Ajaxtalk

Mc Laren will find it harder this time.

SPL schreef:Mc Laren will find it harder this time.

Story of his life?

SPL schreef:Mc Laren will find it harder this time.

Yes. He can only fail this time, can he not?

Co was axed for the usual reasons: conflict with the president (Munsterman, in this case), players didn't like him (reportedly), etc. etc. The results were not the problem, really. Twente crashed out of the cup, but that can happen. They're still in Europe and third in the league, totally in the race for the title.

The fans will expect things to improve under McClaren, but how much can he do?

The players will probably like him (he seems a 'father figure' to me), but I don't think Twente will suddenly be brilliant with him on the bench.

If I were McClaren, I would have waited for PSV.

K.

luuk de jong also came out now and says hes open to an EPL move... if he and douglas leave, its over.

Utrecht just scored against psv!
p.s. It can end up as a decent weekend for us, as i see psv as our bigest opponent for the title.

Come on Jezus please let Utrecht keep this 1-1!

Ok, ok i'll take 1-1 as well

Yes 1-1 final score.

Our reject, Suk, just scored to give Groningen a 1–0 lead at home to PSV in the first half.

Now it's 2-0 and Manolev is red carded

Looked like a yellow for the blatant dive, then a second yellow for dissent.

Unbelievable that we still have a chance to win the league.

Would agree we have 7 home and 5 away to go . If we can just put together 4 or 5 wins , but that wont be easy .

Should get a bit of movement in the league next week...AZ vs. Heerenveen and PSV vs. F-word , according to Eredivisie Live.

its amazing how this year is stupidly close again

afcajax73 schreef:its amazing how this year is stupidly close again

Yup.

It's pretty bizarre. Back in the old days the Eredivisie used to be a two-horse race: PSV and Ajax, that was it. Feyenoord grabbed a title every once in a while, but were normally pretty far behind.

In recent years the quality level has dropped. The Dutch league used to be the 'best of the rest', the 'best of the small countries': behind Spain, Italy, England, Germany and France, but ahead of the rest. That's obviously not the case right now: the Dutch league is not #6 but #10 in Europe. No Dutch team can even see the European top from where they are right now, while countries like Portugal, Russia, Ukraine and even Romania leapfrogged us on the UEFA ranking.

However, the league itself has become very entertaining indeed. Pretty crazy stuff. Anything can happen. AZ and FC Twente won titles, Heerenveen are close, a handful of teams are very well able (especially at home) to give the traditional 'top three' a particularly difficult afternoon. The Eredivisie has been a particularly spectacular league in the past three, four seasons.

You can tell that from the attendances: almost all of the clubs built a new (often pretty) and bigger stadium - and almost all of them sell out quite regularly.

The Eredivisie is exciting, the teams try to play entertaining football, most of them have a good youth program, the number of Dutch player on the pitches of the Eredivisie is relatively high compared to many other countries, most Dutch clubs are relatively 'healthy' financially, there is not much stinky shit going on (corruption etc.), tickets are still relatively affordable - and many of the clubs are deeply rooted in their local communities and wear traditional, recognizable uniforms.

Many Dutchies moan about the quality of the football and speak condescendingly about the Eredivisie, but I love it, to be honest... The quality? Our position on the UEFA ranking? Oh well, that's sensitive to fluctuations anyway. I don't give a flying f**k about that kind of stuff anyway.

K.

Kowalczyk schreef: In recent years the quality level has dropped. The Dutch league used to be the 'best of the rest', the 'best of the small countries': behind Spain, Italy, England, Germany and France, but ahead of the rest. That's obviously not the case right now: the Dutch league is not #6 but #10 in Europe.
K.

That's simply not true IMO. Look at the Europa League for instance. Dutch teams are doing ok so far, sorry to mention it.

The only real inferiority is when you compare Dutch topclubs to the 8 or 10 wealthiest in Europe. You just can't compete on the long term when your budget is between 20% and 33% of these.

About the French league, that was a good laugh.

Watched the entire Utrecht - AZ game on tv. Pretty cool. AZ were lucky not to get a 4-0 beating. Well done Ian.

philippe schreef:

Kowalczyk schreef: In recent years the quality level has dropped. The Dutch league used to be the 'best of the rest', the 'best of the small countries': behind Spain, Italy, England, Germany and France, but ahead of the rest. That's obviously not the case right now: the Dutch league is not #6 but #10 in Europe.
K.

That's simply not true IMO.

You are right, it's not true: Holland is not #10 but #9 at the moment...

Having corrected that: the point still stands. It is a fact, based on the statistics of the last five seasons in UEFA competition. Holland was once #6, behind the 'Big Five', but that's no longer the case. Here is the current UEFA ranking to prove my point.

