tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-487486960623783530.post2367498870678534135..comments2024-02-29T09:58:18.342+01:00Comments on The Swiss Ramble: Why Ajax Are No Longer Dutch MastersThe Swiss Ramblerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11423088862174893998noreply@blogger.comBlogger30125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-487486960623783530.post-19101119170276583952017-05-05T12:24:05.627+02:002017-05-05T12:24:05.627+02:00They might win Europa league which will improve th...They might win Europa league which will improve their budget for sure.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-487486960623783530.post-2672413599994980372017-02-20T22:27:03.338+01:002017-02-20T22:27:03.338+01:00Is there an update to this story? How are Ajax do...Is there an update to this story? How are Ajax doing now 7 years later? Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07503969872526765078noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-487486960623783530.post-31379790676337750232010-11-27T19:18:15.559+01:002010-11-27T19:18:15.559+01:00Good, interesting article.
The Ajax Cape Town set...Good, interesting article.<br /><br />The Ajax Cape Town set-up did bring Steven Pienaar to Ajax. One good player might justify an entire investment. (Can't find the amount he was sold to Dortmund for, but he was certainly a good player for us.)<br /><br />Overall, transfer policy has been disastrous lately. Apart from expensive flops such as Albert Luque en Sulejmani, especially the senseless hoarding of squad players is aggravating. <br /><br />A striker was needed, 5M € later El Hamdaoui was brought in, and doing great, as expected; a sensible purchase with a clear purpose. But then, for every sensible signing there are three pointless Atoubas.<br /><br />Signings like this season's Tainio, Mido and Ooijer only hinder youth players' progress. These youth players may well be potentially better, have much cheaper contracts and the supporters enjoy seeing them coming through (as does the transfer balance).<br /><br />Overweight make-weight Mido and PSV-reject Ooijer representing the club is just depressing. As is the fact Ajax are losing far too often recently to challenge or progress in any competition. <br /><br />To complete a crisis: <br />1) There's a rift, with the management and board on one side and The One (and Only) and friends/allies on the other. And<br />2) the manager and his assistant apparently can't stand each other. And<br />3) Ajax had to fire a reserve player from the club, for pulling a gun on a teammate. And<br />4) Captain Suarez got himself banned for 7 games, for biting an opponent. (And he's having an abysmal season overall).<br /><br />So, so far the players' reaction seems to consist of dropping points and random acts of violence. I hope better approaches will be found.<br /><br />On the other hand, Ajax could be in Feyenoord's situation, situated on an even higher plane of disaster. <br /><br />The club should be careful where it's heading if nothing changes though.csprrnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-487486960623783530.post-83222905552373502832010-11-27T14:17:17.187+01:002010-11-27T14:17:17.187+01:00I am not into blogging. However, someone passed me...I am not into blogging. However, someone passed me and a friend who is from Bolton your piece on Bolton. I am a Spurs fan but I have read the piece with interest. It is so clearly written. If you get the chance to spend what I assume must be lots of time, to do a similar critique of Spurs, I would be very happy to see it.Andrew Hartnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-487486960623783530.post-35103145354024640272010-11-22T23:19:02.670+01:002010-11-22T23:19:02.670+01:00i think that the the English team who earns the mo...i think that the the English team who earns the most money gets less than twice as much that the bottom team. i think it was around 1,4x or something...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-487486960623783530.post-83711527004323128332010-11-22T17:34:21.786+01:002010-11-22T17:34:21.786+01:00I think RM gets approximately 16-17 times as much ...I think RM gets approximately 16-17 times as much as the last team in the Primera, while CFC/MU gets twice as much as the last team in the PL.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-487486960623783530.post-79398281865271651472010-11-22T17:24:46.046+01:002010-11-22T17:24:46.046+01:00In an older article there was a comparsion between...In an older article there was a comparsion between the Spanish and English League from the aspect of TV money earned by teams, how many times the Real Madrid gets more domestic TV money than the bottom Spanish team and the same for the Premier League.<br />I don't remember the exact numbers, and I can't find the article.<br /><br />Can someone help me?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-487486960623783530.post-44736104980007193012010-11-20T21:59:21.898+01:002010-11-20T21:59:21.898+01:00anakzaman
