stevenvdijk
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View attachment 205725
Background
After many crisis years in September 2012 it was Johan Cruyff who managed with his influence to initiate big changes at Ajax, which has been called since as the 'velvet revolution'. The board and management at that time had to leave due to pressure from all sides and Cruyff's plan to put more ex-football players on key positions in the club was put forward. At that time Frank de Boer was already the manager, assisted by Dennis Bergkamp. With the Cruyff plan also Marc Overmars (Technical Director), Edwin van der Sar (General Director) and Wim Jonk (Head of Youth Development) were appointed, according to his vision to get former Ajax players leading the club.
The Cruyff plan had 4 key objectives:
Now in 2015 another crisis has hit Ajax. The first squad has not lived up the the main objectives (no attractive football, and many players have been bought who did not add any value to the team) - but even more there has been a lack of cooperation within the Technical Heart which has lead to the board of Ajax wanting to fire Wim Jonk.
In his weekly column a the dutch newspaper Johan Cruyff has reviewed that actually only Wim Jonk (HoYD) is still standing for his vision and plan - which has put a bomb again under the current situation. Jonk apparently has refused to take part of the technical heart meeting, as he fundamentally disagree with the way Overmars has managed things in the past year.
In a report that was conducted by former Ajax player Tscheu La Ling to analyse the problems at Ajax, it became clear that many decisions have been taken outside the technical heart which were not in line with the key points of the Cruyff plan.
Main finding of the report was also that Overmars has bought many players which have not added value to the team - and are now also blocking youth players to break through to the main squad. Some latest examples of this are Zimling, Sanago, Duarte, Onana, Sinkgraven and Vd Hoorn.
Also the main squad, led by Frank de Boer, has not played attractive football over the past years. Even though FdB has been successful with 4 national championships, it has become more and more an irritation of the fans - and Cruyff - that Ajax has achieved this with unattractive football. On top of that within Europe Ajax has played a very minimal role in the last 5 years. Dropping out of the european competitions most of the times already after group stages.
For Wim Jonk (and Cruyff) it is very in favour that actually the Ajax -19 squad has now transformed itself to be on of the best teams in Europe. Playing very attractive football and winning recently from other big -19 teams like Barcelona, PSG and Schalke 04.
FM 16 Challenge: complete the Cruyff Plan and bring succes for Ajax in Europe.
With the start of the 2015/2016 season I will take over as head coach for Ajax, to fully implement the Cruyff Plan and (hopefully) bring Ajax back to be a leading team in Europe. The main starting points will be to stay true to the 4 key objectives as stated above, but also to bring back the Technical Heart as intended with recommended responsibilities as stated in the report from Tscheu la Ling.
For this I will use the Backroom Advice possibility to be the Technical Heart of Ajax and I have set a weekly meeting structure for this. In terms of responsibilities I will fully follow the intention of the technical heart which will mean the following settings for me and the rest of the staff:
Senior Squad Manager (me):
- training & caching first team
Director of Football:
- budgets, including salaries
- contracts first team players
- transfers (in/out)
- scouting
Head of Youth Development
- development youth players
- scouting of youth players
- transfers of youth players
- budget and contracts of youth players
All main decision need to be taken by the Technical Heart together - so my main task is to ensure that 'we' all agree on the tactic, players and new signings.
As you can see there will be a lot of responsibilities that I would be given out of hand to the HoYD and DoF.
In setting the staff responsibilities I will keep myself as end responsible for finalising the youth and first team signings. This way i can ensure every youth signing is approved by me and the DoY (via a positive scout report) - and every first team signing is approved by me and the HoYD (again via a positive scout report).
Furthermore I will start the game by firing Marc Overmars (current Director of Football) and Hennie Spijkerman (assistent of current Head coach). The first one because according to the report of Tscheu la Ling he has been the main guy not following with plan. Also i can't fire the board (which i would have loved to do), so in order to get some impact firing Overmars is the least i can do
Letting Hennie Spijkerman go was not part of the recommendations, but since him and Frank de Boer were more or less a tandem i don't think it is realistic that he will stay once FdB is gone.
So, all things said - now its time to get started!
