Ajax ... the Jekyll and Hyde Team [R]

Discussion in 'The Netherlands' started by Orange14, Mar 19, 2009.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. johan neeskens

    Jan 14, 2004
    The funny thing to me as a Twente fan is that they've set a precedent with that Sulejmani transfer. Never again will a Dutch provincial club let one of its talents go on the cheap so thank you Heerenveen!
     
  2. johan neeskens

    Jan 14, 2004
    Twente is built pretty much on rejects. Perez - well we all know about him. Janssen - considered too difficult to ever make it to the big time. Elia - his last employer ADO Den Haag wished him good luck on the Twente reserves bench when they sold him to Twente (literally quoting the ADO chairman there). Arnautovic - Austrian youth academies were so sick of him they almost ran him out of the country at the age of 16. Hersi and Denneboom - ridiculed by all of their former coaches notably including Foppe de Haan. Douglas - offered for free to a number of Dutch clubs but considered not good enough including by Ajax, Twente were the only club who saw his potential. Braafheid - another example, always considered as talented but also as too difficult to deliver on his talent. I think what Twente's and AZ's success and the contrasting failure of the traditional big three show is that it doesn't really matter who your top players are, to some extent. What you need is a good atmosphere at the club and a really good support staff, from the medical to the fitness people through to the individual (goalkeeper and striker) coaches and the assistants. Its those factors that create a team spirit, and team spirit is what it's all about in modern football. This to me is what Ajax's failure also underscores in my view. Not so long ago, having talented players in your squad could take you far. These days, now that football has evolved, it's team over individuals. Compare Elia to Sulejmani - I'm personally convinced that Sulejmani is potentially the better player. But Elia has built character at Twente, he will gladly do his defensive duties when Twente's opponents have an attacking right back and as a result he always scores a 6 out of 10 at a minimum. Sulejmani by contrast either scores a 9 or a 4. That's been the difference between Ajax and Twente this season. Even when Twente have an off day their players will still work their arses off and do their tactical duty until the very last second of the game. That isn't down the manager specifically, thats down to the general atmosphere at the club. You need to create an atmosphere where players are really willing to give it their all, for whatever reason. Ajax hasn't managed to do that, AZ and Twente by contrast have.
     
  3. psv88

    psv88 New Member

    Sep 2, 2008
    New York
    Club:
    PSV Eindhoven
    Nat'l Team:
    Netherlands
    Yea and also players at Twente and AZ and Heerenveen want to play hard so they can impress the likes of PSV and Ajax so they can move to a bigger club...cough cough...Twente will never be seen as a big club, its just a fact. There will always be the big THREE, no matter how or bad they are. They may not be the best, they will always be THE BIG THREE
     
  4. psv88

    psv88 New Member

    Sep 2, 2008
    New York
    Club:
    PSV Eindhoven
    Nat'l Team:
    Netherlands
    Honestly...who has ever heard of Enscende? No offense...whose heard of Alkmaar? Heerenveen? Look at the national team, where did they all come from?

    Huntellar, Robben, RVP, KUYT, Sneijder, Affellay, Gks (except for boscker as reserve and Vorm once), Oijer, Giovanni, van der viel, mathijsen (exception here), Van bommel, VDV, VDS, RVN...lets be honest...if a player wants to make it BIG...they work as hard as they can to leave the lower tier...like KJH at Heerenveen, Robben as well...groningen i think...once these elite players reach PSV, Ajax and Feyenoord, they know if they play even decently well, are young and dutch, foreign scouts will like them...aka DRENTHE...

    so bottom line, it is more important in a players career to work hard at a middle tier club like Twente so they can get picked up by PSV and Ajax and then get international exposure and NT experience as well...that is why they try to hard..
     
  5. richsavare

    richsavare Member+

    Ajax
    Netherlands
    Jan 28, 2003
    New Jersey
    Club:
    AFC Ajax
    Nat'l Team:
    Netherlands
    Your last paragraph I have been saying for years now.

    To quote the Nike slogan Just Do It!

    The foreginers who have been brought in for years now have been an utter waste.

    Get back to building within.
     


  6. That's forced on Feyenoord this season. It sometimes looked as if the coach had raided a Kindergarten. It has also in it an extreem mixed performance picture. Biseswar shines a few matches and then is a few matches utter rubbish and than shines again. The same with Weinaldum and Fer. So until the youth players have matured you are in for a roller coaster ride and the question is if the foreign teams let you reap the benefits of the matured player.
     
