Ajax Coaches

[carcajou]

We do need a more experienced coach but of course next season with Perez, Stam and Davids around KJH all season and no players at the end of contracts and KOEMAN at psv even Blind would have likely had a good season.

Did I miss something about Davids coming back home or what???

Has he signed for Ajax?

[AsgAarD_xxx]

No, not yet I think... There are only rumours- just like with van der Meyde's back... But who knows? Everything is possible. I'll welcome Davids' transfer with my hands :).

[Kowalczyk]

So, Henkie ten Cate has won the Champions League with Barcelona. Nice one. Good for him. He can get sh*tfaced tonight and then fly to Amsterdam sometime tomorrow for a press conference at the Amsterdam ArenA... :yes:

K.

[DrDuncan]

... and then he can win the CL as head coach!

[SE6Ajacied]

the itv commentator for todays match said that he was linked with us and also PSV "back in Holland"....don't they know P$V have got the cowman??

[Kowalczyk]

So, Henkie ten Cate has won the Champions League with Barcelona. Nice one. Good for him. He can get sh*tfaced tonight and then fly to Amsterdam sometime tomorrow for a press conference at the Amsterdam ArenA... :yes:

Well, not quite...

After the Champions League final he didn't want to talk about it. He did say that he will absolutely not talk about his future before Friday's last league game in Spain, against Athletic Bilbao. After that he will reveal what he's going to do. "That will happen in the form of a press statement from Barcelona, the beautiful club I am still working for."

Saturday, perhaps?

K.

[Kowalczyk]

According to the reports Henk will speak on Saturday.

Saturday = Henk Day :cheer:

K.

[Kowalczyk]

Maybe Ten Cate, although I'd prefer someone like Ron Jans... experienced as a head man and look what he did with a club modest by pro standards.

Many people in Holland have said similar things. Many seem to think that Ajax are going to try it with a man who's only been an assitant. Which means it is time to remind the world of Ten Cate's achievements as a head-coach. He was head-coach of Go Ahead Eagles and Heracles in the First Division, then made the jump to the Eredivisie and finished 3rd with Vitesse (taking them into Europe), 4th with NAC (also taking them into Europe) and 6th with Sparta. He also made it to the cup final with Sparta.

For all of these clubs it was their by far best achievement in ages and none of them ever had a better year after Ten Cate left. In almost every case some of the players from Ten Cate's teams became much-wanted targets of bigger clubs and made their débuts for Holland.

We're talking about really, really good achievements with modest Eredivisie clubs here. As a head-coach. Then he moved abroad, to MTK Budapest in Hungary - and finished 2nd with them.

As a head-coach Ten Cate has easily more experience than Ron Jans, and he also accomplished more with relatively small clubs than Ron Jans. Almost as much as Co Adriaanse, I would say (although Co's record with Willem II and AZ is pretty stunning).

Which takes me to the next point: one of the main reasons why it all went wrong with Adriaanse at Ajax, was the fact that he very clearly wasn't used to the 'culture' and 'climate' at a top club. He made some very bad 'PR mistakes' and seemed to have underestimated the culture at the top. At Porto he's now showing that he's learned from his mistakes - which is good for him. Ten Cate, however, knows exactly what it's like at the top: he accomplished a lot as a head-coach in Holland, has experience as a head-coach outside of Holland and also found out what it's like to work for what is arguably the biggest club in the world (when it comes to politics, number of club members and media attention).

Finally: all of his teams played entertaining, offensive football and his players always improved under his reign.

I couldn't think of a better man for Ajax.

K.

[Blind3]

Thank you Ko for enlightening me on Mr. Ten Cate's coaching pedigree. I knew he had been at NAC, but that's all.I think being #2 at Barca is ,by itself, good On-The-Job training. Talk about a tough environment. Looks like a man who, if he has decent talent can do alot. If Martin van Geel,etc.. give him the right tools....

I must say I would look forward to seeing what he can do.

[Kowalczyk]

According to this morning's Telegraaf it will all be confirmed today, in the afternoon. I don't think it will, to be honest. Ten Cate wants to wait until Barcelona have played their last league game. Which is tonight. If he confirms his move to Ajax this afternoon, it would be before Barcelona's last game after all. In that case he might as well have told it immediately after the CL final. I think he'll wait 'til tomorrow. Or perhaps tonight - late - after the Bilbao game.

According to the Telegraaf report, by the way, Ten Cate will bring his good mate (and experienced coach) Hennie Spijkerman as his assistant. That would be a surprising one. His name was never mentioned so far. Spijkerman's latest job was head-coach of FC Zwolle. He resigned early this season after his family was threatened by Zwolle fans (well, 'fans'... let's say 'lunatics').

K.

[Kowalczyk]

According to this morning's Telegraaf it will all be confirmed today, in the afternoon. I don't think it will, to be honest.

Oops... I stand corrected. :D

http://english.ajax.nl/show/id=118083/contentid=47239

We have a new captain on the ship, folks. It's official.

K.

