Ajax are currently edging closer and closer to their 37th Eredivisie title, but the club have come a long way. Just 18 months ago, a new title seemed farther away than ever. But what really happened with the Dutch giants?
To sketch the situation Ajax were in for two years, let’s go back in time.
February 2022
Ajax thrived under Erik ten Hag and was led by the dynamic duo of director of football Marc Overmars and general manager Edwin van der Sar. The Amsterdam giants were on top of the league, having won seven straight games in all competitions and en route to a second straight league title.
But on Sunday, February 7th, one day after a 3-0 league win over Heracles Almelo, Ajax announced Marc Overmars's immediate departure after an investigation into transgressive behaviour.
The investigation later showed Overmars had sent over 300 unwarranted, sexually loaded text messages to female coworkers, and this integrity scandal is where Ajax’s troubles began.
March 2022
Ajax hire club icon Klaas-Jan Huntelaar to fill part of the role of the departed Marc Overmars. The former star striker, who retired in 2021, would work alongside former technical manager Gerry Hamstra in a technical director duo.
Just eight days later, Ajax would get eliminated from the UEFA Champions League after suffering a 1-0 home loss to Benfica in the round of 16. It’s the last time Ajax would feature in the knock-out stages of the Champions League for several years to come.
April 2022
It’s the end of an era for Ajax: Erik ten Hag announces his departure at the end of the season, when he will join English giants Manchester United. Ajax won three titles, two cups, and one Johan Cruyff Shield under the wildly popular Ten Hag, but most of all, Ajax found their strength at the European level again.
May 2022
Ajax won a record-extending 36th Eredivisie championship under Erik ten Hag and announced their new coach the following day: former Ten Hag assistant Alfred Schreuder joined Ajax on a two-year deal. Schreuder had been unemployed since Ronald Koeman was fired at FC Barcelona in October 2021.
One day after Ajax finished the season with a 2-2 draw at Vitesse, Ten Hag decided to leave the club early to prepare for the upcoming season with Manchester United.
September 2022
After a noisy summer during which star players Sebastien Haller, Nicolas Tagliafico, Ryan Gravenberch, Andre Onana, Noussair Mazraoui, Lisandro Martinez, and Antony leave for about €200 million, Hamstra and Huntelaar splash their cash on Spurs’ Steven Bergwijn (€31M) and former striker Brian Brobbey (€16M), who left on a free just the season before.
Rangers centre-back Calvin Bassey is brought in for €23 million to strengthen a weakened back-line, as well as AZ left-back Owen Wijndal, Trabzonspor centre-back Ahmetcan Kaplan, and Club America right-back Jorge Sanchez. The club spent a total of €105 million on the transfer market.
Schreuder and his team get off to a great start with six consecutive wins in the Eredivisie and a 4-0 win over Rangers in the Champions League, but soon experience a drop-off with just one win in six games in all competitions.
October 2022
Two nasty losses to Napoli in the Champions League—a 6-1 defeat at home and a 4-2 loss in Naples—left Ajax in dire need of wins after three losses in four games.
Even worse for Ajax was the situation that arose during the break of the RKC Waalwijk-Ajax game. With the score at 1-1, Schreuder and veteran defender Daley Blind had a big clash in the dressing room. According to Blind, Schreuder was unhappy about the team pressing and asked the forwards what they thought. That is when Blind opened the confrontation with Schreuder: "Coach, be clear and decide yourself how we are going to execute it!"
An irate Schreuder did not take well to Blind's protest: "You shut up! Shut your mouth and sit down!". Following this altercation, Blind maintained Schreuder made things "personal" after the RKC match, judging by the fact that he only gave Blind one more start before phasing him out of the squad completely.
November 2022
With the World Cup beckoning, Ajax won their last Eredivisie or Champions League game under Schreuder: Rangers were beaten 3-1 on November 1st. The Amsterdam team lost at home to PSV a few days later, after which Vitesse and FC Emmen held Ajax to 2-2 and 1-1 draws.
After the league's early stop due to the World Cup, Schreuder and the Ajax board held a meeting to reflect upon a rather disappointing first few months. Schreuder was allowed to stay, but it was clear that improvements were necessary.
January 2023
Tensions are steeply on the rise in Amsterdam. After the 2022 World Cup, word came out that veteran defender Daley Blind and Alfred Schreuder hadn't spoken to each other since the last Eredivisie game in November. An unsalvageable relationship would cause Blind, a club icon with 332 Ajax games behind his name, to rip up his contract and leave on a free transfer to Bayern Munich.
After a record-breaking streak of seven consecutive winless Eredivisie games and a hopeless Champions League group stage with just two wins from six games, Alfred Schreuder was fired following the 1-1 home draw against FC Volendam. Word had it that Schreuder had been fired during half-time already, as Edwin van der Sar took the stage during the post-match press conference.
"The performances got worse, and so did the play on the pitch. And tonight's game was the final straw. The play hasn't been good for some time, and I didn't feel that would change,” said Van der Sar.
March 2023
After life under caretaker manager John Heitinga started off well with a 5-0 win over Excelsior and a 5-0 win over SC Cambuur, the Europa League adventure of a torn-apart Ajax was cut short in February after Union Berlin beat Ajax 3-1 in the German capital.
However, Ajax are firmly in the race for the championship with a mere 3 points fewer in the bag than leaders PSV. A Klassieker in the own Johan Cruyff ArenA - a fixture Ajax hadn't lost at home since 2005 - would prove to be crucial for Ajax, but not in a good way: a second-half comeback capped off by an 88th-minute winner by Feyenoord captain Lutsharel Geertruida.
