Quote

Ajax's entire board, including Johan Cruyff, will step down following the row over the appointment of Louis van Gaal as Chief Executive Officer.

The resignations of the five members, including Edgar Davids and chairman Steven ten Have, follow an Amsterdam court decision on Tuesday banning the naming of van Gaal as CEO.

Van Gaal was nominated in November last year by four of the five board members but Cruyff protested that they had gone behind his back in appointing his long-time rival.

The court ruled in Cruyff's favour, saying Van Gaal's appointment had not been on the agenda for a board meeting which Cruyff missed.

Over to you Remco......

Finally! This is what me and about 90% of the fans have been waiting for for months. All they did was trying to stop Johan Cruijff's work, our legendary no.14 who did the same trick at Barcelona a few years ago and see what happened there. Now we have to find another board, Cruijff minded this time and then the director after that. The interim director was terrible as well and quit today too, alongside Danny Blind, the interim technical director. I feel bad for Danny Blind tho, a club guy like there aren't many anymore anywhere in the world. I hope they will find another position for him.

But like I said, now finally Cruijff, Bergkamp, Jonk and many other former Ajax-stars can continue there work, there will be quietness in the place, which will do good to the first team as well

Btw, Ajax <19 has humiliated Barcelona <19 yesterday in Barcelona at the quarter finals of the Next Gen Series (the youth Campions League). Now Liverpool in the semi's

Nice to see Bergkamp involved anywhere to be fair, I love that man!

Originally posted by Daniel

Nice to see Bergkamp involved anywhere to be fair, I love that man!

I had no. 10 and LEGEND written on the back of my Ajax shirt, for Bergkamp

One of the most underrated players ever! During his time at Ajax, Arsenal and the national team, I think he was in the top 5 of best players in the world. He carried those 3 teams, he even started the glory period of Arsenal and even Henry was looking up to him. What Messi is showing now, he was already doing it too, but he has never been valued like that by the majority. Shame.

He holds high stock in England I can assure you. I can't link it because I am on my phone but the goal he scored against Newcastle is still one of my faves of all time.

Funny because me and my mates were talking about him the other day and my mate has a Bergkamp 10 shirt signed from Euro 96

Btw, great topic! And without making it too much a Tribute to Bergkamp topic...

I know exactly what goal you mean, one of my all-time favorites as well:



Another favorite of mine is his goal against Vitesse (at 2:15 of this compilation):



And ofcourse the one against Argentina:



But that one might also have something to do with the moment, the euphoria, the commentator, the atmosphere etc.

I also have his DVD of 100 goals at Arsenal. Simply amazing...

Have to agree Bergkamp is easily one of the most gifted strikers of my time. Technically I don't think anyone comes close.

Anyways hope this is a good thing for Ajax. I really don't know what is happening behind the scenes at a lot of clubs. I know at a lot of clubs the influence of foreign owners causes problems but this obv isn't the case here or at Rangers just now.

We have had too many so called "Rangers men" involved in the club who were too interested in taking a big wage than guiding us through this difficult time financially.

In big lines the story is like this (the size of the true soap is immense):

Johan Cruijf started a 'velvet' revolution about a year ago at Ajax. With elections for some spots for the membersboard he gathered old players and they had been voted. He became a commisioner with 4 others (he actually only wanted to be an advisor, but Ajax forced him to take official responsibility), and a lot of old top players became youth trainers. He wanted to do exactly like he has started at Barcelona, about 10 years ago, which well, turned out pretty well. The problem tho was that the 4 other commisioners (incl. Edgar Davids) tried to block every change he wanted to do.

A new CEO had to be chosen and after Tsjeu La Ling (former player of Ajax and now owner of a club in Czech Republic) and Marco van Basten were denied by one or the others, Louis van Gaal was chosen by the other 4, without consulting Cruijff. Cruijff and Van Gaal really can't get along cz of things that happened in the past at Barcelona. Cruijff thought it was an illegal way of working and went to court. All the youth-players were standing right behind Cruijff and the judge said Cruijff was right and the position of Van Gaal was illegal. So now the commissioner-board was really under pressure and just couldn't be hold any longer.

So now under strong pressure, the commisioner-board has quit, incl. Johan Cruijff, but that doesn't matter cz he never wanted to be in the board in the first place. Now he will become an advisor again.

Also the interim-director chosen by the 4 commissioners as well (former chairman of FC Utrecht, rivals of Ajax, who in his time as chairman there referred to Ajax as 'the noses' referring to Ajax' past as a 'jewish' club), he has quit as well yesterday and also the interim-technical director Danny Blind quit as well. They gave Danny Blind a position that didn't exist in Cruijff´s plans. A position we had the past 15 years and hadn't been successfull. A position also that would put Wim Jonk's position, chosen by Johan Cruijff, as completely pointless.

I know it all sounds complicated, but as you can understand I'm thrilled they all left. Especially that they left themselves. If they would've been send away by the shareholders meeting today, the court would chose new commisioners. Now Ajax can chose themselves.

Now finally we can move on with a plan that was started 1 year ago, but was blocked for almost half a year. A plan that was fully approved already by the members-board 1 year ago.

It does seem complicated but get the jist. I really find it unbelievable how people who are meant to be fans etc can put their own personnal feelings etc infront of the clubs.

We were taken over last year which the original board members were opposed to. The original board were happy to sit back and take their healthy salaries + expenses/ bonuses etc and watch our clubs debts spiral out of control. They were hoping that the club would be close to administration and they would then be able to buy us on the cheap.

