Ajax turn back the clock
Friday, 21 March 2003
By Adrian Harte
Last May the new order of European football seemed so enshrined that the Observer newspaper ran a feature entitled "Do you remember when [AFC] Ajax could win the European Cup?"
Aigner lament
The development of the UEFA Champions League, the financial dominance of English, Italian and Spanish clubs and especially the Bosman ruling had apparently combined to squeeze out the small clubs from the European top table. Indeed, UEFA Chief Executive Gerhard Aigner lamented in September 2001 that it was no longer possible for clubs like Ajax and RSC Anderlecht to win the European Champion Clubs' Cup.
Coach Ronald Koeman at work
Ajax back
However, a draw in Rome on Wednesday has put Ajax back in the quarter-finals of Europe's premier club competition, halting a period of decline that began after their 1995 Champions League success and more specifically after their 1996 final defeat by Juventus FC, when bigger clubs captured their young talent.
Talent sapped
With Clarence Seedorf having already departed after the win in 1995, Edgar Davids, Finidi George, Nwankwo Kanu and Michael Reiziger left in 1996, with Marc Overmars, Winston Bogarde and Patrick Kluivert following a year later.
The decline
Ajax's response was to replace their departed stars with sub-standard young foreigners. The result was disastrous, with the club slumping as low as sixth in the Eredivisie in 1999. They may have had one of the best stadiums in the world in the Amsterdam ArenA, but there was no team to match it.
Think global
So Ajax went back to basics, to youth development. This time though the net was cast wider with players developed not just at Ajax's legendary De Toekomst academy but across the world. The club invested the proceeds of a successful stock market flotation and they bought or established feeder clubs in South Africa, Ghana and Belgium. Steven Pienaar, the young No10 inevitably dubbed the "new Cruyff", and Abubakari Yakubu are the most obvious fruits of this approach.
Foreign talent
However, Ajax also scouted young talent developed elsewhere, with Cristian Chivu, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Hatem Trabelsi and Jelle van Damme testifying to the success of this policy. Of course, the improvement that quartet have shown since arriving at the club highlights an often overlooked factor in Ajax's renaissance, the influence of coach Ronald Koeman.
Koeman role
The former Ajax and FC Barcelona star played under Johan Cruyff and has worked with Guus Hiddink and Louis van Gaal, the foremost Dutch coaches of the past decade. Schooled in the Ajax way, he has the respect and authority that only playing success can bring.
Now that finances have gone down, we may find we have the best young players a bit longer, and little by little we can build
Ronald Koeman
Players retained
When asked to explain Ajax's revival, Koeman pointed out perhaps the most significant factor. "Now that finances have gone down, we may find we have the best young players a bit longer, and little by little we can build," he said. In a more buoyant financial climate, Ajax would probably have lost Chivu last summer and possibly Ibrahimovic and Rafael van der Vaart as well.
Best team
Koeman has no doubt that he has the best Ajax team since the class of 1995 broke up. With Chivu's class and Trabelsi's pace in defence; Pienaar's poise and Van der Vaart's vision in midfield; and Ibrahimovic's improvisation in attack backed up by the experience of Jari Litmanen in reserve, few would argue.
We will have the young players for longer to build a new team that can maybe win the Champions League in five or six years
Koeman on Ajax's future
Future focus
Koeman has also added steel to the traditional silk but he is not focused merely on immediate success. "We will have the young players for longer to build a new team that can maybe win the Champions League in five or six years," he said. An old name with new blood could yet be threatening football's new order.
WWW.UEFA.COM
http://www.uefa.com/magazine/news/Kind=8/newsId=60336.html
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What do we think??
Friday, 21 March 2003
By Adrian Harte
Last May the new order of European football seemed so enshrined that the Observer newspaper ran a feature entitled "Do you remember when [AFC] Ajax could win the European Cup?"
Aigner lament
The development of the UEFA Champions League, the financial dominance of English, Italian and Spanish clubs and especially the Bosman ruling had apparently combined to squeeze out the small clubs from the European top table. Indeed, UEFA Chief Executive Gerhard Aigner lamented in September 2001 that it was no longer possible for clubs like Ajax and RSC Anderlecht to win the European Champion Clubs' Cup.
Coach Ronald Koeman at work
Ajax back
However, a draw in Rome on Wednesday has put Ajax back in the quarter-finals of Europe's premier club competition, halting a period of decline that began after their 1995 Champions League success and more specifically after their 1996 final defeat by Juventus FC, when bigger clubs captured their young talent.
Talent sapped
With Clarence Seedorf having already departed after the win in 1995, Edgar Davids, Finidi George, Nwankwo Kanu and Michael Reiziger left in 1996, with Marc Overmars, Winston Bogarde and Patrick Kluivert following a year later.
The decline
Ajax's response was to replace their departed stars with sub-standard young foreigners. The result was disastrous, with the club slumping as low as sixth in the Eredivisie in 1999. They may have had one of the best stadiums in the world in the Amsterdam ArenA, but there was no team to match it.
Think global
So Ajax went back to basics, to youth development. This time though the net was cast wider with players developed not just at Ajax's legendary De Toekomst academy but across the world. The club invested the proceeds of a successful stock market flotation and they bought or established feeder clubs in South Africa, Ghana and Belgium. Steven Pienaar, the young No10 inevitably dubbed the "new Cruyff", and Abubakari Yakubu are the most obvious fruits of this approach.
Foreign talent
However, Ajax also scouted young talent developed elsewhere, with Cristian Chivu, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Hatem Trabelsi and Jelle van Damme testifying to the success of this policy. Of course, the improvement that quartet have shown since arriving at the club highlights an often overlooked factor in Ajax's renaissance, the influence of coach Ronald Koeman.
Koeman role
The former Ajax and FC Barcelona star played under Johan Cruyff and has worked with Guus Hiddink and Louis van Gaal, the foremost Dutch coaches of the past decade. Schooled in the Ajax way, he has the respect and authority that only playing success can bring.
Now that finances have gone down, we may find we have the best young players a bit longer, and little by little we can build
Ronald Koeman
Players retained
When asked to explain Ajax's revival, Koeman pointed out perhaps the most significant factor. "Now that finances have gone down, we may find we have the best young players a bit longer, and little by little we can build," he said. In a more buoyant financial climate, Ajax would probably have lost Chivu last summer and possibly Ibrahimovic and Rafael van der Vaart as well.
Best team
Koeman has no doubt that he has the best Ajax team since the class of 1995 broke up. With Chivu's class and Trabelsi's pace in defence; Pienaar's poise and Van der Vaart's vision in midfield; and Ibrahimovic's improvisation in attack backed up by the experience of Jari Litmanen in reserve, few would argue.
We will have the young players for longer to build a new team that can maybe win the Champions League in five or six years
Koeman on Ajax's future
Future focus
Koeman has also added steel to the traditional silk but he is not focused merely on immediate success. "We will have the young players for longer to build a new team that can maybe win the Champions League in five or six years," he said. An old name with new blood could yet be threatening football's new order.
WWW.UEFA.COM
http://www.uefa.com/magazine/news/Kind=8/newsId=60336.html
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What do we think??
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, they are a real classy team...
it's heartwarming really...
