17 MAR 2024; Sparta - Ajax; Match Day 26

[Tom_]

I guess that’s it for 4th. Just hope we can hang on to 5th and that Feyenoord win the cup now.

[Tom_]

Also, how is Ajax this bad? Is it partly luck? Sparta didn’t even put them under that much pressure and they still concede two goals. What a season it has been.

[Orange14]

Here is a summary of my thoughts.

the major difficulty, IMO, is that young players who transfer in from outside the Eredivisie do not acclimate to Dutch football right away. It's one thing to bring in 16 year olds such as Eriksen, Dolberg, and a few others and give them 3-4 years in the youth system before the move into the first team. It's quite another to bring in a 20-22 year old and expect them to perform. Neres and Martinez took over a year to get settled, same with Alvarez. Tadic was older when he returned to the league and slotted in right away.

Most of us Ajax supporters are impatient and want instant results (I suspect that most supporters of other clubs feel the same way). There is no way that 10 new players can be brought into the club in a single season with the expectation that there won't be difficulties. Mislintat totally misread the culture of the club (he had numerous other faults as well).

There continue to be good players in the youth system and as Cruyff said some years ago when Ajax was going through a somewhat lesser crisis of confidence, this is where the focus should continue to be. I try to watch as many youth games as I can. Jong Ajax have emerged from their early season funk and this week defeated both de Grafschaap and Jong PSV. The U-18 team dominated PSV yesterday but conceded two cheap goals (they are learning from the first team unfortunately), losing 2-3 on a poorly defended corner that was the only PSV shot of the 2nd half. Isaac Babadi was in the PSV U-18 team and did little.

Obviously, this coming summer will see a lot of turmoil as Kroes works to put the ship right. Maybe there is no Euro football next season but that should only serve to drive those players who are in the team to excellence. there certainly will be some surprises coming; some will be good and some not so good.

[SPL]

Bringing in 12 new players was way too many.Some are not as bad as they look ie Sutalo and Sosa are Croatian Ints and probably need time. Sosa seems better as a wing back and not suited to 4-3-3. Bringing in Akpom and Mikautadze when we have Brobbey was simply crazy and a terrible waste of money.

I quote JC and you only bring in players who are better than our youth and Forbs,Gaeei Medic and Avila are not. I quoted Fitz-Jim and Misehouy are good enough but only as backups. We now have Henderson at 6 and 3 new signings all basically no 6. Are Mannsverk and Tahirovic much better than 18 year old Vos!! I dont think so . Our MF is not good and I dont want to watch 2 DM playing. Everyone was glad to get rid of Klaassen but I would rather see him than the lightweight Taylor. Berghuis at 10 with a real right winger was needed for this season.

We just have to hope we finish 5th and qualify for Europa .At least better players will still come but we need a TD and coach to decide what positions need filling and buy carefully and bring in youths gradually. Easy said but I see well over 10 players leaving this summer and I dont mean those on loan .

[Orange14]

Speaking of Klaassen, I was stunned when I watched the Inter CL match last week. He came on with a full head of hair!!!! Turns out he had a hair transplant: https://www.thickaccent.com/2023/12/19/ ... ess-story/

[Orange14]

As I suspected, Kaplan is only suspended for one match because of the obstruction of a goal scoring opportunity yesterday.

[SPL]

Brobbey out with a hamstring for a few weeks according to Koeman. He has been carrying injuries for a while just hope he is not out for long

[Tom_]

I’m actually not sure whether a lot of new players will be brought in over summer. The squad is large and there are players who have very little prospect of playing time so I’m expecting a net reduction for next season. If they do bring players in I hope they focus on wingers and backs, and possibly an attacking MF.

[Orange14]

Kroes said today that he will not bring in a Technical Director right now but will handle the duties through he summer. It's hard to say how many new players will transfer in, that will depend on the financial situation and how many of the poor players bought this summer can be sold. Wijndal comes back but may be sold. Sanchez and Conceicao might play enough at Porto to trigger automatic purchases.

I don't know how many of the youth players can come into the first team. Certainly Vos, Godts, and Rijkoff are ready. Both GKs, de Graaf and Setford, could be back ups for Ramaj as Rulli will be sold and Pasveer retires. Whether any of the U-18 players are ready for a break through is uncertain. As SPL has already noted Janse is a real prospect at CB (wish he was right footed).