'J.C.' - The Omnipresent Oracle

[martinkohout]

He's baaaaaaaaaaaaack!

http://netherlands.worldcupblog.org/1/j ... ilure.html

[Orange14]

He's baaaaaaaaaaaaack!

http://netherlands.worldcupblog.org/1/j ... ilure.html

Jeez, Louise; this wonderful wisdom already made its way thorough AjaxTalk six months ago or more. Does that make our collective wisdom equal to or better than 'JC?'

[aveslacker]

It’s typical that Ajax fired seven or eight coaches now and the management and board stay untouched.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't we end up sacking the entire board and management after the Coronel report came out?

[martinkohout]

Not sure who wrote it (JC himself perhaps given the fawning romanticism) but it just seemed like a really poorly researched piece full of tired old-cliches to me.

Due in part to the distribution vagaries of FFT in the U.S. I only just bought this issue, but it says quite clearly it was written by Simon Kuper.

I thought it was an okay overview of JC's career, though I agree it laid it on a bit thick in places and was pretty condescending about pre-JC Ajax in particular and Dutch football in general. Not much in it that would surprise the folks on Ajaxtalk, perhaps, but at least he didn't sugarcoat the fact that Cruijff drives everyone who has to work with him starkers.

[martinkohout]

Hmmm... according to this story in the New York Times, J. C. has, at least temporarily, a new distraction.

[Blind3]

The Oracle is on Fox Soccer channel now. The Oracle coached Catalunya side friendly v. Argentina is on the tube .

[Orange14]

JC has some interesting comments over on ESPN SoccerNet: http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story ... rs&cc=5901 His comments are about the young Spanish starlet Sergio Canales who plays for Racing Santander and is the rumored target of several bigger clubs. The oracle says: "With the youngsters at Ajax who excelled in the first team and who were the targets of big clubs outside of Holland, my advice was always the same: stay at least until you are 21, and if you stay until 23, then even better. First get used to the pressure of winning in your own country, and that will then stand you in good stead for playing abroad."

Sound words of wisdom!!!

[Kowalczyk]

Alright, here's the Cruijffism of the Day.

"If you make sure you're in possession of the ball, you won't have to defend, as there is only one ball on the pitch."

Interviewer doesn't know what to say: "..."

"What I'm trying to say is: the ball is essential in football."



K.

[Amol]

Brilliant!

[souras84]

the magical words of wisdom.... I spent my whole afternoon thinking about it

[Orange14]

More appropriate for this current Ajax club is, "You always have to make sure that you score one goal more than your opponent."

[aveslacker]

Reminds me of a coach who once told me that the best defender on the field is the player with the ball.

[SE6Ajacied]

Reminds me of a coach who once told me that the best defender on the field is the player with the ball.

Pure madness . JC must be a bit underemployed these days anyway as I see the new Barca president decided to dispence with his services as honorary Barcelona president.

[rjf1]

Reminds me of a coach who once told me that the best defender on the field is the player with the ball.

Pure madness . JC must be a bit underemployed these days anyway as I see the new Barca president decided to dispence with his services as honorary Barcelona president.

You guys just don't recognize a zen koan when you see one. :-)

[Julius]

Alright, here's the Cruijffism of the Day.

"If you make sure you're in possession of the ball, you won't have to defend, as there is only one ball on the pitch."

Interviewer doesn't know what to say: "..."

"What I'm trying to say is: the ball is essential in football."



K.

I wonder how his face looked like when he said the last sentence... :D

It was like "Im going to look pretty serious right now and with just some random words will blow your brain up" A nice JC classic nose rubing to finish this off, would have made my day.

[Cedric]

It would make a nice banner dedicated to our players.

Another one :

Playing against 10 is harder than playing against 11 players. You know why? The team with 11 will think “ok, we can take it easy now”, while the team with 10 will think “we really have to work hard now”…

[gordonvandekamp]

I found this to be an interesting item:

http://www.goal.com/en/news/462/netherl ... gend-johan

Asteroid Named After Netherlands & Barcelona Legend Johan Cruyff
By Stefan Coerts

According to a report in Voetbal International, an asteroid has been named after Netherlands and Barcelona legend Johan Cruyff. The asteroid was previously known under the less illustrious name '14282'.

'Cruijff' has a diameter of about nine kilometres and it takes the asteroid five years, three months and 18 days to turn around the sun.

The asteroid was discovered by a Dutch astrology couple in 1960. Science journalist Carl Koppeschaar recently started a petition to name the asteroid after Johan Cruyff and Koppeschaar has now achieved his objective.

Cruyff is not the first footballer to have an asteroid named after him. Josef 'Pepi' Bican and Ferenc Puskas also had asteroids named after them in the past.

