'J.C.' - The Omnipresent Oracle

[acab]

Those guys probably know they don't have a leg to stand on considering the state of Ajax these days. Best to bow out and cover your tracks with a bunch of bitter sarcasm.

from the espn forum....

[Dubbel]

Don't be too sure, Cruijff lost his marbles a long time ago.

How can you say that and still call yourself Ajacied?

Hopefully you'll get a forum ban for this!

[Philippe]

It seems that there is some kind of misunderstanding about Danny Blind. He would stay with Ajax.

[Manneken Pis]

It seems that there is some kind of misunderstanding about Danny Blind. He would stay with Ajax.

I think it's complete chaos at the moment...

I saw Cruyff on the tv last night, a journalist asked him "What now?"
He responded; "I don't know, ask the management"

Sureal....

They also showed Cruyff & Co's "strategic plan"; ten or so pages of (according to the journalist) not too insightful stating of the obvious, with basic spelling mistakes in it.

The club might well have been mismanaged over the last years, but I don't think Cruyff has come with a solution........

[orange goblin]

This is also my feeling guys. The only result he brought at the moment is that the club is broken in 2 sides. People go to work for the club not knowing who makes decisions for them and if there's a tomorrow. Tricky as hell this situation. May cost us not only the title, not only CL, but much more if it's not solved in a few days. but I am scared it's a question of weeks.

[Philippe]

Lately the people who were in charge did nothing but make wrong decisions. Besides F.De Boer has the team under control. So there's nothing much to fear IMO.

[Manneken Pis]

Lately the people who were in charge did nothing but make wrong decisions. Besides F.De Boer has the team under control. So there's nothing much to fear IMO.

First "La Révolution", then "La Terreur"....

Hopefully De Boer will be our Napoleon....

[Orange14]

Lately the people who were in charge did nothing but make wrong decisions. Besides F.De Boer has the team under control. So there's nothing much to fear IMO.

What were the wrong decisions? I can think of only the transfer policy and wrong decisions on players we bought. One can argue about whether it's right for a team to let players leave in the January transfer window. With Emanuelson we had not other choice if we were to get any money (and I think we got maximal value given the timing). Huntelaar and Suarez were both sold for big money which the club in fact needed to balance the finances given we spent some fools money on other players (Atouba, Sulejmani, etc). As fans and supporters we did not like this one bit since it hurt our chances for the third star on the shirt. We did not like seeing Pantelic and Rommendahl leaving but the club adopted a no multi-year contract policy for over 30 year old players (whether or not this is the correct policy I am not going to judge but other Euro clubs do the same).

We have argued for Ajax getting back to the roots and bringing promising youth players into the first team. This was part of the Coronel report and is taking place right now. Look at all the young players who have had their first team action over the last 18 months. There are also some good young players in the system as well (save perhaps the one position we really need help at striker; I'm not sure Castillion is the answer and we will only know when he sees more first team action).

As far as I can tell the former management has done a good job in marketing the team and figuring out ways to increase revenue short of an improved television revenue stream.

IMO the whole turmoil can boil down to one thing - transfer policy and I don't think Cruyff has a solution to this that does not involve spending €s. We will see how this whole thing plays out but I hope the team can stay focused this Sunday.

[orange goblin]

I am with you word by word

[Philippe]

First "La Révolution", then "La Terreur"....

Hopefully De Boer will be our Napoleon....

In many ways, Robespierre was a great man.

[Manneken Pis]

First "La Révolution", then "La Terreur"....

Hopefully De Boer will be our Napoleon....

In many ways, Robespierre was a great man.

I'm tempted to respond ... but won't bite as we're going off topic ....

;o)

[Philippe]

Don't.

[Monkey Tonk]

I'm very positive about this development at Ajax. The club was going nowhere. Ajax was just becoming a fading memory. But now there is the potential to return to greatness. I'd exchange that potential any time over the mediocrity of the last fifteen years. Sometimes chaos and destruction are necessary to start fresh. The old board was all about half measures. Good intentions, but without the football knowledge. This drama has cleared the way for the "Bayern-model". When you look beyond the drama, isn't it clear that Ajax had nothing to lose? Everything that once made the club great had been lost already.

Cruyff was truly embarrassed by the World Cup final, and a short while later by Ajax at Real Madrid. Those two matches triggered all this. Twice the Dutch against the Spanish...

[acab]

I'm very positive about this development at Ajax. The club was going nowhere. Ajax was just becoming a fading memory. But now there is the potential to return to greatness. I'd exchange that potential any time over the mediocrity of the last fifteen years. Sometimes chaos and destruction are necessary to start fresh. The old board was all about half measures. Good intentions, but without the football knowledge. This drama has cleared the way for the "Bayern-model". When you look beyond the drama, isn't it clear that Ajax had nothing to lose? Everything that once made the club great had been lost already.

Cruyff was truly embarrassed by the World Cup final, and a short while later by Ajax at Real Madrid. Those two matches triggered all this. Twice the Dutch against the Spanish...

