General Football Discussion

[Amol]

The whole nonsense about new CL format is just pure Italy lobby. Their clubs except for one are non-competetive in CL now, but will get 4 place later. That's just a disgrace.

I was reading where the media market was the driving force here as television revenue for the CL are the third or fourth highest in Europe. If they didn't give the Italians the four spots that money would dry up. I think this is totally wrong and agree with you that it is a disgrace.

That's funny if its true. Haven't the Italians been saying for years that they don't care about European games?

[paladinby]

That's funny if its true. Haven't the Italians been saying for years that they don't care about European games?

They always say that when they lose.

[Orange14]

There was an excellent column in the New York Times today on how the EPL can dig their own grave by the crazy transfer spending: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/31/sport ... ref=sports It pointed out that the only way that clubs might be able to get rid of the expensive unneeded players is to subsidize the transfers. Nobody wants Balotelli (maybe Nice?), Schweinsteiger, or Joe Hart directly. Hart is going on loan to Torino and I suspect that ManCity is paying some of the salary. Schweinsteiger is turning into Winston Bogarde, unwanted by the club but happy to collect the huge salary by training with the reserves. What happens when you multiply this number of unwanted players by five or ten? You have a huge cash drain, paying unwanted players while bringing in new ones. Too much money is never a good thing.

[Orange14]

Veltman was really poor in the NT match against Greece tonight. He just cannot play RB. Klaassen came in midway in the 2nd half and had one shot over the crossbar and that was it.

[souras84]

We beat Holland!!!

Our team is almost shit and that says a lot about the Dutch team. I think KNVB, the teams, the managers etc. should reconsider their approach. I know that if you don't have offensive talent or a nice plan, you should play defensively or to say it better: not thinking you are the 90s Dutch team.

I didn't see the game, I went to the movies to watch Suicide Squad instead. Fitting title huh?

[Orange14]

Dutch were really quite good in the first 20 minutes, pressing all over the field and causing turnovers. I though I was watching a Guardiola team. Both Greek goals were the result of horrendous defensive errors and they could have had a third one early on when Veltman was way out of position. The Greek offense was pretty much non-existent otherwise. There was some pretty good quick passing from the Dutch, something you don't see with the current Ajax team. I suspect that Blind will be sacked if they don't defeat Sweden on Tuesday.

[Amol]

Totally unrelated question but since its been in my mind for the past couple days, I'll post it here to see what everyone else thinks.

Based on the new world order in football - rich owners (PSG, Monaco, Chelsea, Man City), tv revenue (EPL, Madrid, Barca), govt support (Milan, Madrid, Barca) and the fact that Ajax's leadership is essentially a black box to most Ajax supporters; what are everyone's thoughts on -
1. Ajax being bought out by a rich billionaire or
2. a new superleague for Dutch, Belgian and maybe Scottish clubs

I was completely against this even a year or two ago, but I'm not so sure anymore.

These are the facts which are going into my thinking -
1. Ajax no longer has Cryuff
2. Supporters don't know what the Ajax board does or doesn't do
3. Supporters never know the reasons for which they make decisions and why they are hoarding money
4. Ajax will never get really high tv revenues (unless we do the superleague)
5. Ajax will never get the amount of govt support which Madrid and Barca and a lot of other Spanish clubs do
6. Ajax and Eredivisie are in a downward spiral in Europe
7. Overall Eredivisie quality and quality of players has been going downhill for a few years
8. new CL changes
9. Netherlands is a much smaller country than Germany, Spain and France, so less chances of making a lot of money within the country

Something has to change else this is a death spiral for Ajax and the Eredivisie.

[Orange14]

Totally unrelated question but since its been in my mind for the past couple days, I'll post it here to see what everyone else thinks.

Based on the new world order in football - rich owners (PSG, Monaco, Chelsea, Man City), tv revenue (EPL, Madrid, Barca), govt support (Milan, Madrid, Barca) and the fact that Ajax's leadership is essentially a black box to most Ajax supporters; what are everyone's thoughts on -
1. Ajax being bought out by a rich billionaire or
2. a new superleague for Dutch, Belgian and maybe Scottish clubs

A buy out is extremely unlikely because of the way the club is financially structured. I'm not sure that it will happen because the Eredivisie is small potatoes compared to owning a club in England or Italy though Amsterdam would be a good place to live for one of these billionaires. The only money really comes from the mid-East or China these days. A superleague has been talked about for some time and I can see a consolidation of the Belgium and The Netherlands but doubt that the Scottish teams (really only Celtic and Rangers) would be interested in this.