[666]

Did they run out of 14 km asteroids?

[Mr_Holte]

There is a piece on afca.nl with an article in which they send him a letter. What's this all about? (Sorry can't translate)

[GangstaRiB]

There is a piece on afca.nl with an article in which they send him a letter. What's this all about? (Sorry can't translate)

Well, Johan dropped a bomb on Ajax, about 3/4 days ago. He has a collum in De Telegraaf in which he says: Everybody at Ajax has to leave. He comments on the current board, current coach (Jol), current players that are in Ajax and the way Ajax played against Willem 2 and Real Madrid.

I must say he has some good points.

[ofey]

Here's a link to the article in Dutch.
If you only read English, try Google's translation here.

I read it and thought JC may be right on some fronts.
We have to admit:
1. We were outplayed by Real. Sure we have to look at funds but in the most basic aspect of what it means to be Ajax, shouldn't our youth shine through?
2. The transfer policy this summer despite brining in Mounir, we lack penetrative players. We needed wingers more than anything.
3. The Coronel report has delivered nothing.
4. Our youngsters are getting from bad to worse and leaving earlier.
5. Too many friends on the senior board. Some people with no clue about football.
and finally
5. Perhaps we should really sweep up and start again.

It wouldn't hurt to bring all the living Ajax stars of old (playing or otherwise) for a conference at De Toekomst. Say to everyone we have a problem. How can we solve it?

I only have one thought of the oracle. Why does he want to go about his campaign this way with resignations (as per with Barca) and outward criticism?
Why doesn't he ask publicly to be let back in to the inner sanctum of Ajax and make the changes slowly?
I'd rather effect change slowly but surely than not... .

[aveslacker]

Here's a link to the article in Dutch.
If you only read English, try Google's translation here.

I read it and thought JC may be right on some fronts.
We have to admit:
1. We were outplayed by Real. Sure we have to look at funds but in the most basic aspect of what it means to be Ajax, shouldn't our youth shine through?
2. The transfer policy this summer despite brining in Mounir, we lack penetrative players. We needed wingers more than anything.
3. The Coronel report has delivered nothing.
4. Our youngsters are getting from bad to worse and leaving earlier.
5. Too many friends on the senior board. Some people with no clue about football.
and finally
5. Perhaps we should really sweep up and start again.

It wouldn't hurt to bring all the living Ajax stars of old (playing or otherwise) for a conference at De Toekomst. Say to everyone we have a problem. How can we solve it?

I only have one thought of the oracle. Why does he want to go about his campaign this way with resignations (as per with Barca) and outward criticism?
Why doesn't he ask publicly to be let back in to the inner sanctum of Ajax and make the changes slowly?
I'd rather effect change slowly but surely than not... .

Some of this is pretty uncontroversial. I mean, Ajax was outplayed by a team with ten times their budget? No shit, sherlock. But some of this just beggars belief.

For example, Cruijff is saying that our youngsters are getting worse and leaving early makes no sense. First of all, it's kind of a contradiction to say that we're producing bad players who are then getting bought by bigger clubs. Secondly, we've produced some very good players in the last few years. And third, last year, we lost precisely zero of our youth players to other clubs.

Additionally, it's true we need wingers. Ajax management (including Jol) have spoken about this before, and taken steps to start developing wingers. But this realization just started last year. How many good, attacking wingers are there these days? They certainly don't grow on trees. However, it looks like we might have some solutions to this problem, based on the play of Josefzoon.

And that line about the Coronel report delivering nothing is a joke. It's really only been implemented in the last 1-2 years but the rot at Ajax has been going on a lot longer than that. And in that time, Ajax had a tremendous season (leading the league in both goals scored and allowed) and narrowly lost out to a team that played out of its mind to win a championship. Meanwhile, the current team sits alone in first place.

I don't like to dismiss Cruijff out of hand - he is the oracle after all - but he is fallible and, in this case, wrong.

[Orange14]

Interesting blog piece on JC: http://musingofthenamelessmind.wordpres ... ve-affair/ Scroll down for the Europa Cup win over Lokomotive with a great Van Basten goal followed by some interesting celebratory dancing!!

[Orange14]

According to the TotalFootballNL tweet, JC is coming back to Amsterdam this evening to discuss a "behind the scenes advisory role."

[SE6Ajacied]

According to the TotalFootballNL tweet, JC is coming back to Amsterdam this evening to discuss a "behind the scenes advisory role."

Again?" Sorry for not getting over excited here but didn't we have all of this before and (great player though he undoubtably was) JC seems incapable of working with anone else.

I wait to be pleasantly surprised (which I would truly love to happen in this case).