Back in 2010, Johan Cruyff wrote an article in the biggest newspaper of The Netherlands to call for a revolution within Ajax. Now, seven years later, Peter Bosz leaving has shown us that this revolution has failed. Miserably. Killed by its own children. 18 months after Cruyff himself decided he wanted nothing to do with it anymore. Ajax are back. Back to being the political backstabbers we all grew to hate in the 21st century.
The core of the plan that Cruyff composed was that ex-footballers were the centre of the organisation, and this quickly became reality. Edwin van der Sar became CEO, Marc Overmars became in charge of transfers, Dennis Bergkamp joined the first team as an assistant manager and Wim Jonk used his expertise to guide the youth team. Jonk, however, was quickly forced out because of a serious disagreement with Bergkamp. It was at that time we should have done something about the whole construction.
You see, Dennis Bergkamp is one of the most powerful people within Ajax. Even though he’s just an assistant, he gets to decide the fate of managers, and finds himself backed by Van der Sar pretty much all the time. And since Van der Sar has proven time and time again he has the spine of a jellyfish, that means he gets to do what he wants, and most importantly: he gets to fight with whoever he wants. Since 2011, Bergkamp has clashed with Ruben Jongkind, Jonk, Bosz, Krüzen and Orlando Trustfull. All of them have left the club. Bergkamp is still here.
This is all being horribly mismanaged by Van der Sar, whose only shining moment in years of being CEO was taking centre stage when we made the Europa League final last month. A final purely accomplished by Bosz, but there Edwin was, screaming to André Onana. Yesterday, Van der Sar bumbled his way through some interviews, but rather than answering the questions of rightfully furious fans, he took out a massive middle finger by denying the toxic work environment and claiming Bosz’s departure was an act of decency by the board.
And so we continue being the first-class sh*tshow Bosz pulled us out of for one year. Let’s not forget, the last three years before Peter showed up were absolutely disheartening. Ajax seemed to have lost its course with dull football, European humiliation and horrible transfers. When Bosz came, he changed our pessimism into optimism. Maybe things would become better after all. Maybe, just maybe, could we be a force to be reckoned with again. But the selfish, incestious organisation within the club has killed this hope completely. They’ve allowed the best thing to happen to this club in the last five years get away because of their own personal gain. And that f*cking angers me.
There are two theories about the Van der Sar/Bergkamp coalition. My first one is that they’re terrible at their jobs (which is very plausible). My second one is that they don’t give a sh*t about Ajax as a club and just use it to further their own pathetic careers. Both of those options are horrifying, but it’s the situation the club and the fans are trapped within and will continue to be trapped within for the years to come.
Maybe it’s the emotion of the day, but I’m done being hopeful about these idiots. Good luck, Peter. And thanks for everything. It’s a shame it worked out the way it did. The so-called Cruyff followers have done the ultimate anti-Cruyff thing. Johan would be gutted, but he can’t be anymore. So I’m gutted for him, and with me, thousands of Ajax-fans are gutted as well. We are Ajax, we are f*cking doomed.
