Other Eredivisie Teams

[SPL]

Yes another goal by Zivkovic to do us a favour. Saw PSV go 1-0 up and thought that was going to be another win.
Vitesse and PSV are now out of it as they can only get a max 65 points each.

[aveslacker]

Yes another goal by Zivkovic to do us a favour. Saw PSV go 1-0 up and thought that was going to be another win.
Vitesse and PSV are now out of it as they can only get a max 65 points each.

I'd actually rather see 010 finish second to P$V and Chelsea lite.

[Manneken Pis]

Make of this what you will......


Chelsea and Vitesse Arnhem' links investigated by the Dutch FA

The Guardian
Dominic Fifield in Paris

The Dutch Football Federation has launched an investigation into the ownership structure of Vitesse Arnhem after the former major shareholder alleged Chelsea had exerted undue influence at the Eredivisie club and had even sought to prevent them from qualifying for the Champions League.

The Premier League club and Vitesse enjoy a close relationship, with the Dutch team's owner, Alexander Chigirinsky, a good friend of Roman Abramovich. Chelsea have four players – Bertrand Traoré, Lucas Piazon, Patrick van Aanholt and Christian Atsu – on loan at the GelreDome, with others having spent time there over the first half of this season. The partnership has helped Vitesse to third in the table.

A bitter dispute has recently flared up between the former owner Merab Jordania and Chigirinsky, with the former suggesting Chelsea had not wanted the Dutch club to qualify for Europe's elite competition. Uefa regulations prevent owners from entering two teams in one of its competitions.

Chelsea have dismissed Jordania's allegations and insist Vitesse are an independent club whose qualification for the Champions League would benefit their loanees' development, but declined to comment publicly on the matter. Jordania's assertions, however, have prompted the Dutch federation, KNVB, to ask its member club to detail their "organisational structure" to ensure the integrity of the local competition.

"I want to tell the Vitesse supporters the real story," said Jordania, a former Georgian footballer who saved Vitesse from financial ruin in 2010. "I wanted to reach for the title, but 'London' didn't want that in the end. Ambition is fine, but Vitesse is not allowed to reach the Champions League … I will tell you now why [the manager] Fred Rutten left [last June]. He knew that he wasn't allowed to win the title with Vitesse.

"In the winter he brought the team to the top. We had the feeling we needed one more player to win the title, Kelvin Leerdam. The transfer seemed to be a done deal when all of a sudden 'London' intervened. We were not allowed to be too strong. I couldn't explain that to Fred. I had to cover the club and 'London', but it caused a lot of tension and chaos."

Jordania also claimed the sale of Wilfried Bony to Swansea last summer was sanctioned to prevent Vitesse qualifying for the Champions League. "I wanted to keep Bony in Arnhem for six more months," he said. "I was in touch with Michael Laudrup, the Swansea manager at the time. I told him it was better that he took Bony in the winter, for Vitesse to start strong in the season, but Bony had to be sold."

The Vitesse chairman, Bert Roetert, claimed Jordania's comments read like "a poor 1 April joke".

[Tom_]

Sounds like garbage to me...

[afcajax73]

I was just coming here to post that! the BBC link,

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/26847853

its about bloody time.

[ajaxcolombia]

Ok I just want to make sure I have the math right. So there¿s a total of 12 points left to play (right?). We have 65 points and feyenoord 57. Feyenoord can get a maximum of 69 points, so we need at least four more points, five to not depend on goal difference and we are champions. psv and vitesse are out of it because 53 points only allows them a total of 65, so only one point and we put any glimmer of hope to rest for them. Is this correct?

[SPL]

ajaxcolumbia .You are correct .Our GD is plus 40 ,Fword plus 28 so 4 Points will probably do. The others can get to 65 points but all have worse GD than ourselves so we can rule them out.

As I said last night 13th will be the big day we play ADO and Fword are at PSV.

[Tom_]

All good by me!

[Tom_]

As I said last night 13th will be the big day we play ADO and Fword are at PSV.

And I'll be on a plane, AGAIN. I thought living in the right timezone would make watching the football easier, but I seem to keep missing the important matches ;)

[rjf1]

...Our GD is plus 40 ,Fword plus 28 so 4 Points will probably do...

This assumes F'noord will win all their remaining games -- less than 4 points will also do should they drop points in their remaining games.

[ajaxcolombia]

So Phillips Losing 2-0 with 7 minutes to go against Heerenveen. Hope this doesn't mean they can't put up a decent fight againt F-word. Anyway, at least this all but buries any hopes for them. Throughtout the season they were above average creating chances but boy were they terrible at converting them geez!!! Today they created 11 shots, only three on target!

[kezme44]

looks like roda jc will be going down. Too bad really, as I always viewed them as a decent mid table side

[Tom_]

Another decent Eredivisie player off to a mediocre Premier League team... Dušan Tadić has signed for Southampton.

[rjf1]

Sad, but true, the Eredivisie is fast turning into the development league for the high rolling leagues.

[ajaxcolombia]

Mokotjo signs with Twente for 1.5 million euros. Incredible we just don't out up a fight, seems like a signing that we could have sealed pretty easily.

[Orange14]

What a crazy league. We almost drop points at home to the last place team and both Feyenoord and PSV lose. We are back in the race.

[Cruijff]

Well this isn't the Premier League where you'll have some easy victories against Tottenham Hotspurs or Stoke City. Heracles Almelo, Willem II and PEC Zwolle are tough opponents.

[rjf1]

Don't laugh -- PEC Zwolle have manhandled us recently. And judging from our level of performance so far this season -- including the win vs. Heracles -- I wouldn't say we are back in the race. If we continue as we have been doing, we'll wind up around mid table.

[Cruijff]

Don't laugh -- PEC Zwolle have manhandled us recently.

I'm not laughing. PEC Zwolle is a good squad.

And judging from our level of performance so far this season -- including the win vs. Heracles -- I wouldn't say we are back in the race. If we continue as we have been doing, we'll wind up around mid table.

As Ajax always rises back you can expect Ajax to climb up to the first 3 places in the league. At least. Of course just like the past 4 years I'm targeting on being number 1 again.

I agree our play hasn't been impressive so far this season. A victory against money spending football spoilers Paris Saint-Germaint would be a great boost!!

[Van basten]

Bulbs lost to Heerenveen, so now we're tied with zwolle and psv on the top

[rjf1]

I watched that game -- Herenveen are only 1 point behind the three of us. They looked quite lively -- they were a man down for a significant part of the game and withstood the pressure quite handily. Even up, they went toe to toe and were the better side. They could prove to be troublesome for us down the road.

[SPL]

Performance of the day and imo will be of the week Heracles beating NAC 6-1.They did not do too bad v ourselves the other week but had nil points from 7 games until today.

[Tom_]

PSV held 1–1 in an entertaining game at Groningen, so we're now only 2 points behind.

[Cruijff]

Yesssss!

Awesome match indeed between FC Groningen and PSV. Every neutral football watcher has enjoyed this one for sure! I'm never neutral when PSV Eindhoven plays, but also enjoyed it very much!

[SPL]

Thought PSV were going to nick it but Groningen held them.