Netherlands
Amsterdam club set for an era of dominance
Ajax clinching the double was never a surprise this season. With rivals simply making too many mistakes the outcome was inevitable. More interesting is the question of whether the Amsterdam giants would also have collected European silverware if it wasn’t for mistakes made off the pitch. What would have happened if Andre Onana hadn’t been suspended for failing a doping test? How much would their firepower have been boosted if the team manager hadn’t omitted to register Sebastien Haller for the European tournaments? After all, European football was the reason to send a £20 million cheque to West Ham United. Most likely Ajax wouldn’t have been eliminated in the group phase of the Champions League, while they would have at least reached the semi-finals in the Europa League.
So, there are only celebrations for domestic silverware. However, their 35th league title won’t be their last: Ajax are gradually becoming a league of their own, in danger of making the Eredivisie as predictable as the German Bundesliga where Bayern Munich reign.
Lately, Ajax are the only Dutch club really benefitting from UEFA’s European football revenues with the team reaching the latter stages of either the Champions League or Europa League time and time again. It gives technical director Marc Overmars the money to sign the players he wants, while also ensuring that their top talents command bigger fees too.
It’s not surprising that rivals are looking for off-the-pitch opportunities to close this increasing gap. PSV will collect approximately €50 million extra by committing to new investors, while Feyenoord are still setting their hopes on Feyenoord City, a megalomaniac project including a bigger stadium (63,000 seats), although the finances seem to be a problem.
However, it isn’t just off the pitch that the others should step up. It’s on it as well. Ajax were never in danger and with the shrewd Erik ten Hag at the helm, the majority of the squad are getting better every season. Upcoming players like Ryan Gravenberch, Jurrien Timber and Devyne Rensch are already or will be internationals, while skipper Dusan Tadic and veteran Daley Blind are the right people to help make them better. Along with some South American passion in the form of Nicolas Tagliafico, Lisandro Martinez and Antony, Ajax have the right blend.
PSV, eventually, secured the Netherlands’ Champions League preliminary ticket, but much more was expected of the Eindhoven club. They brought in Roger Schmidt, a much heralded German coach who was once mentioned as a potential national team coach during the disastrous post Danny Blind era a few years ago. In came former world champion Mario Gotze too, but somehow it never led to the desired results. Gotze proved to be injury-prone, while Schmidt’s methods and performances created resentment with referees and players. The German’s idea of coaching is that players should adapt to his system while the reverse
would be a better idea. The biggest disappointment is his difficult relationship with Mohamed Ihattaren, once PSV’s nest egg but now almost chased out of Eindhoven.
Unlike Schmidt, another German coach, Thomas Letsch, did make the most of it at Vitesse. The club, known as “FC Hollywood on the Rhine”, is often in turmoil and was, as Chelsea’s satellite club, always depending on who would be sent over from Stamford Bridge. Sometimes they were good (Mason Mount), sometimes it was a wasted effort, but it was never an ideal situation for a coach to build a team. However, Letsch did a fine job by squeezing the best out of eternal enfants terribles Riechedly Bazoer and Oussama Tannane. It paid off with a cup final spot and a European football ticket.
And with arch-rivals Feyenoord forced to press the reset button, with veteran coach Dick Advocaat – in his last job before retirement – even unable to deliver a decent performance from the club, you don’t have to be a genius to realise that not much should be expected from
With the shrewd Erik ten Hag at the Ajax helm, the majority of the squad are getting better every season
Rotterdam next season. Overlooking the opposition, it’s crystal clear that Ajax will be the favourites next season as well. Backed by ten Hag renewing his contract and being one of Europe’s healthiest clubs, anything less than a new national title would be a major failure.
It takes more than a few hiccups, like the Onana or Haller case – not to forget offloading forward Quincy Promes to Spartak Moscow after being a suspect in a stabbing incident – to chase the Amsterdam club from the Dutch throne.