I was completely against this even a year or two ago, but I'm not so sure anymore.

These are the facts which are going into my thinking -
1. Ajax no longer has Cryuff
2. Supporters don't know what the Ajax board does or doesn't do
3. Supporters never know the reasons for which they make decisions and why they are hoarding money
4. Ajax will never get really high tv revenues (unless we do the superleague)
5. Ajax will never get the amount of govt support which Madrid and Barca and a lot of other Spanish clubs do
6. Ajax and Eredivisie are in a downward spiral in Europe
7. Overall Eredivisie quality and quality of players has been going downhill for a few years
8. new CL changes
9. Netherlands is a much smaller country than Germany, Spain and France, so less chances of making a lot of money within the country

Something has to change else this is a death spiral for Ajax and the Eredivisie.

1. Sadly True
2. Ajax are a public corporation and there are lots of documents that they have to file so this is not entirely true. However, it's not a true "public" company in the same way that Barcelona is in that 85% of the stock is restricted.
3. It was about six years ago i think that the club was in bad financial shape and only had about €25M in working capital. IMO they have been very prudent in their dealings and have made the club financially strong. We may wish that they spent a little more money on transfers but if you look at the EPL teams that have so many excess players these days that they cannot get rid of. I read where Chelsea have 30 players out on loan right now and they are still buying players!
4. A Dutch/Belgium league won't do any better in foreign markets (where the big money is) than the Eredivisie is doing right now. We cannot get any live Dutch games in the US other than an occasional one on the Spanish cable network and that's usually PSV becuase of Guardado and Moreno who are Mexican. Nobody is going to pay a large amount of money for the rights to these games when you already have every EPL, Barca, Madrid, and Juve match available to watch in the US. Other then you, me and a couple of other diehard supporters who cares about Ajax?
5. True, though the EU and UEFA were supposed to be stopping the government support of sports teams.
6. Yes, but a lot of the other storied teams from smaller leagues that won European competitions are in the same place.
7. No question but that's more the fault of the NVKB and it's poor organization than the fault of Ajax and some of the other teams that have good academies.
8. Absolutely. I think it's going to ruin European football in the long run.
9. True, but there are lots of teams in France, Spain, & Italy that are just hanging on. If anything the Dutch league is financially sounder than those (other than the big clubs of course).

[Orange14]

Ajax submitted their provisional list of players for EL competition to UEFA: http://www.uefa.com/uefaeuropaleague/se ... index.html

Serero is listed so maybe there won't be a buy out. More interesting the following youth players are on it: Nouri, de Jong, Eiting, & Zeefuik in addition to van de Beek and Cerny who have already seen first team action.

[SPL]

18 year olds Eiting and Zeefuik are interesting additions but Nouri and de Jong are good enough for our first team.

[souras84]

Is De Jong a number 8 type player? I guess Eiting is the 6 and Nouri the 10?

[Orange14]

The transfer bans against Real and Athletic Madrid clubs have been upheld though there is one more appeal left. The ban will be for one year. In addition, Spanish newspapers report that some of the Madrid players that were underage, including Mink Peeters, will not be allowed to play any sanctioned football for the club until 2018. This includes B squad games (I think the Madrid team is in the 2nd or 3rd division in Spain).

[Amol]

Is it just me or does everyone here think that the recent resurgence of Feyenoord is going to be a good development for the Eredivisie? I'm of the opinion that when we have more contenders for the the title, Ajax and PSV now have to go that one extra step to win the Eredivisie. This will help improve the overall quality of the league in general.

Of course I hope they end up in the 2nd place behind us

[Cruijff]

Is it just me or does everyone here think that the recent resurgence of Feyenoord is going to be a good development for the Eredivisie? I'm of the opinion that when we have more contenders for the the title, Ajax and PSV now have to go that one extra step to win the Eredivisie. This will help improve the overall quality of the league in general.

Of course it is good for the Eredivisie and also for Ajax that we have to 'perform on our toes' to combine winning the KNVB Beker and good performances in Europa League with closing the gap of 5 points to them. That's good.

Ajax should win against Standard and then have 6 points in Europa League. Fenerbahce-Feyenoord is also an interesting match Thursday, Fenerbahce had a couple big wins in a row in the league if Feyenoord beats them they also have an European start with 6 points after two matches.

Of course I hope they end up in the 2nd place behind us

Well... statistics show that there is a big chance. Feyenoord started the league with 7 wins in a row 4 times before, this is what then happened.

