Celtic must aspire to Euro advance of Ajax
THE warmth of nostalgia is really no substitute for the excitement of the now. Just ask those jubilant followers of Ajax, hoping their exciting young team can somehow prise the title away from the grasp of Feyenoord in today’s blockbusting climax to the Dutch season, but arguably even more energised by the prospect of a first European final in 21 years.
Those are the games in which real legends are made, after all. Dundee United heroes such as Paul Sturrock and Paul Hegarty spent last week revelling in misty-eyed recollections of the march to the UEFA Cup final 30 years ago. And they lost.
It will be Celtic next, with a week of celebrations planned to mark 50 years since Lisbon. Brendan Rodgers will be in the thick of it, up on the stage at the SSE Hydro on May 25 with Rod Stewart and the rest of them for a musical meander down Memory Lane.
Ajax will play Manchester United in the Europa League final in Stockholm the night before. It is hard to imagine Rodgers will not watch that game and wonder, for all the focus there will be on those great nights of the past at Parkhead, whether that kind of stage can become a reachable goal for his new and improving Celtic.
For all the hugely impressive milestones Rodgers and his players have reached this season, Europe is their ultimate destination. The Northern Irishman said as much on the day he agreed his new four-year contract.
He spoke, then, about possibly falling into the Europa League after banking money from the Champions League groups, essential to the long-term rebuild, and then going ‘as far as you possibly can’.
What Ajax have done this season should give him reason to believe.
It is maybe too simplistic to draw direct comparisons between Celtic and the Amsterdam club, purely because they are one-time European superpowers now finding themselves being squeezed out of the picture by the rapacious greed of the major nations.
First of all, there is considerably more money in football in Holland than here. The television deal for the Eredivisie is around £70million, compared to £18.75m here in Scotland. The sponsorship deals tend to be more lucrative, too.
However, Ajax are having to find creative ways to punch above their weight and there are clear similarities between their model and the way Celtic seek to operate.
What Ajax did last year, though, was speculate to accumulate in the transfer market. That may be what the Parkhead board and Rodgers have to consider doing now.
Ajax work on the basis of buying relatively low, on the whole, and selling high. Not every signing under their current sporting director Marc Overmars has been a success. However, the cash does keep rolling in.
Last summer, Napoli paid £27m for the Polish forward Arkadiusz Milik. Ajax bought him for just over £2m from Bayer Leverkusen the year before, following a successful season on loan.
Since banking that profit, they have spent £10m on young Brazilian striker David Neres. They also spent more than £9m on the versatile Hakim Ziyech from Twente Enschede.
That is almost certainly outwith Celtic’s reach but Davinson Sanchez was seen as a gamble as a 20-year-old from Colombia, costing £4m-plus. He has already developed into a classy centre-back, attracting the attention of Barcelona.
To take the next step in Europe, Celtic may have to spend the kind of money they have not shelled out in a while. A good chunk of this season’s Champions League revenue — or even a fee hauled in for Moussa Dembele — will have to go on new talent.
Of course, informed and inventive scouting helped build this Ajax team, too. The kind of work that brought Dembele to Parkhead for a ludicrous £500,000.
Star striker Kasper Dolberg was signed from Danish club Silkeborg at the age of 17 before he had played a first-team game. Goalkeeper Andre Onana was plucked from Barcelona’s La Masia academy for buttons.
Winger Amin Younes cost just £2m from Borussia Monchengladbach. Bertrand Traore is on loan from Chelsea.
Of course, it has taken the right man to put them all together and get them operating as a unit. Peter Bosz replaced Frank de Boer as head coach and put the emphasis on a strong attacking ethos and hard pressing.
He has proven himself capable of getting the best out of his players and unifying everyone behind the team. Rather like Rodgers himself. He has a club stalwart as captain in Davy Klaassen. Rodgers has Scott Brown. A different kind of player, but still a driving force.
Then there are the academy graduates such as Justin Kluivert and Donny van de Beek. Kieran Tierney and Callum McGregor represent the home-grown talent at Parkhead. The challenge at Celtic is to turn the academy into an Ajax-style conveyor belt, though.
For all that, Ajax cannot be fancied to win the league today.
Feyenoord only have to beat Heracles at home to clinch their first title since 1999.
Giovanni van Bronckhorst has emerged a most unlikely leader as head coach. When you consider the Rotterdam club were more than £40m in debt and close to going bankrupt when losing 10-0 to PSV Eindhoven in October 2010, it is quite some comeback.
Whilst Celtic may be looking to Ajax as a source of inspiration, Feyenoord’s story may be a more pertinent beacon of hope for the other half of Glasgow’s great divide.