If the supposed continuity club began by veering towards crisis, the side stripped of its manager and key players in defence, midfield and attack have flourished. Group A of the Champions League may have started by confounding received wisdom in football. Maybe, though, that is simply the Ajax way.
“They are in a massive rebuild but doing a really good job,” said Jurgen Klopp. His Liverpool, Champions League finalists three months ago, started off their continental campaign by getting thrashed 4-1 by Napoli. By contrast, Ajax kicked off with a 4-0 demolition of Rangers. They have 28 goals in their last seven games, five consecutive clean sheets and a winning run that is not simply a case of innate superiority in the Eredivisie. They arrive at Anfield on Tuesday night in almost illogically good shape.
If Ajax’s influence is found everywhere from Camp Nou to Old Trafford, they may be Europe’s most successful feeder club now. It represents a decline in status from the early 1970s, when they were the nonpareils but perhaps, having left an imprint on others, they can benefit from their vast diaspora and alumni network.
Napoli are not alone in beating Liverpool this season. So did their former manager Erik ten Hag’s current charges, Manchester United. They may borrow from his blueprint from a 2-1 triumph. “I have looked at the match they did,” said Ten Hag’s successor, Alfred Schreuder. “There are certain things that are applicable to us.”
Some of Ten Hag’s personnel no longer are. Ajax banked the best part of £200 million in the summer. If some of it was courtesy of United’s propensity to pay inflated fees, for Lisandro Martinez and Antony, the excellence of Sebastien Haller and Ryan Gravenberch brought moves to the Bundesliga’s superpowers. The exodus could have been greater, along with the boost to their coffers: Ajax had to repel interest in Edson Alvarez, Mohammed Kudus and Jurrien Timber.
They seem to face an annual makeover but their flagship signing Steven Bergwijn has been in prolific form. Brian Brobbey, brought back to Amsterdam from RB Leipzig in the summer, scored in Saturday’s 5-0 win over Heerenveen. Ex-Rangers man Calvin Bassey has slotted in at the heart of that frugal defence. There is a blend of the familiar – Daley Blind and Dusan Tadic were in the team who were seconds from reaching the 2019 Champions League final before Frenkie de Jong, Matthijs de Ligt, Donny van de Beek and Hakim Ziyech were high-profile departures – and the new.
There often is. Recruitment has become their specialist subject. The Netherlands may produce a disproportionate amount of talent, but Ajax’s biggest summer profits came from a Brazilian, an Argentine and an Ivorian. Now the inventors of total football have had another total overhaul.
“I think it is a big compliment to the people in the club who worked very hard to get a strong squad again,” said Schreuder. “I think we sign a few good players and also some new young players are coming in the starting 11 to play.”
Talk of philosophies surrounds Ajax and theirs is now as an elite finishing school. It reflects football’s financial realities in a world where the top five European leagues hoover up the television revenue and, often, the prize money for reaching the latter stages of the Champions League. Yet they have often had a pronounced emphasis on youth; their days as a selling club may date back to the successive summers in the 1970s when Johan Cruyff and Johan Neeskens decamped to Barcelona. They normally have a twin-pronged strategy of looking to the next generation and the transfer market.
“That fits with Ajax, to sign good players and to give young players a chance,” Schreuder added. “If you have a new squad, 10 new players, it gives new energy and that is the most important for me that you have players in the squad that want to improve themselves. They also have to fit a little bit and adapt a bit to the philosophy.”
Schreuder, formerly Ten Hag’s assistant in that 2019 run before assuming similar duties under Ronald Koeman at Barcelona and then managing Club Brugge, has had to adapt too. Ajax’s intention was to keep Antony before United paid £85 million to make him the 13th most expensive footballer ever. He played two games this season, opted out of two more and Ajax have scored 13 goals in three matches since his departure.
“The moment was not perfect for us but you have to move on and it is a new challenge to get a strong squad on the pitch,” Schreuder said. “It is a moment we are doing well but every game is a new test.”
And if a trip to Liverpool was supposed to present the toughest of all, while they are struggling to adjust to life without Sadio Mane, Ajax are coping well without four of their premier players and their manager.
