Ajax Coaches

[afckeeper95]

I feel that Blind would be a good coach of good players, but when you have a group such as now, he just hasn't got the experience or nous to turn it around.

Exactly, he doesn't have the experience. Then why spare him of the boot or am I misunderstanding you and you would still like to see Mr Blind get said boot?

[Philippe]

Now we are back to the who's in charge issue : the one consistent person for the last two years is the chairman !:redcard:

[dws]

It would be interesting to have someone similar to Cruijff, Hiddink or Van Gaal for next season. We would soon find out if Ajax has a good playing squad inhabiting a comfort zone or a playing squad that is not capable of
playing at a high level.

[bryan]

We all seem to concentrate our attention on Blind and before him Koeman. However, the one consistent person in all of this has been Krol.

Is he as big a problem as the other 2 - I really do think that we should be looking at Krol's performance and deciding if he should be given the order of the boot even before a decision is made on Blinds future.

When Krol was interim manager for about a month last year, the team was winning matches and playing with a bit of effort. And it was Krol who had the balls to drop Van der Vaart. I like his no bullshit style of handling the media too - his press conferences are about 30 seconds long. If body language on the bench is anything to go by, it seems that Van der Lem and Blind ignore Krol somewhat, which is a shame.

[Kowalczyk]

it seems that Van der Lem and Blind ignore Krol somewhat, which is a shame.

Yeah, I noticed that, too! It's interesting you say that.

I think Krol is being regarded as a relic from the Koeman era, whereas Blind picked Van der Lem himself. It seems like Ruud Krol is sitting there voor Jan Lul, just to use a fine old Dutch saying :D

K.

[Over Pasanens Head]

Then why spare him of the boot or am I misunderstanding you and you would still like to see Mr Blind get said boot?

That is a very hard question to answer. Because of who he was I want him to stay and succeed. However, I have the feeling that he really isn't up to the difficult job that faces an Ajax coach at the moment.
You have coaches who are absolutely brilliant at improving players (i.e. Brian Clough), you have others who are equally brilliant at destroying players (i.e. Koeman) and you have others who are good if they have a good set of highly motivated skilled players to work with. I put Blind in the latter category.

[Philippe]

that's why we should keep Blind if (!) we qualify for the CL

[SE6Ajacied]

that's why we should keep Blind if (!) we qualify for the CL

Hmm, the point is argueable but we are talking this sort of "if"

(a very big "if" indeed!)

[Kowalczyk]

I liked Blind when he started. I don't like him anymore.

Both have nothing to do with qualifying for the CL, or not. It has to do with specific things that he's said and done.

That's why the question "should we keep Blind?", to me, has nothing to do with qualifying for the play-offs, or the CL for that matter.

I think he must go - if we can find anyone else (that to me is the only 'if').

K.

[Philippe]

what horrible things has he said and done ?

[GangstaRiB]

what horrible things has he said and done ?

He needs to look in the mirror for once.

Every lost game so far, he blames it on the referee, supporters, injured players. Of course, sometimes it happens. But that doesn't cost us 28 points! We are 28 points behind psv....

[Kowalczyk]

what horrible things has he said and done ?

1. At the start of the season he said explicitly and repeatedly that this team was good enough for a succesful season. Which has turned out to be an enormous misjudgement (for the second time, in fact: in 1999, when he was 'director of player policy', he was also convinced that that squad was good enough for a fantastic season).

2. He promised that he would not shift the team around too much, like Ronald Koeman. After only a few months, however, he started shifting players around like a mad man -- and definitely not just because of injuries and suspensions. In the fall, for example, he fielded 8 or 9 different forward lines in a row, with players like Babel, Rosenberg and Rosales moving from the left to the right to the centre and to 'number 10'.

3. As GangstaRiB points out: when things started to go seriously wrong he started blaming the supporters (for whistling at the team and stuff; "my team is afraid to play at home") and this week the referees (who cost Ajax 10 points, according to Blind). So far he never analyzed himself for a change.

4. His substitutions! I can't remember an Ajax coach who had such dreadful substitutions, or - against Inter - no substitutions when the team needed it.

Things like that, basically. My opinion is based on things like these. Whether we'll fall ass backwards into the play-offs or not...? To be honest with you that wouldn't change a thing for me.

Ajax are a top football club and a major company. Blind knows the club, he had the latter months of the previous season to find out which players he wanted to work with, which ones he wanted to sell and which ones he wanted to buy. He had a whole summer to purchase the players he though he needed. Ajax are financially very healthy, so the money to buy was definitely there.

