Time to move ahead with positive thoughts as Ajax announce the hiring of Fracesco Farioli. By all counts this seems to be the best choice available. Lots of personnel moves still to come but we can now bury the past.
Actually after reading alot about him I fancied him as a candidate for Slot's succession. I think it's a good choice.
He talks a good game but let’s be honest this is a rather crazy decision to hire a guy with such little experience. His teams don’t score much either. As I said before if he was so good why did Sir Jim Ratcliffe the Owner of Nice not take him to his other Club Manchester United?
Maybe MU still consider themselves something special so Farioli, being an ordinary guy, is not good enough for them? Time will tell if he's good for Ajax. Wish him good luck anyway.
You make a good and logical point. I feel like this is a move that has a big potential for upside or otherwise it’s back to square one in six months or a year.
Of course we will have to see the results on the field with Farioli at the helm. Ajax have appointed a lot of managers over the past 20 years who only lasted a season or even less. Most had good pedigrees either as players or managers of either clubs or NTs. Remember that one of the greatest club managers of all time, Arrigo Sacchi had no playing experience and only time at relatively minor level clubs before turning AC Milan into champions. Farioli seems to recognize the challenge he faces in terms of the current distance between PSV and Feyenoord. He's got a big challenge as the first Europa League match is at the end of July!!! Fortunately, Ajax will be seeded and it appears they will play relatively minor teams in the first two rounds.
Good question, but I don't realistically know if a bigger name would be available. Ajax have never really hired a big name manager, (edit: at least not in a while) (they've created a few, for sure). I believe it's a three year contract, and I hope he gets the whole time because no matter who they bring in, it's going to take that long to get this shitshow fixed. Edited to add that, based on reading the Dutch press, it appears Ajax did a lot of research on him and like the way he emphasized build up, attack, and pressure in his teams. Kroes is also acknowledged to have called the hire a "controlled gamble", i.e. a calculated risk.
This is critical - nobody can expect this guy to be a miracle worker given the current state of the squad, so everyone needs to show some patience this upcoming year and have realistic expectations. Easier said than done, of course.
Arguably, the one recent manager who didn't get a fair shake was Marcel Keizer. He was a great trainer of the youth and promoted when Bosz decided he couldn't get along with the senior management and left (would have been interesting to see what might have happened had Bosz stayed longer). Keizer long with a lot of the team was utterly devastated by the Nouri incident in the friendly against Werder that summer. It's understandable that the club got off to a bad start as a result. Of course, ten Hag did wonders with the club but was his performance at Utrecht that compelling?
Ajax won the U-17 Beker over ADO today. there are some real talents on this team that also won the Future's Cup six weeks ago. New manager, Farioli, was at the game.
I’m not sure if anyone there is ready to take a big step to the first team which is obviously not very strong. Your thoughts are welcomed Orange14.
Certainly nobody is ready to step up next season. They have a number of players who have not been signed to their first contract and the club really needs to address this. Huntelaar used to be in charge of this but he's been absent from the club for months now. There are four players who moved up to play in a couple of Jong Ajax games at the end of the year which is a good sign.
Ar'jany Martha declined to sign a new 3 year contract and will leave on a free transfer. He had 1 1/2 good games at LB before it became quite apparent that he had little discipline to defend. He filled in at RW when there were injuries. Don't think he was ever good enough but good luck to him.
This is a good thing for a new coach and set of players. In Arne Slot's first season at Feyenoord, they started out in the 2nd Qualifying Round of the Europa Conference League (the C league) against FK Drita of Kosovo. At least Ajax are starting out in the Europa Leauge (B league) rather than the lowest level. Playing against smaller European sides allows a squad to gell against weaker competition, and gets them situated before harder competition arrives.
For anyone who is interested in the financials (like me), this guy posts the best Ajax stuff. Very interesting thread from him: Kroes zou geschrokken zijn van de financiën van Ajax en ook anderen zouden zorgen hebben. Terecht?Wat is er te zeggen over de begroting van volgend jaar:➡️budget voor aankopen pas na €50+M verkopen➡️€30M kostenbesparingen nodig➡️welke sterkhouder verkoop je?🧵1/x pic.twitter.com/LwvYEUxPai— José De La Verde (@j_berden) May 24, 2024
LOL, Did not see this one coming!!!! Highest % of accurate passes, U2⃣3⃣ full backs in top 8⃣ European Leagues 🙌🥇 #DevyneRensch 🇳🇱 (#AFCAjax) 🥈 #ArnauMartinez 🇪🇸 (#FCGirona)🥉 #IanMaatsen 🇳🇱 (#BVB)#Gvardiol 🇭🇷 #Gusto 🇫🇷 #Udogie 🇮🇹 #Kayode 🇮🇹 #Balde 🇪🇸 #Kristiansen 🇩🇰 #AitNouri 🇩🇿@CIES_Football & @Wyscout 🤝 pic.twitter.com/aIiK2WMGF6— CIES Football Obs (@CIES_Football) May 27, 2024
Metz used the buy back clause on Mikautadze so he's gone basically for the same fee as Ajax bought him for. Another one gone.
Ok, it's only U-15 but Jeshurun Simeon got 6 goals against AZ in a 7-2 win. Everyone is talking up the AZ academy, but this is still a Golazzo day. It will be interesting to see how this lad progresses.
Fascinating read. This confirms my thinking that Farioli will have to be give a fairly long leash (i.e. 2-3 years) in order to help get the ship righted. As the tweet says:
If Farioli can reduce the number of mistakes and bad positioning of this team, he will do all right. If you look at all the dropped points this past season there were only three blow out games, away to PSV (Ajax played well in the first half) and regretfully both Feyenoord games. All the rest were winnable!
Youri Baas returns from his loan to NEC. NEC wanted to buy him but Ajax believe he will be in the mix for the LB position and want to unload both Sosa and Wijndal.
Ajax are going after Weghorst https://www.ad.nl/transfer-talk/aja...ational-wout-weghorst-op-de-korrel~a86301a99/
Two NT players for the same position? Is it wise? Means even in the best case scenario each of them will be spending half of the season on the bench which is hardly the ideal situation for a player with NT ambitions.