The take over went through and our initial debts were cleared and one by one the new owner got shot of the old board members. This was always going to happen. Can't have a board with people you don't trust.

Unfortunately now the ex board members and so called "Rangers men" have created a witch hunt against the new owner and at the same time dragging our club through the mud. This on top of a possible £50m+ tax case coming up (can't see us paying anything near that tbh) things are not good.

Ouch that sucks. Ye those 4 commissioners always said how they do everything at the best interest of Ajax, but now they quit themselves, they still want to get a € 25,000 bonus each for leaving. A bonus for what? To make one hell of a mess of our club! They made a fool of our club! For months Ajax was the main news at every tv and radio station. No news in the world was more important. And it was all negative news.

I am glad this is is seen as a positive thing for the club, I was worried that Ajax would be in trouble. How is the Academy coming along? Are you still getting through players these days and what is the future like?

I would love to see some of those European Giants like yourselves and Benfica come back into the big time, I actually quite dislike the Champions League as it leans towards the big teams.

I am going to show my Dad that video Remco, he would not have seen many of the clips, might get him the DVD for a small present as well actually. I agree Eff-Jay he was one of the best, Zola, Di Canio etc are players that spring to mind.

I miss players like that, I can't think of many now although I don't watch much football now the focus is on pace and strength.

Originally posted by Remco

Ouch that sucks. Ye those 4 commissioners always said how they do everything at the best interest of Ajax, but now they quit themselves, they still want to get a € 25,000 bonus each for leaving. A bonus for what? To make one hell of a mess of our club! They made a fool of our club! For months Ajax was the main news at every tv and radio station. No news in the world was more important. And it was all negative news.

When it comes to it most are all about the money. We have been in the press continually too for all the wrong reasons which I hate. Especially when the stories are pointless and with little or no factual backup and there is much worse stories around the world. Come on Heathrow closed down last week

Originally posted by Daniel

I am glad this is is seen as a positive thing for the club, I was worried that Ajax would be in trouble. How is the Academy coming along? Are you still getting through players these days and what is the future like?

Well our <19 team has thrashed Barcelona with 0-3 last Wednesday, so I hope that will get better again as well. It might produce our first homegrown striker since Patrick Kluivert: Viktor Fischer (2 goals and an assist) even tho he's Danish. We don't have great Dutch talents at the moment to be fair. Only 2 that come in mind being Anita and Van der Wiel, but they aren't from the same greatness as we had before. But we have a few foreigners that have started in our Acadamy as well. Our greatest talents are Eriksen (Danish), Ailderweireld (Belgian), Vertonghen (Belgian), Boilesen (Danish) and this Fischer. Our leftwinger Boerrigter is Dutch and has followed our whole acadamy, but he played at other teams in the meanwhile. He's back now and he's our most dangerous player. Shame he's injured for a few months already. A few talents who are still playing in the youth are coming, but we never know anymore how long they will stay. 10 years ago players left at the age of 24, these days at the age of 18 already. Last week a great talent Bouy (18yo) left to Juventus, without even having played in our first team. Frank de Boer had a scedule for him already about the way they would bring him. He went to Brazil with the 1st team already this winter for a friendly, which was the first step. Shame he left. But that's our biggest problem now. Players leave to early. To return to Holland and play for a 1st division club a few years later, cz they didn't get a chance and have become completely out of the picture...

Originally posted by Eff_Jay

When it comes to it most are all about the money.

And that's why Cruijff is so popular. He doesn't do it for the money, he does it cz he loves Ajax and it hurts him to see what we have become.

Originally posted by Remco

Well our <19 team has thrashed Barcelona with 0-3 last Wednesday, so I hope that will get better again as well. It might produce our first homegrown striker since Patrick Kluivert: Viktor Fischer (2 goals and an assist) even tho he's Danish. We don't have great Dutch talents at the moment to be fair. Only 2 that come in mind being Anita and Van der Wiel, but they aren't from the same greatness as we had before. But we have a few foreigners that have started in our Acadamy as well. Our greatest talents are Eriksen (Danish), Ailderweireld (Belgian), Vertonghen (Belgian), Boilesen (Danish) and this Fischer. Our leftwinger Boerrigter is Dutch and has followed our whole acadamy, but he played at other teams in the meanwhile. He's back now and he's our most dangerous player. Shame he's injured for a few months already. A few talents who are still playing in the youth are coming, but we never know anymore how long they will stay. 10 years ago players left at the age of 24, these days at the age of 18 already. Last week a great talent Bouy (18yo) left to Juventus, without even having played in our first team. Frank de Boer had a scedule for him already about the way they would bring him. He went to Brazil with the 1st team already this winter for a friendly, which was the first step. Shame he left. But that's our biggest problem now. Players leave to early. To return to Holland and play for a 1st division club a few years later, cz they didn't get a chance and have become completely out of the picture...

I know Van der Wiel from playing Pro Evo It's a shame though but it's like that at every level now, the big clubs have massive squads and half of them never play for the first team and then just filter down.


Where is Sno these days? I know he got back playing but not heard anything since. Probably your best export since Bergkamp I reckon.

Originally posted by Daniel

I know Van der Wiel from playing Pro Evo It's a shame though but it's like that at every level now, the big clubs have massive squads and half of them never play for the first team and then just filter down.


Where is Sno these days? I know he got back playing but not heard anything since. Probably your best export since Bergkamp I reckon.

He was at Celtic Spetic for a while and went back to Ajax i'm sure. Not heard anything about him since he left here.

Was a terrible player at Septic imo.