  7. johan neeskens

    Jan 14, 2004
    I've never denied that! If we don't finish in the top five next season the world's not going to end or anything, we were bankrupt six years ago and the club were well supported even then. You'll find that Twente are quite comfortable these days being labelled a provincial club as the national media ignoring us means that they leave us alone and as a result there's never any trouble.
     
  8. johan neeskens

    Jan 14, 2004
    Things have changed PSV. Elia has already announced that he'll leave Twente in the summer and that its not for another Dutch club but for a foreign club. Twente has warded off transfer bids from Ajax, PSV and Feyenoord for Elia, Arnautovic, Douglas and Braafheid over the past eight months. Why would they go to Ajax, Feyenoord or PSV when they can also transfer to clubs like Chelsea, Roma, Genoa or a top side in Germany? As those are the clubs who want these players and those are also the clubs that the traditional top three in the Netherlands can't compete with. The PSV chairman mind you was literally quoted a couple of months ago as saying 'yes we want Elia but I don't think we can afford him'. Elia in turn was quoted as saying 'I'm glad I didn't join Ajax'. Fact is that Heerenveen, Groningen, AZ and Twente now are similar to the traditional top three in that they too have the interest of Europe's top leagues. Yes Heerenveen sold Sulejmani to Ajax but that was for an unprecedented 16 million. Why did Ajax pay that? Because if they hadn't, he would've been sold off to a foreign club (let me assure you, if PSV or Ajax want to pay that kind of money for Elia, theyre welcome to him as in the long term that will only make Twente stronger). The provincial clubs don't need to sell their players on the cheap anymore. More importantly, it's the players who now realise that too.

    I know no-one's heard of Enschede but to Dutch standards it's a big city, the 12th biggest in the country to be precise. It's also three times the size of both Alkmaar and Heerenveen but that's on a side note. Independent market research has shown that Twente has a caption area with a population of a minimum of 500,000, and thats in Twente alone (the club also has a growing number of German fans and in other parts of the Netherlands). That's a massive growth potential similar only to ADO Den Haag and Utrecht, fyi. Again the traditional big three will always be bigger than Twente. But underestimate the club's pulling power at your peril is what I would like to say to both you and that idiot of a PSV chairman.
     
  9. TheDuke

    TheDuke New Member

    May 15, 2009
    London
    Club:
    Chelsea FC
    Nat'l Team:
    England
    I must admit, I had very high expectations on Sulejmani, and thought him to be the best youth in Eredivisie this season, and expected more from him then from Suarez.

    I've read about the dispute on Elia and Sulejmani and I must admit, Elia has greatly been one of the best surprises of recent dutch football. I'd have expected to have seen loads of European teams flocking to buy Sulejmani and wouldn't have expected Elia to develop like this.

    One has to compliment Twente for what they've achieved with Elia, Arnautovic, Braafheid and Denneboom but, the team which will always remain for tradition, the top in Holland, will always be Ajax. Twente may grow but, it'll never be able to be like Ajax.
     
  10. Orange14

    Orange14 Moderator
    Staff Member

    Apr 27, 2007
    Bethesda, MD
    Club:
    AFC Ajax
    Nat'l Team:
    Netherlands
    When you posted the link to the bicycle tour of Enshcede it made me want to move there!!!;)
     
  11. Vandervaart

    Vandervaart Member

    May 21, 2003
    London
    Club:
    AFC Ajax
    Nat'l Team:
    Netherlands
    Fantastic. Arsenal wants to buy Thomas Vermaelen. I'm really beginning to dislike the English (sorry Spurs..) with their money and their 40 player squads. It's ff-ing ridiculous and Platini should do something about this and try to reach a more level-playing field in Europe. Ajax will never be able to compete in the CL or even the new EL this way. Long-term it's bad for Uefa as no one wants to see CL semis with 3 English teams in it year after year after year after year. Snore-fests after snore-fests. For instance, the Uefa Cup semis were much more entertaining than the CL semis this year, just because the teams were not English imo.
     
  12. afcajax73

    afcajax73 Member

    Feb 4, 2006
    Stoke-on-Trent
    Club:
    AFC Ajax
    Nat'l Team:
    Netherlands
    there wasnt many better games than the liverpool chelsea one this year.
     