thanks for the info! Don't know the...anakzaman<br /><br />thanks for the info! Don't know the details of the report but no matter how radical Cruijff's ideas might be and how much he is supposedly out of touch with modern football and etc. for whatever reason his decisions always turn out right and whenever you listen to him, you end up on the winning side(see Barça and every decision he took/advice he gave there in the past 30 years).Mahdihttp://twitter.com/liaBIGPUNovnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-487486960623783530.post-50160598028624606772010-11-20T09:41:18.329+01:002010-11-20T09:41:18.329+01:00Good article as ever, but there is at least one mo...Good article as ever, but there is at least one more team who won all three European Cups - Bayern München won the European Cup in 1974, 1975, 1976 (and the CL in 2001), the Cup Winner's Cup in 1967 and completed their collection with winning the UEFA Cup in 1996.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-487486960623783530.post-52068199035883693932010-11-18T22:15:18.076+01:002010-11-18T22:15:18.076+01:00Purple Cow, do you mean the supporters who were ch...Purple Cow, do you mean the supporters who were chanting "Johan Cruijff, wie kent hem niet, Johan Cruijff, Johan Cruijff is een echte Ajacied" this weekend in the stadium??? <br /><br />And Cruijff doesn't know anything about modern football? Arguably the current best team in the world, Barcelona, is moulded in his way and it started way back in 1974 when he moved there.anakzamanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09667792259091248934noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-487486960623783530.post-52756071119020885602010-11-18T16:43:07.635+01:002010-11-18T16:43:07.635+01:00Great article!
Discussions about the pan-european...Great article!<br /><br />Discussions about the pan-european league are redundant if the UEFA puts in financial fairplay and regulates the number of youth players in squads. The last years Ajax always sold their best players to clubs who were and still are in serious debt. Above all, with a fixed minimum of youth- or domestic players in the squad, it will be harder for the big clubs to buy every player that has played more than one decent game, because they have to lead up players themselves.<br /><br />As for Cruijff, the majority of Ajaxfans does support him. At least I'm one of them and last couple of matches songs about Cruijff are one of the most heard chants in the Arena.<br />Maybe one should watch a documentary which was broadcasted by the BBC and presented by Lineker (forgot the name). Central thought in the documentary is that Spain have won the WC 2010 because of the Cruijff philosophy, which was first introduced in in 1988 in Barcelona and re-introduced by Rijkaard and Guardiola and later adopted by the Spain national XI. Of course, it's exactly the same philosophy that gave Ajax their still famous name back in the seventies. The only critique on Cruijff is that, although he knows what's best for the club, he doesn't want to reorganise the club himself but rather puts in charge younger people who share his philosophy. As for Barcelona, it worked out great...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-487486960623783530.post-53997481895642659772010-11-18T10:29:23.733+01:002010-11-18T10:29:23.733+01:00"..which takes us to an important lesson in f..."..which takes us to an important lesson in football: Cruyff is always right."<br /><br />Except when he is wrong, which is about 90% of the time. Cruijff doesn't understand modern football. It's always the same with him, he comes back to Amsterdam with his suntan shouting his mouth off, then the first time anyone says 'boo' to him he throws his toys out the pram and storms off back to Sitges. That's why he has zero credibility with Ajax supporters these days.<br /><br />**<br /><br />"Or they could look at a combined Germanic league being blended into the bundisliga and the Austrian league."<br /><br />I'm guessing you don't know Dutch people at all, do you? The Dutch would rather give up football all together than join a German league.The Purple Cowhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17455065546313599875noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-487486960623783530.post-46451274795031747412010-11-18T00:44:00.334+01:002010-11-18T00:44:00.334+01:00Great article, don't mean to be picky but in A...Great article, don't mean to be picky but in AZ, the A stands for Alkmaar thus putting Alkmaar after AZ is superfluous. Seriously wonderful article though, even if you are being a tad harsh on 21 year old Miralem Sulejmani. Let's be fair, hindsight is a wonderful thing and he was tremendous that season.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-487486960623783530.post-83089124485690472662010-11-17T21:46:40.201+01:002010-11-17T21:46:40.201+01:00The stadium capacity of the Meer was only 20.000 d...The stadium capacity of the Meer was only 20.000 due to a decision to decrease the capacity of the ground after the iron bar incident at the Austria Wien game in 1989.