Martin Jol

            I’ve delayed the writing of my second post for many days now, as I anxiously awaited the final answer to the question of the summer:  Will Martin Jol leave Ajax for Fulham?  I didn’t want to write a post on this issue because I wasn’t quite sure how I felt about it just yet.  I kept changing my mind.  I was absolutely schizophrenic on the subject.  First, I would be fine with it, confident that we could survive the short-term drama and upheaval.  Then, I would worry that Ajax was so chronically sick that it couldn’t even hold on to a manager for more than a year, that Suarez, Stekelenburg, van der Wiel, Vertonghen, and maybe even De Zeeuw would demand a transfer in frustration, and that Blind and de Boer would fail spectacularly as Jol’s successors.  And then finally I would remind myself that this whole thing was just an elaborate rouse constructed by Jol to pressure the board into allowing him to buy worthy replacements for Pantelic and Rommedahl.  Wash, rinse, repeat.

            Either way, I was delighted to wake up to the news that Martin Jol has decided to stay at Ajax after all, having hammered out a win-win compromise with Rick van den Boog.  Short-term stability accrues long term benefits.  Above all else, what Ajax needs is stability.  That’s what will bring confidence to the players, the fans, and the rest of the institution. Ajax needs to perform.  Ajax needs to play Champions League football, win their third star, and play their way back to financial stability.  Jol can accomplish this, so much is clear.  He has the talent and the personality.

            Having said that, my recent case of schizophrenia was not without cause, for Martin Jol is probably not the ideal man for Ajax in the long-term.  Some may disagree, but when I look at Martin Jol I don’t see Ajax’s Ferguson, or Ajax’s Wenger.  I see Ajax’s Hiddink, or Ajax’s Advocaat.  Someone who will step in for a couple of years, provide strong results and leave behind a solid foundation for the next man, while he moves on to his latest, more lucrative project.  Jol is a careerist.  I should add that I believe this to be a good thing for Ajax.  In the long run, Jol is too conservative a man for the job. But more on this later.  For now, let us enjoy the peace and quiet.  Let us hope that Ajax remains an oasis of calm for the foreseeable future—or at least until next week’s Champions League qualifier against PAOK.

Speaking of PAOK, they fired their manager, Mario Beretta, today.  He has only been in charge since the beginning of the summer.  While we were all fretting about the heat being turned up in Amsterdam right before the big match, we didn’t even realize that our opponents were ablaze.

Thanks for listening,

John

Please allow me to introduce myself

This blog is devoted to the most glorious football institution of all – AFC Ajax.

Allow me to introduce myself. My name is John, and I love Ajax. I spent my childhood dreaming about my heroes who played at the Amsterdam ArenA, pondering the choices of Morten Olsen, Jan Wouters, and Co Adriaanse, and quietly fantasizing about a return to glory. By my teenage years I was less naïve about the chances of success at the European level, and hardened by year after year of disappointment and embarrassment in Holland. While Ajax was struggling with its identity in the post-Bosman arrest era of globalization, I was struggling with my identity as an awkward, bespectacled teenager. Now I am a young adult, but Ajax doesn’t quite seem to have figured out its proper place in the 21^st century. In recent years Ajax has been haunted by its success of the 1990’s, but also by its failures in the 2000’s.

I have been following Ajax with an almost obsession-like focus for as long as I can remember. Whilst at first glance this may hardly seem unusual for a young Dutch football fan such as myself, I have thus far neglected to mention an important fact: I haven’t lived in the Netherlands since I was four years old. I’ve spent most of this time in Geneva, Switzerland, and New York, New York. Being an Ajax fan from outside of the Netherlands hasn’t always been easy, but luckily it has gotten more manageable with time. In the early days the highlight of my week was always the weekly episode of Eurosport’s Eurogoals. For European games, I always hoped that Ajax would draw either a Swiss, French, German, Italian, or Austrian team, because then I knew that I would have chance to see Ajax play live on television – a rare and always exciting occurrence. About once a year or so I would get the chance to attend an Ajax game in person, always at the Amsterdam Tournament, except once – Ajax against Heerenveen in December 1998. It was Jan Wouters’ first game in charge, it ended 0-0, Frank de Boer missed a penalty, and Jesper Gronkjaer was fantastic on the left wing. Over time the internet made it easier and easier to follow Ajax from abroad. Today it is really easy to catch any Ajax game on a live stream from almost anywhere, whether they happen to be playing ADO Den Haag or Zenith St. Petersburg.

Since Ajax USA shut down a few years ago I’ve been disappointed by the dearth of English-language Ajax-related web content for the Ajax fan abroad. That is why I’ve decided to create this blog. I plan to post regularly about Ajax’s games, players, tactics, history and just about everything else that has anything to do with Ajax. I hope that you enjoy it!

Thanks,

John