In other words: he had the perfect circumstances and the perfect preparations, but the outcome was Ajax's worst season in the Eredivisie since 1964-1965 (10 defeats!). After a season like this a coach can never stay. Every major company with self-respect would fire the responsible ones after a year like this -- and Ajax should be no exception to that.

And no -- it has nothing to do with the board. The chairman (John Jaakke) has nothing to do with football. The financial director (Jeroen Slop) is doing good work (as Ajax is profitable). The general director/CEO (Maarten Fontein) only just arrived and is not responsible for any of the transfers. The technical director (Martin van Geel) has made the most out of the situation he was confronted with, by selling some of the players with expiring contracts and buying a few great ones for the near future (Huntelaar, Stam, Perez).

The board has nothing to do with this. The person that should be fired is the man directly responsible for the football played and the results booked by the first team of AFC Ajax football club. That man is Danny Blind. Period.

K.

[Kowalczyk]

Not a bad word about Blind 'The Player' by the way.

F**king legend. :worshippy:

K.

[Philippe]

And no -- it has nothing to do with the board. The chairman (John Jaakke) has nothing to do with football. The financial director (Jeroen Slop) is doing good work (as Ajax is profitable). The general director/CEO (Maarten Fontein) only just arrived and is not responsible for any of the transfers. The technical director (Martin van Geel) has made the most out of the situation he was confronted with, by selling some of the players with expiring contracts and buying a few great ones for the near future (Huntelaar, Stam, Perez).

The board has nothing to do with this. The person that should be fired is the man directly responsible for the football played and the results booked by the first team of AFC Ajax football club. That man is Danny Blind. Period.

K.

How can you claim that Blind had the perfect situation and played from the start of the season with players he chose and at the same time state that the technical director director does a great job by selling and buying ? That does not make sense.
And no major club is managed by a board and a chairman who have nothing to with football. It's a farce.
Many signs show the current board's policy aims to provide world class players to wealthier clubs, and seriously lack ambition as far as the sport is concerned.
The stupid nursery of Europe policy is making Ajax shareholders rich but it's killing us.

[Kowalczyk]

How can you claim that Blind had the perfect situation and played from the start of the season with players he chose and at the same time state that the technical director director does a great job by selling and buying ? That does not make sense.

What I mean by saying that Blind had the perfect situation, is that he took over from Koeman in April and had two or three months to 'freewheel' with the 2004-2005 squad. He knew exactly what he had and when he wanted to buy Lindenbergh, Manucharyan, Rosenberg and Juanfran - it happened, because the money wasn't an issue.

Also, Van Geel also sold players if Blind agreed on it (Escudé, De Jong).

Van Geel has made the very most out of it, because he managed to get some players off the payrole that were surplus to requirement. He actually managed to get money for some of the players with expiring contracts (Lobont, De Jong).

But the bottom-line is: Danny Blind had a few months to freewheel with the team, to get to know them, and after that he had a whole summer in which he could every player he wanted (within reason).

At the pre-season he actually said that himself, adding that he this squad was good enough for a good season.

And no major club is managed by a board and a chairman who have nothing to with football. It's a farce.

Both in the board of AFC Ajax (the club) and in the board of directors of Ajax NV (the company) is a technical man: Hennie Henrichs in the board, Martin van Geel in the board of directors. These are real football people, close to the team and the head-coach.

The chairman of the club (Jaakke), and the general director of Ajax NV (Fontein), have nothing to do with the daily decisions regarding the first team. That's not unusual. It's actually quite normal. It's just not their job, just like it wasn't Michael van Praag's job at the time.

K.

[bryan]

You can blame the board for appointing Blind in the first place though. Everybody, including the supporters and the media, told them he didn't have the necessary experience to be made coach, but they went ahead and did it anyway. You can't blame Blind for taking the job. I mean, I am in no way fit to manage Ajax in terms of skills or experience, but if the Ajax board asked me to do it I'd accept the job - I'd be over the moon. It would be their fault for appointing me though.

That said, Blind's blaming of everyone and everything for his own mistakes is kind of sickening. He should know that the buck stops at the manager. He certainly wasn't foreign to criticising Wouters or Koeman. If the shoe fits...