<br />Anyway, very good article!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-487486960623783530.post-41009166100530808722010-11-17T18:26:30.092+01:002010-11-17T18:26:30.092+01:00Agreeing with others in that I'm seeing the on...Agreeing with others in that I'm seeing the only solution to the smaller countries is by creating pan national leagues. If these leagues are marketed well and set up by people with a good business acumen then in time they could definitely challenge ligue or Spain or Italy.<br /><br />For the Dutch they could have the pan national league mentioned above by a poster. Or they could look at a combined Germanic league being blended into the bundisliga and the Austrian league. There would be benefits for Germany in this as well.<br /><br />Or France and Belgium and Switzerland etc. <br /><br />Eastern Europe will have to do it, what is teh point of having tiny countries like the former balkan states each having their own league when there is so much talent. Those clubs could become powerful again. Not to mention a Russian Ukrainian league to challenge Western European Dominance.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-487486960623783530.post-16631668286999468842010-11-17T16:42:05.847+01:002010-11-17T16:42:05.847+01:00Purple Cow, are you Mino Raoila in disguise??? Onl...Purple Cow, are you Mino Raoila in disguise??? Only if Ajax listens to Cruijff will they get better again...<br /><br />Mahdi, the rift between van Basten and Cruijff was about the youth system. After the Coronol Report, Cruijff (as an unofficial advisor) wanted to restructure the whole youth system by firing everybody and starting from scratch again. van Basten didn't agree saying that this is approach is too radical. Cruijff drove out of the Arena straight afterwards.anakzamanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09667792259091248934noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-487486960623783530.post-73658146276322348842010-11-17T14:09:18.230+01:002010-11-17T14:09:18.230+01:00great post as usual! I would love to know what the...great post as usual! I would love to know what the rift was between Cruyff and Van Basten in 2008. As you know, Cruyff was signed to Ajax as an official advisor/technical director/something and he wanted to restructure the club, especially apparently in terms of scouting and the way the team is built. Marca was against it and thought the ideas are too radical, probably this wasn't even Marco's idea but those at Ajax who were always scared of Cruyff's radicalism. Now Ajax are worse off than before and Marco is somewhere....which takes us to an important lesson in football: Cruyff is always right.Mahdihttp://twitter.com/liaBIGPUNovnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-487486960623783530.post-90696602225788252010-11-17T13:36:22.224+01:002010-11-17T13:36:22.224+01:00Ajax have tried a couple of times to join other le...Ajax have tried a couple of times to join other leagues. The Atlantic League and the Phoenix league, I believe they were called. Basically leagues for 'big-fish-in-a-small-pond' clubs like Ajax, P$V, Rangers, Celtic, Porto, Copenhagen etc.<br /><br />I think UEFA deep-six'd both concepts, but a league like those is the only way that a Dutch club is going to be able to compete against the mega-rich clubs.<br /><br />The other thing Ajax must do is to keep johan Cruijff as far a possible away from the club. He's certifiable insane.The Purple Cowhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17455065546313599875noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-487486960623783530.post-73086972383889320882010-11-17T10:12:14.529+01:002010-11-17T10:12:14.529+01:00Great read!
It confirms all that I am thinking abo...Great read!<br />It confirms all that I am thinking about my club (I am an Ajax fan).<br /><br />A couple of points that also contribute to the downfall of Ajax:<br />1. ever since Louis van Gaal left there has been no stability on the coaching and/or technical director post. Since 1997 Ajax had 12 different coaches and something like 4 or 5 different TDs. That is definitely not conducive to run a club which strengths used to be their youth.<br />2. after the generation of van der Vaart, Sneijder, de Jong, Stekelenburg, Heitinga, the youth academy hasn't come up with big talents anymore. van der Wiel might be the only exception but apart from that the famous youth academy has run dry. But this also has to do with my point #1.<br />3. Ajax is being run by people without professional footballing background. There isn't anybody on the board that has this background and Johan Cruijff is trying to correct this. <br /><br />A conclusion I can take from your post is that the Eredivisie is too small for Ajax. Actually the Eredivisie is too small, period. Just look at the TV revenues. Hopefully Eredivisie Live can correct this, otherwise it will be a decline of Dutch football in general.<br /><br />More and more Dutch youngsters are leaving at a very early age (Tim Krul, Patrick van Aanholt, Jeffrey Bruma to name a few) and if this continues the vicious cycle will start and the Eredivisie and Dutch football will be left with nothing much.