[Ayman]

You are deluded. Feyenoord have stability, a leader on the pitch. They are solid in defense, commanding in midfield. They will win eredivisie and go extremely far in Europe possibly the final itself. Ajax would be lucky to finish second or third even, I'm predicting that Ajax finish 4th.

[Orange14]

You are deluded. Feyenoord have stability, a leader on the pitch. They are solid in defense, commanding in midfield. They will win eredivisie and go extremely far in Europe possibly the final itself. Ajax would be lucky to finish second or third even, I'm predicting that Ajax finish 4th.

Are you a true Ajax supporter?

I think Feyenoord look quite good right now, the big question is whether they collapse right after the winter break as has happened in past seasons. Gio seems to have found his sea legs in terms of training the club.

[Ayman]

You are deluded. Feyenoord have stability, a leader on the pitch. They are solid in defense, commanding in midfield. They will win eredivisie and go extremely far in Europe possibly the final itself. Ajax would be lucky to finish second or third even, I'm predicting that Ajax finish 4th.

Are you a true Ajax supporter?

I think Feyenoord look quite good right now, the big question is whether they collapse right after the winter break as has happened in past seasons. Gio seems to have found his sea legs in terms of training the club.

Facts are facts, can't be denied. Peter Bosz is acting like a schmeckel, he refuses to play Tete, and anyone with half a brain knows that Veltman can't play in that position. He needs to partner Davinson Sanchez at center back!

[Orange14]

You are deluded. Feyenoord have stability, a leader on the pitch. They are solid in defense, commanding in midfield. They will win eredivisie and go extremely far in Europe possibly the final itself. Ajax would be lucky to finish second or third even, I'm predicting that Ajax finish 4th.

Are you a true Ajax supporter?

I think Feyenoord look quite good right now, the big question is whether they collapse right after the winter break as has happened in past seasons. Gio seems to have found his sea legs in terms of training the club.

Facts are facts, can't be denied. Peter Bosz is acting like a schmeckel, he refuses to play Tete, and anyone with half a brain knows that Veltman can't play in that position. He needs to partner Davinson Sanchez at center back!

You will get no argument from me on this one. I think Veltman has played on the left side in the past and could slot in there but Viergever is doing a pretty good job these days. I honestly don't know what Bosz sees in Veltman as a RB. He couldn't play there for the NT when Blind tried it and he certainly cannot do it here either.

[Ayman]

It wouldn't hurt to put Viergever at left back to make way for Veltman at left centre back.

[SPL]

100% agree Tete should be RB. Veltman is nothing special certainly not a RB .

[ajaxcolombia]

Horrible tragedy in Colombia, as Brazilian team Chapacoense, who was going to play Atletico Nacional (Davinson Sanchez former team) for the Copa Sudamericana final, suffered a plan crash. Only seven survivors out of 76 passengers. Football world in mourning.

[Amol]

Horrible tragedy in Colombia, as Brazilian team Chapacoense, who was going to play Atletico Nacional (Davinson Sanchez former team) for the Copa Sudamericana final, suffered a plan crash. Only seven survivors out of 76 passengers. Football world in mourning.

Very tragic news. I always fear when the entire Ajax team gets on a flight to go play in other countries. I am amazed that teams don't think of splitting up teams into groups when they're sent on planes. This always seems such a big risk to me.

[Orange14]

Horrible tragedy in Colombia, as Brazilian team Chapacoense, who was going to play Atletico Nacional (Davinson Sanchez former team) for the Copa Sudamericana final, suffered a plan crash. Only seven survivors out of 76 passengers. Football world in mourning.

Very tragic news. I always fear when the entire Ajax team gets on a flight to go play in other countries. I am amazed that teams don't think of splitting up teams into groups when they're sent on planes. This always seems such a big risk to me.

Yes it was a tragedy and we will wait to see what the Black Box says. I heard that there was a report of an electrical failure of some sort and of course the weather was bad as well. I did remember the Munich crash that affect Manchester United but was surprised by the other crashes that involved football teams including one that carried Suriname players: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/sports ... edies.html Even so, air travel is still the safest means of transportation but the rare accidents resonate because of the large number of casualties.

[ajaxcolombia]

You're right, Orange. After all, football teams are flying all over the world on a weekly basis and these accidents, despite the huge amount of flights, are thankfully a huge rarity.

[Orange14]

Ziyech was NOT selected for the Morocco team in the upcoming Africa Cup of Nations and thus will be available for the Ajax selection. Only noted Dutch player who will miss time is el Ahmadi from Feyenoord.