  13. psv88

    psv88 New Member

    Sep 2, 2008
    New York
    Club:
    PSV Eindhoven
    Nat'l Team:
    Netherlands
    agreed...heerenveen-twente the best, the fans everything.
     
  14. Vandervaart

    Vandervaart Member

    May 21, 2003
    London
    Club:
    AFC Ajax
    Nat'l Team:
    Netherlands
    That makes it one good game out of 10 (!!!) games in 5 consecutive (!!!) years. Tell me, are you looking forward to another Liverpool-Chelsea quarterfinal/semi next season? I can tell you I'm not. I'd rather watch grass grow. And FYI, the 9 other Liverpool-Chelsea games were horrific.
     
  15. psv88

    psv88 New Member

    Sep 2, 2008
    New York
    Club:
    PSV Eindhoven
    Nat'l Team:
    Netherlands
    Depends what type of grass though...Dutch grass? or like crab grass? or just sod...
     
  16. BTV802

    BTV802 BigSoccer Supporter

    AFC Ajax
    Jul 11, 2006
    Vermont
    Club:
    AFC Ajax
    I'll be bummed if his is true. We do have Donovan Slijngard coming back from loan.
     
  17. aveslacker

    aveslacker Member+

    Ajax
    United States
    Apr 2, 2006
    Old Madras
    Club:
    AFC Ajax
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I'd heard 8 million euros. I think we should hold out for ten and then steal a player from Groningen or Twente, who will then find a cheap Argentine or Swede that we can buy at three times the cost next year.
     
  18. Vandervaart

    Vandervaart Member

    May 21, 2003
    London
    Club:
    AFC Ajax
    Nat'l Team:
    Netherlands
    Why buy a cheap Argentine if you can pay lots more? And then write them off after one season..

    Seriously, Ajax shouldn't buy anyone for next season. Let the youth players do the job, they can't do much worse I reckon.
     
  19. Orange14

    Orange14 Moderator
    Staff Member

    Apr 27, 2007
    Bethesda, MD
    Club:
    AFC Ajax
    Nat'l Team:
    Netherlands
    Slinjgard is not under contract any longer (it expires this summer) and the club already told him that they were not going to renew him.
     
  20. aveslacker

    aveslacker Member+

    Ajax
    United States
    Apr 2, 2006
    Old Madras
    Club:
    AFC Ajax
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I would guess Schilder would be the one to play left back if Vermaelen leaves.
     
  21. Orange14

    Orange14 Moderator
    Staff Member

    Apr 27, 2007
    Bethesda, MD
    Club:
    AFC Ajax
    Nat'l Team:
    Netherlands
    Schilder has already signed with NAC (either NAC or NEC, I get the two confused) on a Bosman as he was going to be out of contract this summer and Ajax did not renew it. I was surprised at this as left backs are harder to find.
     
  22. BTV802

    BTV802 BigSoccer Supporter

    AFC Ajax
    Jul 11, 2006
    Vermont
    Club:
    AFC Ajax
    Agreed, Schilder has done well at left back when called upon. He's like our version of Flamini.

    If Silva & Vermaelen left, one could call us a bit thin at fullback. I'm not aware of anybody in the reserves who could step up to the first team.
     
  23. aveslacker

    aveslacker Member+

    Ajax
    United States
    Apr 2, 2006
    Old Madras
    Club:
    AFC Ajax
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Didn't know that. Hopefully Vermaelen sticks around.
     
  24. Vandervaart

    Vandervaart Member

    May 21, 2003
    London
    Club:
    AFC Ajax
    Nat'l Team:
    Netherlands
    According to the preliminary email sent out by Ajax today, Ajax will report a net loss over 2008/2009 (year ends 30 june 2009), mainly due to investmenst in the squad, higher salaries costs, and write-offs on compensations. Turnover is expected to be Eur 70mln. The net result includes the Huntelaar transfer and any transfers concluded before 30 june.

    Not much else worth mentioning, Ajax does say that any effects of the credit crunch will first start to be seen in the 2009/2010 season tickets sale.
     
  25. johan neeskens

    Jan 14, 2004
    Elia has a minimum transfer clause of 9.5 million and Arnautovic of 13 million. Elia has said on a number of occassions that he wants to go to a foreign club. Time to face up to reality people. Pranjic also in on the transfer target list of many a foreign club. With that many foreign clubs interested in the players of provincial clubs, Ajax haven't a chance in hell. Time for your scouts to get creative for a change.
     

Share This Page