statement, All I'm saying is that for the past couple of seasons your statement is wrong in Ajax case. Germinal Beerschot were our feeder club. Mats Rits is from GB as well. We didn't scout Sneijder, he turned up on the talent days when he was 7 and got accepted.
You're not getting my point. Do you think Sneijder owes his career to Ajax or do you think he'd not have ended up a great player if he had joined the Utrecht academy? Seven year olds line up to join the Ajax academy, and Ajax takes its pick of the best. That is not the reality of the vast majority of other Dutch clubs who in sharp contrast face the reality of their best talent getting bought by the likes of Ajax, whether those talents are seven or 19.
Sneijder owes his career to Ajax if you go by the things he has said in "the Sneijder tapes" documentary. You can't "buy" players when they are 7 Johan. BVO's can't sign contracts until they're 16.
Not until they're 18 even. Sneijder wanted to join Ajax at the age of seven. Or his parents did. It's not like the Utrecht academy would have refused him at that age is it. Or that the Utrecht academy would've ruined his talent subsequently. Ajax are in a position that they can attract the best youth talent in the country. That's down to their money and stature in the game. All fair enough, it's the normal order of things as far as I'm concerned. My problem is with Ajax fans claiming it's down to Ajax that these players turned out to be great, as if they wouldn't have turned out great at any other Dutch club. Come off it now. Coaching standards are great at Dutch youth academies nation-wide, and not even just at professional clubs. Dutch professional clubs, and Ajax are no exception, owe their youth development to the excellent quality of youth development and coaching at amateur clubs. When oh when will you learn some humility. Ajax are at the top of the Dutch football pyramid, learn to show some gratitude to the bottom of said pyramid.
But PSV are also a huge club in Netherlands with a big attraction, yet do they produce the same amount of top talents as Ajax?
I think they have purchased more foreign-trained players than Ajax but I really don't know much about their youth academy.
Twente have a huge scouting area as well however never produce any talent. Both nature and nurture is required and there are few places on earth where a youth player can learn better than at Ajax.
Really, so why do other nations with 10-20 million people not produce as many talents? Because Dutchies are genetically superior? Of course not. Thinking like that is the beginning of the end and the gradual demolishing of our history.
I should have specified 'in Dutch professional football'. All eredvisie club youth academies have a triple A KNVB rating, if I'm not mistaken.
See the point of others. PSV has produced little to nothing in the past 30 years. Which is by the way a small problem because you miss a certain region. Ajax and Feyenoord are focused on 'de Randstad'.
The more interesting question is how to explain the football success of Uruguay. Here is a country of not even 4M people and they produce world class football players. Other countries in the population range you mention produce many good football players (Portugal and Chile). Population alone is not the critical factor, only that the larger the population base, the more good football players. Of course the country has to have a history of good football which is why we don't see many US, Chinese, or Indian world class players.