[SE6Ajacied]

According to the Telegraaf report, by the way, Ten Cate will bring his good mate (and experienced coach) Hennie Spijkerman as his assistant. That would be a surprising one. His name was never mentioned so far. Spijkerman's latest job was head-coach of FC Zwolle. He resigned early this season after his family was threatened by Zwolle fans (well, 'fans'... let's say 'lunatics').

K.

Oh wow, I wasn't expecting this so early...and I've never even heard of Mr Spijkerman. I've looked his stats up, seems to have a lot of experience coaching in the Amateur game and Gouden Gouds Divisie (but I expect you know that already). That needn't be a hinderence at all though, I have a really good feeling about this :xyxthumbs:

[afckeeper95]

According to the Telegraaf report, by the way, Ten Cate will bring his good mate (and experienced coach) Hennie Spijkerman as his assistant. That would be a surprising one. His name was never mentioned so far. Spijkerman's latest job was head-coach of FC Zwolle. He resigned early this season after his family was threatened by Zwolle fans (well, 'fans'... let's say 'lunatics').

K.

Oh wow, I wasn't expecting this so early...and I've never even heard of Mr Spijkerman. I've looked his stats up, seems to have a lot of experience coaching in the Amateur game and Gouden Gouds Divisie (but I expect you know that already). That needn't be a hinderence at all though, I have a really good feeling about this :xyxthumbs:

Brilliant. I'm starting to feel good about next season :yes:

[aveslacker]

Congratd to Henk and to Ajax.

Lets get back to playing Ajax football.

[ozzerdibazio]

That's excellent. I didnt realise he had such pedigree either, thx for that ko. I am really pleased to have as Ajax coach, i feel a sudden burst of confidence for Ajax now. :cheer:

[Blind3]

In the words of Pearl Jam , Corduroy, "The waiting drove me mad". Glad Henk Ten Cate is now firmly in place.WELCOME AND GOOD LUCK!!!! Guess he figured that announcing today , when Barca has only to play for pride and to act as entertainment for the on-going celebration there, is not a big deal.Echoing the sentiments of my esteemed colleague, aveslacker , "Lets get back to playing AJAX FOOTBALL".

[Ayman]

Henk ten Cate comes to Ajax as a european champion. Now lets hope his winning mentality can trickle on to the field. :worshippy:

[Kowalczyk]

Just published the Ten Cate news report on Ajax USA. It includes a lengthy biography of our man. Learn everything about him!

http://www.ajax-usa.com/news/2005-2006/ ... -2008.html

K.

[Frans]

Just published the Ten Cate news report on Ajax USA. It includes a lengthy biography of our man. Learn everything about him!

http://www.ajax-usa.com/news/2005-2006/ ... -2008.html

K.

Aware of the fact that it can only go downhill at Barça, Rijkaard and Ten Cate announced their departure.

Is this actually true?

[Kowalczyk]

Aware of the fact that it can only go downhill at Barça, Rijkaard and Ten Cate announced their departure.

Is this actually true?

According to reports in Holland Rijkaard has also said that he will move on. But the official Barcelona site doesn't confirm this, so you're right: I'll remove that . It's not official yet. Thanks for this.

K.

[ozzerdibazio]

Good report. I really like the sound of him, especially the bit about spectacular offensive football. That's just what Ajax need

[aveslacker]

As long as he doesn't have them flopping like Deco, Ronaldinho, Eto'o and co.

Those guys were out of control in the CL final. They're skilled enough -- they don't need to resort to that.

[Kowalczyk]

According to many news reports (including AT5 and De Telegraaf) Fons Groenendijk will be appointed as one of Henk's assistants. He coached the A1 youth team this season.

I met Groenendijk a while ago: he was one of the guests in AT5's Ajax talkshow FC Godenzonen, in which I regularly appear as an 'Ajax watcher' or 'analyst' or whatever you want to call it. I was impressed with Groenendijk: he's a calm, rational and very smart guy. Said a few very intelligent things about what was wrong at the first team. And by all accounts he's been a very good 'field coach' for Ajax A1.

I think it's good for Henk (who can be a bit short-tempered) to have a calm guy like Groenendijk as his assistant.

Seriously, I think Ajax have been making the exact right choices since the winter break. That must be Martin van Geel's work: Huntelaar, Stam, Perez, Keizer as 'technical advisor', Blind out, Krol out, Van der Lem out, HTC in, Groenendijk in... I have a good feeling about almost everything Van Geel has done so far.

K.

[Kowalczyk]

As long as he doesn't have them flopping like Deco, Ronaldinho, Eto'o and co.

Those guys were out of control in the CL final. They're skilled enough -- they don't need to resort to that.

Yeah, I agree. At a certain point in the final you could see that they started to worry. After Arsenal's goal they did not panic, initially. They thought: we'll score - no problem. But in the second half they started to have serious doubts, and as a reaction to that they started diving and whining. All of a sudden the beautiful Barça were pretty annoying...

After the equalizer you just knew that Arsenal were going to collapse - and Barça immediately started to play football again.

K.

[aveslacker]

Also, this is OT, but Henry played like crap. I think he is going to have a terrible world cup. He seems exhausted.