Gloria Ajax!

Marco Van Basten as manager, Johan Cruyff as a technical director. i agree with the second part. Cruyff might be a fairly controversial figure in the football world at times but AFC Ajax need him. but as much as i loved Van Basten as a player, his time in charge of the national team has been a disappointment. player selection problems, tactical and lineup disputes and an overall underwhelming team performance. a case of someone with no experience being given a job he simple wasnt ready for. and now with no experience managing at the club level he is taking over my beloved Ajax on July 1st.

June 2, 1971. Wembley Stadium. the first of three straight European Cups. a period of complete domination. in 1972 they won all five competitions they were in. one of the greatest squads ever. unfortunetely i wasnt around for it but i was for their great mid 90s team, including the Champions League win of 1995. this was the team that made me love club football. beforehand i had already fallen in love with the national team game. on June 8, 1990 i pretended to be sick so that i could stay home from school and watch Cameroon upset Argentina in the opening match of the 1990 World Cup. by the end of the tournament i was completely in love. Paul Caligiuri's goal against T&T had sparked the lust, but the 1990 World Cup turned it into love. but my exposure to the club game was still limited to tapes and watching serie a games on the italian channel we got. eventually it became slightly easier to follow european football leagues, in great part to the fact that i was getting older. as 1992 came and i was able to drive i started buying up every football magazine i could find. i would go to every little shop in my area to try and find them. for whatever reason it is that we choose a club, i chose Ajax and began to love them. i now had a club. then espn did the greatest thing and started showing eredivisie games. now i was able to watch them too. and as this was the mid 90s and they were the dominate dutch club, it was natural for them to show Ajax almost every week. so for years all i knew was success at Ajax. times have changed.

Ajax havent won anything in europe since. its become almost commonplace to not even be in the Champions League. there have been only 2 eredivisie titles since 1998. PSV has taken over as the best club in holland. there have been huge problems with the board running the team. power struggles between the coaches and directors. poor scouting leading to poor buys. even the once renowned youth academy is failing to produce world class players. but now there finally appears to be a change happening. the board that has been running the team (into the ground some might say) is apparently stepping down once a proper management team and structure is in place. the appointment of Cruyff as a technical director of sorts is a step in the right direction. he does polarize with many of his opinions. but he knows the game and is still seen as nearly a god in holland. but Van Basten isnt the man to lead Ajax to glory again. i question his ablility as a coach having watched all but one or two of the Dutch NT matches since he has taken over. the team has not put in good performances. with all the talented attacking players at his disposal the team still struggled to score goals, scoring only 15 in 12 Euro 08 qualifying matches, despite being in a group with luxembourg, albania, slovenia and belarus. i never saw the tactical acumen as a coach that i saw in him as a player. hopefully i'll be wrong in questioning his appointment as coach. somehow i dont see Ajax reliving their glory days of the 70s and 90s anytime soon. but a team that consistantly wins the eredivisie and de Klassieker against the f-word would be a step in the right direction.

-jimxdfa (tender branson)