That doesn't mean every club without 'quality striker' can do fine. Vitesse are growing as a team, and their football philosophy is different to Ajax's.
I disagree. I think any team with the right philosophy can actually get better after they lose a player they rely on too heavily. Considering you are an Arsenal fan I'd think you might understand that. For what it's worth, Vitesse are scoring at a slightly higher clip this season than they did last season with Bony.
It depends on what you call the ''right'' football philosophy. If we kept Van Persie we would be probably scoring more goals, I think you actually lose some strength when you lose a very important player, but hey, that's just a logical assumption from me. Also, there is a reason why Ajax hasn't advanced to the next round of the CL for the 3rd consecutive time this season. The fact that they may do so well in the competition after they sold Suarez has more to do with the lack of decent competition in the league IMO, especially this season with only Vitesse as the real competitor. I don't consider Feyenoord and Twente title contenders, and don't get me started on PSV. Sure, FdB's influence is big, but let's be honest. That's because they got Piazon. Imagine how many goals they would have scored with Bony and Piazon.
The reason that they did not advance was because of the very soft penalty call on van der Hoorn in the first Milan match. If that is not called, Ajax advance over Milan plain and simple. Had Veltman been healthy for that match I think Ajax would have drawn the match. Even if they would have progressed, there is ZERO chance that they would do much more than maybe winning the first knock out match depending on who the opponent is. CL football is stacked in favor of the 10 or so big clubs in Europe. Any other club stands no chance at all. That's the reality!
Even Arsenal has no chance of winning it. And Ajax not reaching the 2nd round because of losing Suarez is nonsense. Maybe you need to read back a bit and freshen up exactly why we didn't reach the 2nd round the last 3 years. And I wouldn't be surprised if Twente finishes higher than Vitesse.
If CL football is stacked in favor of the 10 or so big clubs in Europe, it doesn't mean that it is impossible for Ajax to advance to the next round or be successful in Europe at all. Maybe, just maybe, if you had kept players like Sneijder, Suarez, Zlatan and other big names you might become good enough to be one of those big clubs. Maybe there is something wrong with Ajax's transfer policy. And compared to Ajax, we have a much higher chance of winning the CL than you, but that's a different story. And I have never said that Ajax not reaching the 2nd round had to do because of Suarez.
Considering that I live in a shipping container in the most dangerous part of Afghanistan, you're probably right.
Vitesse XI: Piet Velthuizen, kelvin Leerdam, guram Kashia, Jan-Arie van der Heijden, patrick van Aanholt. davy Propper, marko Vejinovic, christian Atsu, renato Ibarra, mike Havenaar, lucas Piazon Strong line-up. A problem of this Vitesse-side, however, is the lack of depth. The replacements for Pröpper, Havenaar, Piazon and Leerdam are terribly mediocre.
I'd would really love to hear more of your thoughts about Ajax and their transfer policy. Please join us over in the Ajax thread so we don't have to clutter this thread up.
It works in the league, but it's been terrible in Europe over the past seasons. I know you're listed on the stock exchange, and can't survive without selling your best players, but if you somehow kept players like Suarez, Sneijder and Zlatan you might have become one of those ''big'' clubs, someone else mentioned earlier. But this has been a problem in the league; being not wealthy enough to keep your best players. A shame. ----------------- Vitesse 0-2 down.
Yeah and Piazon is gone in 6 months. Unfortunately I don't see Vitesse being able to retain players like Bony when half of their teammates will be replaced every season. I also don't really see young kids wanting to be a part of that club when Vitesse would prefer to develop 18-19 year olds from Chelsea in the first team. I just don't see the long-term viability of all of it. It has "we want to win as quickly as possible, with as little effort as possible" written all over it. Then the bottom falls out when Chelsea decides they no longer need Vitesse as a partner club. The club has no real foundation and no longer has a steady stream of talent to plug the holes. Maybe my understanding of Vitesse's "strategy" is limited or incomplete. This is just how it appears to me on the surface.
I'm just gonna stop responding to your posts about Ajax over here but definitely feel free to post in the Ajax thread.
Seriously, you probably need to reconsider Vitesse's ability after tonight's match. Chelsea Juniors 0 - AZ 2 Maybe you don't want to worry about Feyenoord and Twente but you certainly should be able to beat AZ at home.
hey come on now--AZ is better than Vitesse---we played rope a dope yesterday ---we started partying too much before Xmas and lost 4 straight ---including 2 games where goals were scored on us in extra time---one for a tie and one a loss---but since then we're looking pretty good
Heracles did beat Feyenoord in the Kuip. Should you reconsider Feyenoord's ability because of that? Terrible game from Vitesse, but 1 game doesn't decide everything.
Dropping more points again!!! Is this a team in freefall? Time to call in more replacements from Chelsea; oops, I forgot the transfer window is now closed.