❌❌❌Rebuilding AJAX❌❌❌

SEASON 1 (2024-25) begins HERE

SEASON 2 (2025-26) begins HERE

SEASON 3 (2026-27) begins HERE

A Brief History

After Pim Mulier was introduced to the sport in 1879 while visiting England, he founded the first ever football club in the Netherlands in his home city of Haarlem, the Haarlemsche Football Club (HFC).

This was 14 years after the first ever football game played on Dutch soil, when in 1865 a game took place between a team of British workers from an Enschede textile factory and a British economic delegation from The Hague.

The Dutch national football championship exists since 1888. The first ever champion in 1889 was VV Concordia from Rotterdam. Clubs played in four, five, or six local regions and the champions of each region would play a national championship round at the end of the regular season. The aforementioned HFC would win it three times (1890, 1893, 1895).

Before the First World War, big teams included HVV The Hague (10 titles), RAP Amsterdam (5 titles) and Sparta Rotterdam (5 titles), the oldest club (1888) to have survived up until today's top flight professional football. Other 19th century teams still active in today's professional football are Vitesse (1892) and Willem II (1896).

Going forward, we slowly see the emergence of the teams we know today. Until the introduction of the Eredivisie, it was Ajax founded in 1900 taking most titles (7 titles, their first in 1918), followed by Feyenoord from 1908 (5 titles, first championship in 1924), then Go Ahead Eagles (1902, 4 wins), PSV (1913, 3 wins) and Willem II (3 wins). Football was allowed to become professional in 1954 and a single national top flight league known as Eredivisie was introduced in 1956.

In the first ever full-professional season of the Eredivisie (1956-57), PSV-player Coen Dillen wrote history by scoring the most goals in one season by a single player (43 goals). This record still stands to this day. His team however, didn’t win the championship, it was Ajax who became the Eredivisie’s first champions in 1957.

In total, Ajax has managed to win the national title 36 times, while PSV falls in second with 25 and Feyenoord comes in third with a total of 16 championships. These three teams would dominate the Dutch football competition for years and are known as the ‘traditional top three’. In fact ever since the introduction of the Eredivisie, AZ Alkmaar is the only team outside these three to have won more than once (1981, 2009). Other winners are DOS Utrecht (1958), Sparta Rotterdam (1959), DWS Amsterdam (1964) and FC Twente (2010).

END of last season (May 2024)

AJAX are looking for ways to come out of the hole they've essentially dug themselves. It seems a lifetime ago but just over two years ago in February 2022, Ajax was on the peak of its powers having come through the 2021-22 Champions League group stage without dropping a single point while cruising to another dominant national league title, their third in a row.

But first Marc Overmars (Director of Football) resigned due to a scandal, then manager Erik ten Hag left for greener pastures at Old Trafford and finally CEO Edwin van der Sar felt the weight of his responsibility: before reaching the moment of his already announced retirement, a brain seizure struck the old-goalie. Fortunately, the now retired director has recovered fully.

Ajax however did not recover at all. In the 2022-2023 season, Ajax started well under manager Alfred Schreuder but completely imploded, which lead to the sacking of the manager in January 2023. Under Ajax-2 coach John Heitinga, Ajax fought itself to third place and a lost cup final but the new Ajax leadership decided for new management.

For the 2023-2024 season, in came new Director of Football Sven Mislintat who agreed to the signing of manager Maurice Steijn and a dozen costly players under long term contracts. It became such a drama that for the first time in the Amsterdam team's history, it occupied the bottom place in the league table (if only for a single playing round). As surprisingly fast outsiders Mislintat and Steijn came in, they were once again out. Under interim-manager John van 't Schip, Ajax fought back to fifth place.Van 't Schip was promised another role after his interim spell ended after the last league game on May 19th 2024 (a 2-2 draw against relegated bottom team Vitesse).

Now, who's now going to take the helm at the Amsterdam side? Moreover, who'll be the new CEO and who'll be responsible for transfers? It's something Director of Football Marijn Beuker and new Technical Director Alex Kroes need to decide. Ajax traditionally relies on people with a history at the club, the so-called AJAX-DNA. However, a massive, major roadblock is a near empty account in the bank. And the players bought under Mislintat are too valuable in terms of transfer fee, too much in terms of salary and too long in terms of contract length.

Thus, Ajax is unlikely to sell and therefore unlikely to get new players in return. Yet, this must become the year Ajax finds itself again and will fight once more for national silverware and European prominence (with essentially the same squad that just delivered Ajax' worst season in the 21st century thusfar) - this is no longer AJAX for the Future (as per the traditional marketing slogan), this is AJAX REBUILDING IT.