What's going wrong at Ajax?

Martin Jol's resignation as manager of Ajax had nothing to do with the vacant managers job at Newcastle United, all it did was highlight the problems at the Amsterdam club.


Half way through the Eredivisie season and Ajax are 5 points off the pace in 4th place. A position which is recoverable, especially with 51 points to play with. Coupled with that a Champions League which looks like heading towards playing in the Europa league next year. The season is far from failure. Yet Jol resigned. Why? Because the Ajax fans expect too much.

This is understandable with de Godenzonen not winning the Eredivisie since the 2003/ 2004 season, which coincides with the last time Ajax have had a manager longer than a season. Since the end of Ronald Koeman 4 year tenure in 2005, Ajax have gone through 4 permanent managers (including Jol) and 3 caretaker managers, with Frank de Boer currently in the 'interim' role. 7 managers in 5 years is not how a club should be run.

The selling club mentality is hampering the chances of a prolonged time of winning silverware. Huntelaar, Sneijder, Ibrahimovic, De Jong, Vermaelen to name a few, what if the Ajax board said no a couple of times, what they could of achieved.

The pool of great youngsters from the Ajax academy are not developing quick enough. It's hard to see where the next Bergkamp, Davids, Kluivert and De Boer brothers are coming from.

The demand of instant silverware and quick fixes have damaged the ambition of the Jol's vision for the club, and now he is unemployed. Waiting for the West Ham job to be available.