In modern football, England has struggled to produce top head coaches, as proven by the number of foreign coaches in the Premier League. From January, the head coach of the England national team will also be foreign, with highly rated German boss Thomas Tuchel taking the hot seat.
However, there was a time when English coaches were respected and seen as some of the biggest influencers on the beautiful game. Ajax benefited from English expertise in its early days, right up until the 1960s.
Many of Ajax’s first coaches were English
Although Irishman John Kirwan, who managed the team from 1910 to 1915, was Ajax’s first boss, the Dutch giants’ following three coaches, Jack Reynolds, Harold Rose, and Stanley Castle, were English.
The coacheswere in charge from 1915 until 1940. During that time, Ajax won the Dutch top-flight title on seven occasions and the KNVB Cup once.
The most successful of the three coaches from England was Jack Reynolds, who had two spells in the Dutch capital during that period and a third spell from 1945 until 1947.
Reynolds became a club legend during his time in Amsterdam and is still regarded as one of the best and most influential coaches the club has ever had.
He is regarded as the father of the ‘Total Football’ style of football, which was later implemented by Rinus Michels, who was highly influenced by the Englishman while playing under him for the club.
In that respect, he was highly influential, as the system that contributed to Ajax’s success in the 1960s and 1970s was based on that system.
After a relatively modest playing career, Reynolds started his coaching career in 1912 with St. Gallen in Switzerland. He stayed with the Swiss outfit until 1915, when he made the big move to Ajax.
In his first spell at the club, he won the Eredivisie twice, in 1917/18 and 1918/19, and claimed the KNVB Cup in 1916/17. He left the Amsterdam club in 1925.
However, he wasn’t gone for long. Reynolds returned in 1928, but this time, he stayed until 1940. His second spell was even more successful, as he helped the Amsterdam giants to five Dutch top-flight titles.
He left the club once again in 1940 but returned to Ajax for one last hurrah from 1945 until 1947, when he won the Dutch top-flight title in his final season as a football coach.
Reynolds adopted the Netherlands as his new home. From 1915, when he first joined Ajax, until he died in 1962, he only managed in the country. The Manchester-born coach even had a short stint as the boss of the Netherlands national team in 1919.
In 1962, after his death, a stand at the club’s then-stadium, De Meer Stadion, was renamed after the managerial icon.
The English tradition continued beyond Reynolds
Reynolds’s successor in the Ajax dugout was another Englishman, Robert Smith. The former Bolton Wanderers and Huddersfield Town player was only in charge for one season, from 1947 until 1948.
His successor was compatriot Walter Crook, who was in charge of the Dutch giants from 1948–1950. Crook also returned as the club’s coach for a short stint in season 1953–1954.
Yet another influential English boss, Vic Buckingham, arrived in the Ajax dugout in 1959. According to former Ajax and Netherlands icon Johan Cruyff, Buckingham contributed to bringing about a greater level of professionalism to the club.
The former West Brom boss guided Ajax to the Dutch top-flight title in the 1959/60 Eredivisie. However, he decided to leave the Amsterdam club just before the end of the following season, a season in which Ajax eventually finished as Eredivisie runners-up.
His replacement was 28-year-old fellow Englishman Keith Surgeon, who became the club’s sixth English head coach. He lasted just one season in the Dutch capital before leaving the club.
Ajax’s seventh English boss, Jack Rowley, arrived at the club ahead of the 1963/64 season. He came with a good pedigree after guiding Manchester United to the English First Division title in season 1951/52.
Despite his success with the English giants, Rowley stayed for just one season. His successor was a familiar name, Vic Buckingham. His second spell with the club from the Netherlands was slightly less successful, and he also left after just one season.
Football moved on from English coaching methods
The appointment of Reynolds disciple Rinus Michels in 1965 heralded a new dawn for Ajax. The Dutchman mixed what he had learnt from his days playing under the innovative Reynolds with the newfound professionalism brought in by Buckingham.
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The result was spectacular. Michels mastered the ‘Total Football’ system of football, guiding the Dutch giants to four Eredivisie titles, three KNVB Cups, and arguably, most notably, the European Cup in 1971.
By the time Michels took over as Ajax’s head coach, football had moved on from English coaching methods. European clubs had benefitted from English expertise in the early stages of the game.
However, coaches all over the world developed their own, often superior, methods and styles of play compared to their English counterparts.
While British head coaches’ influence was fading fast by the 1960s, Ajax as a club has a lot to thank English head coaches for in their early days, especially Jack Reynolds. That influence should never be forgotten, even if most of the names of those English bosses are just a faded memory.