Background
After many crisis years in September 2012 it was Johan Cruyff who managed with his influence to initiate big changes at Ajax, which has been called since as the 'velvet revolution'. The board and management at that time had to leave due to pressure from all sides and Cruyff's plan to put more ex-football players on key positions in the club was put forward. At that time Frank de Boer was already the manager, assisted by Dennis Bergkamp. With the Cruyff plan also Marc Overmars (Technical Director), Edwin van der Sar (General Director) and Wim Jonk (Head of Youth Development) were appointed, according to his vision to get former Ajax players leading the club.
The Cruyff plan had 4 key objectives:
- Ajax plays attractive football
- Ajax uses a realistic transfer policy that in first instance looks at their own youth academy and furthermore only buys players when needed - with low financial risks (don't buy, but produce star players)
- Ajax seeks to have the best youth academy in the world
- Ajax uses an individual approach for the total-football-player (Technique-Vision-Personality-Fysique), for both youth and first team.
Now in 2015 another crisis has hit Ajax. The first squad has not lived up the the main objectives (no attractive football, and many players have been bought who did not add any value to the team) - but even more there has been a lack of cooperation within the Technical Heart which has lead to the board of Ajax wanting to fire Wim Jonk.
In his weekly column a the dutch newspaper Johan Cruyff has reviewed that actually only Wim Jonk (HoYD) is still standing for his vision and plan - which has put a bomb again under the current situation. Jonk apparently has refused to take part of the technical heart meeting, as he fundamentally disagree with the way Overmars has managed things in the past year.
In a report that was conducted by former Ajax player Tscheu La Ling to analyse the problems at Ajax, it became clear that many decisions have been taken outside the technical heart which were not in line with the key points of the Cruyff plan.
Main finding of the report was also that Overmars has bought many players which have not added value to the team - and are now also blocking youth players to break through to the main squad. Some latest examples of this are Zimling, Sanago, Duarte, Onana, Sinkgraven and Vd Hoorn.
Also the main squad, led by Frank de Boer, has not played attractive football over the past years. Even though FdB has been successful with 4 national championships, it has become more and more an irritation of the fans - and Cruyff - that Ajax has achieved this with unattractive football. On top of that within Europe Ajax has played a very minimal role in the last 5 years. Dropping out of the european competitions most of the times already after group stages.
For Wim Jonk (and Cruyff) it is very in favour that actually the Ajax -19 squad has now transformed itself to be on of the best teams in Europe. Playing very attractive football and winning recently from other big -19 teams like Barcelona, PSG and Schalke 04.
FM 16 Challenge: complete the Cruyff Plan and bring succes for Ajax in Europe.
With the start of the 2015/2016 season I will take over as head coach for Ajax, to fully implement the Cruyff Plan and (hopefully) bring Ajax back to be a leading team in Europe. The main starting points will be to stay true to the 4 key objectives as stated above, but also to bring back the Technical Heart as intended with recommended responsibilities as stated in the report from Tscheu la Ling.
For this I will use the Backroom Advice possibility to be the Technical Heart of Ajax and I have set a weekly meeting structure for this. In terms of responsibilities I will fully follow the intention of the technical heart which will mean the following settings for me and the rest of the staff:
Senior Squad Manager (me):
- training & caching first team
Director of Football:
- budgets, including salaries
- contracts first team players
- transfers (in/out)
- scouting
Head of Youth Development
- development youth players
- scouting of youth players
- transfers of youth players
- budget and contracts of youth players
All main decision need to be taken by the Technical Heart together - so my main task is to ensure that 'we' all agree on the tactic, players and new signings.
As you can see there will be a lot of responsibilities that I would be given out of hand to the HoYD and DoF.
In setting the staff responsibilities I will keep myself as end responsible for finalising the youth and first team signings. This way i can ensure every youth signing is approved by me and the DoY (via a positive scout report) - and every first team signing is approved by me and the HoYD (again via a positive scout report).
Furthermore I will start the game by firing Marc Overmars (current Director of Football) and Hennie Spijkerman (assistent of current Head coach). The first one because according to the report of Tscheu la Ling he has been the main guy not following with plan. Also i can't fire the board (which i would have loved to do), so in order to get some impact firing Overmars is the least i can do
Letting Hennie Spijkerman go was not part of the recommendations, but since him and Frank de Boer were more or less a tandem i don't think it is realistic that he will stay once FdB is gone.
So, all things said - now its time to get started!
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