A healthy Ajax is not necessarily a healthy game; that line was crossed many moons ago. But there is something warming for the footballing soul when this grandest of clubs enjoys some time in the sun.
It provides a wash of heady nostalgia that reflects an image of Ajax as an example of how football should be. Even if that is now a sepia-tinted anachronism, we can suspend our disbelief. Romance is often best viewed with only one eye open.
No matter your vintage, salad days coincide with memories of a glorious Ajax vintage: the rise to professionalism under British coaches in the 1960s; the team that conquered Europe under Rinus Michels and Stefan Kovacs with its “total football” principles and swaggering superstar; the European Cup Winners’ Cup winners in the 1980s with Frank Rijkaard, Arnold Muhren, Marco van Basten and a nascent Dennis Bergkamp; Louis van Gaal’s Champions League-winning babies, with only the two central defenders older than 25.
To that we can add Erik ten Hag’s 2018-19 side, defeated in ludicrous, once-in-a-lifetime circumstances by Tottenham in their Champions League semi-final second leg. That season, Ajax were both a vision of their own future (seven of the team that drew 3-3 against Bayern Munich in arguably the best match of that season anywhere in Europe were aged 22 or under) and a reminiscence of their past.
Most of the headlines post-2018-19 focused on the star attractions being picked off by European football’s apex predators: Van de Beek to Manchester United, Frenkie de Jong to Barcelona, Matthijs de Ligt to Juventus. In all three cases they have failed to kick on, system players bought by mismanaged clubs who rely upon individuals.
But more instructive than the players who left Ajax were the ones that stayed behind. Of that XI that started against Bayern, Dusan Tadic, Daley Blind, David Neres, Noussair Mazraoui, Nicolás Tagliafico and Andre Onana remain. That has inevitably shifted up the average age of the starting XI. Thirteen clubs in this season’s Champions League have picked a younger team than Ten Hag, including two in Ajax’s group.
Ajax’s first-team can now be split into three distinct groups. The class of 2018-19, the new generation of academy graduates or young signings (Antony, Justin Timber, Ryan Gravenbach, Perr Schuurs) and then a diaspora of former Premier League strugglers. Davy Klaassen failed at Everton, Steven Berghuis barely got a chance to shine at Watford and Sebastien Haller is at least offering a case in West Ham’s defence for them making him their record signing.
More important than any player is Ten Hag, now the second longest-serving Ajax manager since Van Gaal in the 1990s. For a long while, Ajax lost their way. Between 2006 and 2019 they did not play a knockout match in the Champions League. Directors resigned in 2011 over a disagreement with Johan Cruyff about the club’s vision. During those Champions League lost years, Ajax sacked seven permanent managers who had failed to last 18 months in charge.
Ten Hag has provided more than simply some much-needed stability. Cruyff wasn’t present to witness Ajax’s reclamation, but we can be sure that he would approve. Ten Hag’s philosophy is not quite Totaalvoetbal 2.0, but there are distinct similarities. He prefers possession, aims to make the pitch small without the ball and asks full-backs to become auxiliary wingers. “Johan Cruyff’s philosophy and spirit still flows around in this club,” Blind told BT Sport in May 2019 when asked about Ten Hag’s style.
And that’s no accident. Eusebio Sacristán, who played with Pep Guardiola at Barcelona for five years, described him as Cruyff’s “apostle”, the person most able to take on board Cruyff’s own philosophy and allow his own coaching career to be defined by it. When Guardiola was appointed by Bayern Munich in 2013, he recruited Ten Hag as the coach of the reserve team.
“I learned a lot from Guardiola,” Ten Hag said in February 2019. “His philosophy is sensational, what he did in Barcelona, Bayern and now with Manchester City, that attacking and attractive style sees him win a lot. It’s this structure that I’ve tried to implement with Ajax.”
Ajax are threatening to replicate their 2018-19 success despite making a profit on transfers every year since. They only have a two-point lead at the top of the Eredivisie but that doesn’t reflect their domination; they have scored 37 goals and conceded only twice. Against Cambuur in September, they recorded eight different scorers (only the second time in Dutch league history that has happened).
But it’s in Europe where they are again excelling most. Ajax benefitted from a gentle group-stage draw (Sporting were one of the weakest top seeds and Borussia Dortmund the lowest-ranked club in pot two), but last month crushed Dortmund 4-0 in Amsterdam to take charge of the group.
At Ajax, it perennially feels like the beginning of an end rather than the end of a beginning. At the last count (and it will obviously have changed after their relegation), their annual revenue was £3m higher than Sheffield United’s and is lower than Crystal Palace’s. Ten Hag is now being linked with bigger clubs and, eventually, will probably choose to accept an offer. This season may well be the last of another mini-era.
But that only gives this team an added layer of magic. It teaches Ajax supporters to enjoy the good times while they last, before the tide of football’s power and money washes over them again. For the rest of us, it provides that same warm glow of nostalgia all over again for as long as we can make it last.
Borussia Dortmund vs Ajax: 8pm on Wednesday 3 November (BT Sport Extra 2)
from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/3q0rGIL
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