<br /><br />Oh and being pedantic, Affelay was sold for only 3 million because his contract runs out next summer. PSV can either cash in now or Affelay would have left for free next summer as he did not want to renew his contract.anakzamanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09667792259091248934noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-487486960623783530.post-63656166757020532782010-11-17T08:48:58.238+01:002010-11-17T08:48:58.238+01:00Fabulous, eminently readable as usual. Interested ...Fabulous, eminently readable as usual. Interested in the KB piece - I do think that the smaller countries of NW Europe really would benefit from a pan-national league (and I'd put Scotland in there too).nicoatridgehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17668755730070012603noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-487486960623783530.post-17573700838665670152010-11-17T04:29:01.627+01:002010-11-17T04:29:01.627+01:00First of all, thank you for writing on a non-big 5...First of all, thank you for writing on a non-big 5 team. I just asked last article and voila. You're amazing.<br /><br />I know this will never happen but a joint Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Noway, Sweden, Finland & Luxembourg league set up like the EPL with tiers would be an amazing league. The total population watching that league would be about 53 Million (16.6M + 10.8M + 5.5M + 9.4M + 4.9M + 5.4 M +.5M), which is only 8M less than Italy's population. Additionally you would be joining up the 10th, 12th, 13th, 26th, 28th, 30th and 51th best leagues according to UEFA, which I would guess would equate about to the same quality as Serie A.<br /><br />That league wouldn't be overly expensive to travel if you did extended road trips (so a team in Belgium would play 4 games away in Scandinavia and then come home for 4 straight games) and can you imagine the competition level? I know that sounds sort of weird (compared to the EPL where it seems you get 1 home then 1 away) but in the U.S. teams do extended road trips and home streaks. My Detroit Red Wings play in the Western Conference (despite being in the Eastern timezone) and we often have 4-5 game road trips and once a year we have a long, long road trip of anywhere between 7 and 10 away games without 1 home game. It's just what you have to do with a bigger map.<br /><br />Just this year 9 teams from these countries played in a UEFA Champions match (Ajax, Twente & Copenhagen into Group stages, Rosenborg and Anderlecht into the playoff round, AIK, HJK and Gent into the 3rd qualifying round, and Jeunesse Esch into the 2nd qualifying round) and 30 teams in the Europa League. Of the 30 teams that made into Europa 8 made into group stage (Utrecht, PSV, Odense, Anderlecht, AZ, Club Brugge, Gent and Rosenborg) 6 made into play-off round (Feyenoord, Genk, Elfsborg, Brondby, AIK, and HJK) 9 made into the 3rd qualifying round (MYPA, Nordsjaelland, Inter Turku, Cercle Brugge, Molde, Randers, Goteborg, Aalesund and Kalmar) and just 7 teams didn't makt it past the 2nd qualifying round. Now lower Europe league wins aren't necessarily impressive but considering that of the 30 teams in these leagues that qualified 26.67% made into group, 46.67% made into group or play-offs and 76.67% made into the group, play-offs or 3rd qualifying round is impressive. These countries have talent but are held back by their population size and weak teams in their leagues. A superleague could have amazing talent.<br /><br />If I started a 20 team 1st tier league I'd have Ajax, AZ, FC Twente, and PSV from the Netherlands, Copenhagen, OB and Brondby from Denmark, Anderlecht, Gent, Club Brugge and Standard de Liege from Belgium, Rosenborg and Stabaek from Norway, AIk, Malmo and Goteborg from Sweden, HJK from Finland and F91 Dedelange and Jeunesse Esch from Luxembourg make up 19 of the the 20 teams. Then I'd have a playoff between every other team for the final spot but I'd expect it'd go to a team like Feyenoord or KuPs or Honka.<br /><br />Now while none of these teams are an Arsenal or Barcelona or Inter they are just as good as the secondary level teams in the Big 4 like Werder Bremen, Sampdoria, Aston Villa, Everton, Bayer, Borussia, Sevilla, Atletico Madri, Lazio and Napoli.