K.

Only the UEFA knows how their rating is calculated. But ranking surely takes the CL into consideration and gives it major impact.
That's why I'm right. The supriority of the 8 or so wealthiest clubs in Europe is devastating.
But as we say in French, it's the tree hiding the forest. Apart from these, Dutch topclubs can compete with any foreign club. See the Europa League.

philippe schreef:Only the UEFA knows how their rating is calculated. But ranking surely takes the CL into consideration and gives it major impact.
That's why I'm right. The supriority of the 8 or so wealthiest clubs in Europe is devastating.
But as we say in French, it's the tree hiding the forest. Apart from these, Dutch topclubs can compete with any foreign club. See the Europa League.

you can't be serious?? portugese, ukranian, and russian teams have been way better than the dutch teams in international competition. even looking at the europa league and uefa cup in the past, when was it the last time a dutch team got any further that the quarter finals? f-word was the last team to win it, in 1999 i believe. just look at what zenit, donetsk, cska, porto, braga have done over the past years, and precisely in the europa league. so that is exactly where the rankings come from.

that said, i would put my money on roma beating twente, tottenham beating psv, and athletico beating ajax. the fact is that even mid-table teams in england, italy, germany, spain can beat the dutch top teams at any time.

kezme44 schreef:

philippe schreef:Only the UEFA knows how their rating is calculated. But ranking surely takes the CL into consideration and gives it major impact.
That's why I'm right. The supriority of the 8 or so wealthiest clubs in Europe is devastating.
But as we say in French, it's the tree hiding the forest. Apart from these, Dutch topclubs can compete with any foreign club. See the Europa League.

you can't be serious?? portugese, ukranian, and russian teams have been way better than the dutch teams in international competition. even looking at the europa league and uefa cup in the past, when was it the last time a dutch team got any further that the quarter finals? f-word was the last team to win it, in 1999 i believe. just look at what zenit, donetsk, cska, porto, braga have done over the past years, and precisely in the europa league. so that is exactly where the rankings come from.

that said, i would put my money on roma beating twente, tottenham beating psv, and athletico beating ajax. the fact is that even mid-table teams in england, italy, germany, spain can beat the dutch top teams at any time.

Tottenham is NOT a mid-table team anymore. As for the others, well, i don't think Atletico or Roma are something special. The comparisment with russian teams is jus irrelevant, just look at Anzhi. If someone doesn't know who Suleyman Kerimov is and what he's standing for...What i can't understand is how this portugese are doing so good. Their league is a joke! It's rude, played on half-empty stadiums and so on. The country has serious financial problems and still, their clubs are doing good in Europe. Portugal is the true mystery to me. I think tehe are some very interesting and not very leagal administrative things...

more likely it's their Brazilian "cousins" that get transfered for a bunch of bananas and then get sold for millions.... Just ponder that Porto estimated Hulk for 94 million. ARE YOU FREAKIN NUTS????

First of all: Going from Brazil to Portugal is a small step: nice weather, same language. Also the Portugese don't have to pay a minimum of 300.000 euros/year for a non-EU player, which in the Netherlands is the case. So in NL they are very reluctant to contract these players, because 300.000 is a big figure even for mid-table clubs in the Eredivisie.

So we (in NL) are making it ourselves pretty difficult, but on the other hand we don't generate massive debts. Downside is that we are increasing the gap between the top of Europe.

The only reliable statistics : the number of fans per home game.

We are number 13 in Europe !

http://www.parool.nl/parool/nl/13/AJAX/ ... fans.dhtml
1 Borussia Dortmund (DUI) 80.382
2 FC Barcelona (SPA) 78.099
3 Man United (ENG) 75.348
4 Real Madrid (SPA) 72.855
5 Bayern München (DUI) 69.000
6 Schalke 04 (DUI) 61.076
7 Arsenal (ENG) 59.945
8 VfB Stuttgart (DUI) 55.639
9 Hamburger SV (DUI) 52.455
10 Gladbach (DUI) 51.214
11 Hertha BSC (DUI) 51.193
12 Celtic (SCH) 49.472
13 Ajax (NED) 49.388
14 Newcastle (ENG) 48.924
15 Man City (ENG) 47.043
16 1. FC Köln (DUI) 46.609
17 Rangers (SCH) 45.852
18 AC Milan (ITA) 45.734
19 Liverpool (ENG) 44.811
20 Hannover 96 (DUI) 44.714
21 Internazionale (ITA) 43.858
22 Feyenoord (NED) 43.700

We have better attendance than Man City. That just made my day.