Blind has made some serious misjudgements. He thought his squad was good enough, he thought he wouldn't need Escude, he thought Rosenberg was a world class striker, and for no reason whatsoever other than pure ego he alienated and pissed off Escude, de Jong, Pienaar, Galasek, Lobont and Babel. He has no consistency in his selections at all and his motivational skills are severely lacking. His ability to de-motivate makes Ronald Koeman look like Phil Scolari. And he talks about getting fifth place while keeping a straight face, like that's normal.

[aveslacker]

Getting rid of Escude was a big mistake.

I agree that Blind should go. He had some promising moments, and the team looked pretty good in the early going -- they just couldn't score and it cost them confidence. But once they got people who could score, the confidence I expected them to have never returned.

I blame the coach for that. If he can't motivate his players, then he's got no business coaching. It sickens me that a team with this level of talent is losing to any team other than PSV. That doesn't make any sense at all. There is no way that this team should be fighting for fifth place. They should be celebrating another eredivisie title.

[Kowalczyk]

I agree with Bryan's breakdown for 99%. The only thing I disagree on is this:

Blind has made some serious misjudgements (...) he thought Rosenberg was a world class striker.

I don't think he ever said "world-class". He just thought that Rosenberg was a very good player and a fine striker for Ajax. Which is actually what he is, if you ask me. He's had a difficult start, like so many strikers, but now? I'm glad we have him. Good player. Seems to click with KJH, too.

You seem to suggest that he's a bady buy. I totally disagree with you there.

Totally subscribe to the rest of your post, though.

K.

[carcajou]

Now if you don't look at all these easy victories against the last tier of the Eredivisie, we lost or drew pretty much all the time. Blind is shit.

[bryan]

He never did say he was world class, that's true. I was exaggerating there. :eusa_liar:

I don't think however that Rosenberg deserved to go straight into the team at #9 at the expense of Babel and Charisteas. He didn't earn his spot and there was too much pressure on him at the beginning to be better than the other two strikers. And you have to question why we bought a new striker when we needed players in other areas of the pitch.

That said, Rosenberg has put his head down and worked his socks off, and has developed into a great "utility attacker" who is fairly handy on the left. All credit to him for that. I'll be honest and say that if I was managing Ajax from the start of this season I wouldn't have bought Rosenberg, but now that he's here he's doing the business.

[Philippe]

As I said, we will soon find out if Blind tactics work : for the last crucial games and with all the basis players back.
We can do without Escudé, Galasek, Lobont and likes, but we need Emanuelson, Sneijder, and Grygera.
Blind was the one who decided to keep Anastasiou without whom we would not even have survived to the CL group phase.

[ajaxperu]

I took this from the Ajax USA quote archive:
04 February: "The crucial question for me is: am I still able to get through to the team? Can I still incite them? I will only throw in the towel if that feeling goes away. But that's not the case [...] If the gap between us and the 5th position increases to seven points, we lose touch with our goal. If that happens it's up to the club to take a decision. I am not naive."-blind

Well we are not fighting to get to the 5th position, we are figthing to hold on to that spot. That for a team like Ajax is unacceptable. I think Blind has lost the ability to incite the team a long time ago. I hope Blind goes, but I hope he leaves because he was a great player (one of my favorite players) and if he continues in this path were we see Ajax getting worse every weekend I'm going to start hating him just like I did with Koeman. I don't want that to happen. I know he has given his best but unfortunatly he has to realize that his best effort is just not enough.

Who should be Ajax coach? I'm not sure.I don't know Ten Cate, I think Laudrup could be just the same as Blind and the rest...well they don't convince me. It's hard getting a good coach at this moment.

[bryan]

@phillipe: I don't agree. You can't sell one of your best defenders and then blame injuries when you don't have enough defenders.

It's Blind's own fault that the team is decimated by injury. Did he really think he could survive with so few experienced players? Was he expecting nobody to get injured? Other teams have to put up with injuries too, but they have the squad to cope with it. It doesn't cause their season to fall apart.

[bryan]

Who should be Ajax coach? I'm not sure.I don't know Ten Cate, I think Laudrup could be just the same as Blind and the rest...well they don't convince me. It's hard getting a good coach at this moment.

The rumour is that Ten Cate has signed at P$V, which would be a damn shame, because if he's willing to leave Barca then we need to make sure Amsterdam is his destination.

[Philippe]

@phillipe: I don't agree. You can't sell one of your best defenders and then blame injuries when you don't have enough defenders.

It's Blind's own fault that the team is decimated by injury.

No, it's not Blind's fault, it's the responsability of the technical director, praised by Ko for the very same reason.