<br /><br />If they don't do that, which they won't, they should seriously consider joining with Belgium. The population watching that league would jump to approximately 27 million, which would be about 1/2 of the UK.KBhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00140063912226053155noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-487486960623783530.post-63082786527191601012010-11-17T03:40:41.043+01:002010-11-17T03:40:41.043+01:00Just for comparison's sake, how much more mone...Just for comparison's sake, how much more money would Ajax have if they played in the Bundesliga? Would it be possible for a team to quit its national league and move to another league, because if there was 1 team that could do that it would be Ajax. They could compete in the Budesliga talent wise, they would get an influx of cash allowing them to hold young players for a couple more years, they would add another talented team to the league, and I think more importantly for the Bundesliga more and more talented Dutch players would go to a German team after leaving the Dutch leagues. Today young Dutch players go to Spain, England, Italy, and Germany about equally but if Ajax plays in the Bundesliga I'm sure the proportions would change towards Germany. Players like Robben, Sneijder, Huntelaar, Kuyt, Babel, and RVP could all be in the Bundesliga. Isn't that enticing enough for the Bundesliga to want them in? And for opening the door to talent Ajax would get a cut of the Germany TV budget and commercial connections.<br /><br /><br />Also, would a joint Netherlands/French league make sense? Ligue 1 seems to be suffering from a talent standpoint compared to the past, due to former colonies not sending all their players to France anymore, and the Netherlands has lots of talent. It seems like a perfect match to revive a dying (IMHO) Ligue 1. Besides Lyon getting smacked down by Bayern last year in the semi-finals when was the last time a French team made it that far? In 08-09 only Lyon made it into the knockout round and they lost right away to Barcelona (understandable). In 07-08 Lyon again was the only team into the knockout states and they lost right away to eventual winner Man U (wow 3 straight losses to the eventual winner 07-08 to Man U, 08-09 to Barcelona and 09-10 to Bayern). 06-07 Lille and Lyon both lost right away to Roma and Man U respectively. 05-06 Lyon again was the only team to make it and they lost in the quater-finals to AC Milan. 04-05 Lyon and Monaco both made the knockout phase but Monaco and then Lyon both lost to PSV in back-to-back rounds. Looking back, not since 03-04 has a French team done anything special in the UEFA Champions league when Monaco made it to the finals against Porto. If I went back through for the German, English, Italian and Spanish teams I know the track record would be much better considering every country has had at least 1 team win it all since 03-04. In fact, since Porto-Monaco the World Cup match has always been between a team from England, Italy, Spain or Germany. 04-05 was an English team over an Italian team, 05-06 was a Spanish team over an English team, 06-07 was an Italian team over an English team, 07-08 was all England, 08-09 was a Spanish team over and English team and 09-10 was a German team over an Italian team.KBhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00140063912226053155noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-487486960623783530.post-34184156740476104222010-11-17T00:25:05.165+01:002010-11-17T00:25:05.165+01:00Hi Swiss Ramble,
Top stuff as always. Any chance o...Hi Swiss Ramble,<br />Top stuff as always. Any chance of doing something similar on PSG if you ever get a chance?? Would love to see that on my club.<br />Keep up the great work<br />FrankAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-487486960623783530.post-47420000060841387062010-11-16T23:47:03.447+01:002010-11-16T23:47:03.447+01:00TSR:
Many thanks for what is always a detailed, ...TSR: <br /><br />Many thanks for what is always a detailed, coherent and entertaining analysis of the business of football. I have been a quiet admirer of your work for some time and just wanted to convey my appreciation for clarifying parts of the beautiful game that are typically unavailable without a subscription. (Hopefully, that comment will not influence your operating model.)<br /><br />As for Ajax, definitely a sad point in the club's history and I hope they do succeed in returning to a small semblance of their past glory. I wonder whether the economics of the game simply caught up with them. As more clubs fall under the control of well-funded entities, it becomes even more challenging to pursue effective scouting on a global basis. Though the club does have a rich vein of local talent available.<br /><br />Wondering whether you have ever considered writing a piece defining the basic concepts behind Soccernomics and debating its pros and cons. Think it could provide a base for some healthy debate here. All the best and please keep up the good work.Gunnemagicnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-487486960623783530.post-22704352850144689642010-11-16T20:48:20.829+01:002010-11-16T20:48:20.829+01:00To my mind, Ajax shares look a good buy at the mom...To my mind, Ajax shares look a good buy at the moment. The downside for Ajax of failing to dominate the league has a significant upside for the strength of the league as a whole: as other clubs have benefited from the CL revenues, the money has been spread around.<br /><br />The Dutch TV revenues can increase by enough at this stage - through having a stronger, more competitive, more watchable league - to boost Ajax's revenues significantly, and now they look to be qualifying every season, that's a win-win.Davenoreply@blogger.com