I am with you word by word

[souras84]

Yeah but developement needs funding and the Dutch Eredividsie, cant even measure up to the French League... So Unless we can hold on to our talents till they reach 24 we wont have a stable team capable of delivering the goods in the Champions League

[#14]

While the financial fair play rules are a good start, unless UEFA implements a true salary cap like in some of the US sports, the big teams in the big countries will continue to fill up the CL and win the titles. Players want to get paid, and they'll follow the cash to the teams that are splashing it out. TV money rules the day (witness recent events in La Liga) and as long as this is the case, team/countries that don't get the TV money will remain on the short end of the stick. In baseball (the US sport without a salary cap), the New York Yankees are in the biggest market with the biggest TV network. This in turn gets them the best players, the most wins, the most playoff appearances, and the most titles. In UEFA, the Yankees are ManU, Chelski, Madrid, Barca, etc. Unfortunately for us, Ajax are the Milwaukee Brewers.

[The Purple Cow Again]

Guys get a grip, Ajax can never "return to greatness" in the sense of being a top European club - we are a big fish club in a small pond domestic market.

What is possible is returning to greatness in terms of playing free-flowing, attacking and fearless football, that could surprise the top European clubs on our best days.

However we won't get to that goal by ripping the club to pieces in pursuit of a superficial 10 page strategic plan with spelling mistakes.

What is absolutely clear is that Johan Cruijff has been watching too many DvD's of The Sopranos.

"Do as I say NOW, or I will destroy you" might work if you are looking to take over a pole dancing club in New Jersey, but not in a big complicated organization like a modern football club.

[The Purple Cow Again]

14, I was with you right up till the word 'Chelski'.

That was a lame, infantile joke even five years ago.

[orange goblin]

However we won't get to that goal by ripping the club to pieces in pursuit of a superficial 10 page strategic plan with spelling mistakes.

[aveslacker]

I'm very positive about this development at Ajax. The club was going nowhere. Ajax was just becoming a fading memory. But now there is the potential to return to greatness. I'd exchange that potential any time over the mediocrity of the last fifteen years. Sometimes chaos and destruction are necessary to start fresh. The old board was all about half measures. Good intentions, but without the football knowledge. This drama has cleared the way for the "Bayern-model". When you look beyond the drama, isn't it clear that Ajax had nothing to lose? Everything that once made the club great had been lost already.

Cruyff was truly embarrassed by the World Cup final, and a short while later by Ajax at Real Madrid. Those two matches triggered all this. Twice the Dutch against the Spanish...

The problem is that he's come thundering in, shaken the whole board up, and will take no actual role with the club. So at the end of the day he can always walk away and say it was someone else's fault. He would get any credit (or at least he would claim it) if things go well, but if the shit hits the fan, he would not accept any of the blame.

Also, maybe there is some reason why this maneuvering has to happen now, but why couldn't all this have unfolded during the summer, as opposed to in the middle of the season? If Cruijff really had the club's best interests at heart he could just as easily have waited a few months rahter than disrupt the season.

[rjf1]

Like I said before, there may be problems with JC just walking away and leaving a mess behind -- but IMO that has to be weighed against the fact that the stinking board that has been directing Ajax absolutely had to go -- they needed to go over 3 years ago. So, all in all, no matter what the short term chaos is (if any), the fact that the board is finally out of there makes it all worth while for the long term.

[Cedric]

Like I said before, there may be problems with JC just walking away and leaving a mess behind -- but IMO that has to be weighed against the fact that the stinking board that has been directing Ajax absolutely had to go -- they needed to go over 3 years ago.

Did you miss something? Because it's a bit strange when you know that Coronel became chairman in late april 2008... (and I don't even speak of Van den Boog, who was appointed much later)

[bluedaddy19]

=May cost us not only the title, not only CL, but much more if it's not solved in a few days. but I am scared it's a question of weeks.

the outgoing board already cost us the title... MAYBE we can salvage the season with 2nd place and the cup

=What were the wrong decisions?

really? dude... who sells the top star midway through a title race for a bajillion dollars and replaces him with absolutely nothing? not even a warm body

how many times have they done this now? it's downright insulting to the fans and to the club

[Orange14]

=What were the wrong decisions?

really? dude... who sells the top star midway through a title race for a bajillion dollars and replaces him with absolutely nothing? not even a warm body

how many times have they done this now? it's downright insulting to the fans and to the club

Only twice that I can recall with Suarez and KJH. Interesting in both cases the players were sitting out a number of matches (KJH was injured; Suarez, a vampire). Can you point to other mid-season transfers that fall into the same category? I'm not saying that this is necessarily good for the team or the fans but that it's more a financial reality. This is not a computer game of "Football Manager" but rather running a complex business. Tough decisions have to be made.

[aveslacker]

=May cost us not only the title, not only CL, but much more if it's not solved in a few days. but I am scared it's a question of weeks.

the outgoing board already cost us the title... MAYBE we can salvage the season with 2nd place and the cup

=What were the wrong decisions?

really? dude... who sells the top star midway through a title race for a bajillion dollars and replaces him with absolutely nothing? not even a warm body

how many times have they done this now? it's downright insulting to the fans and to the club

How do we know that Cruijff's cronies won't do the same thing? It's not what you're suggesting is so revolutionary that the previous board didn't consider it. After all, apparently they were going to buy what's his face from Groningen but Groningen didn't get the paper work in on time.

What evidence do we have that this board is going to be any better?