The loss against Feyenoord meant Ajax had to take a step back in the title race, and more bad news soon followed: Liverpool technical director Julian Ward, Ajax's top candidate for the position of director of football, officially rejected an offer to work in Amsterdam. Ward was the second candidate to turn Ajax down after Go Ahead Eagles owner Alex Kroes.
April 2023
Ajax took revenge on Feyenoord with a spot in the KNVB Cup final on the line: a thriller in Rotterdam ended 3-2 after a hard-fought and controversial match, in which Ajax midfielder Davy Klaassen was struck by a lighter thrown from the stands.
The search for a new director of football is over: former Arsenal and Stuttgart executive Sven Mislintat, who got the nickname ‘Diamond Eyes’ after bringing the likes of Ousmane Dembele, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, and Shinji Kagawa to Dortmund, joined Ajax on a three-year deal.
Mislintat's first task: finding a new head coach.
May 2023
As a frustrating season nears its end, club director Edwin van der Sar took centre stage prior to Ajax's final home game. The Champions League winner was the target of much criticism from the stands, from where the home crowd let their displeasure be known. The critique ended up being the beginning of the end: on May 30th, Van der Sar announced his departure from the club after nearly 11 years of service.
Ajax finished third in the Eredivisie with 13 fewer points than champions Feyenoord. A frustrating season had come to an end, and a new chapter was about to begin.
June 2023
Much to the dismay of Dusan Tadic, who'd just finished his fifth straight season with double-digit goals and assists, Mislintat overlooked John Heitinga and appointed Sparta Rotterdam boss Maurice Steijn as the new head coach. The hiring surprised many, even midfielder Kenneth Taylor. "We actually knew as much as you did. For us it's a surprise and for you too," Taylor told ESPN.
But besides Taylor, Steijn himself was also surprised. "I am surprised to be here though, because I did not expect Ajax to pick me."
July 2023
As Mislintat starts building his squad, the German heads into extensive talks with club captain Dusan Tadic. However, on July 14th, the Serbian announced his immediate departure from Ajax. After a major disagreement with Mislintat, the man with over 200 goals and assists in 241 games for the club decided to rip up the most unique contract in club history, which would've kept Tadic at the club even after retirement.
August 2023
An eventful summer in Amsterdam saw pillars Mohammed Kudus, Jurrien Timber, Edson Alvarez, Davy Klaassen, and the aforementioned Tadic leave. In the meantime, Mislintat built a team mostly on his own accord and without consultation from manager Steijn or other board members.
The German executive spent over 100 million euros on transfer fees and handed out royal contracts, but many of the so-called Mislintat purchases came with major question marks. Three of the five most expensive acquisitions came from second-division clubs or youth teams, Mislintat seemed to have overpaid for some surprising players, and only one Dutch player joined Ajax.
After a disastrous preseason with just two wins from six games, a shaky start seemed to be the beginning of a rough time.
September 2023
As Ajax failed to win a single game all month, hell officially broke loose behind the scenes.
After a disappointing 0-0 draw against Fortuna Sittard, Steijn made headlines by putting a wall between himself and Mislintat after the latter took full control of the club's transfer business. "I hope the acquired players are good enough to make all the puzzle pieces fall together," said Steijn, clearly questioning Mislintat's business after the Fortuna game
As word came out that Mislintat was looking for reasons to fire Steijn after a horrible start to the season, Ajax announced the German director was to be investigated for a potential conflict of interest with the summer transfer of Stuttgart left-back Borna Sosa. Mislintat was a shareholder of the German data firm Matchmetrics GmbH, which was partially taken over by the German sports advice company AKA Global GmbH - the firm representing Borna Sosa at the time of his Ajax transfer.
As Mislintat avoided the Johan Cruyff ArenA in most of September, the former Arsenal executive took it upon himself to bombard the Klassieker against Feyenoord to D-Day for Steijn, who'd get fired if his side didn't beat Feyenoord. According to De Telegraaf, Mislintat stormed into the coach's room the day before the match and announced Steijn's D-Day. Mislintat would next approach substitute players and tell them he did not understand why they were not playing under Steijn.
Then, during the Klassieker in Amsterdam, Ajax quickly fell to a 3-0 deficit. Emotions boiled over in the stadium, causing fans to throw fireworks onto the pitch and wreak havoc. The game was permanently suspended after 55 minutes, after which riots continued outside the stadium. Angry Ajax fans proceeded to destroy and invade the stadium's main entrance.
Mere hours after the drama in Amsterdam, Ajax announced it had fired director Sven Mislintat with immediate effect. After first saying the parties had parted ways on good terms, the club retracted that statement and published a new one which did not mention any good terms. "The lack of broad support within the organisation is the reason for this decision. Several attempts to restore wider support have not led to the desired result, leading to unrest in and around the club, also due to disappointing performances," Ajax said in a club statement.
October 2023
Ajax were hit by a form crisis. After beating Heracles Almelo in the first game of the Eredivisie season and Bulgarian side Ludogorets in the Europa League playoff round on August 24th, Ajax failed to win a single game in September and October. Its lowest point came after the dramatic 4-3 loss to last-placed FC Utrecht, after which manager Maurice Steijn was fired from his role at the record champions.
Former coach and player John van 't Schip temporarily took over from Steijn, just weeks after his wife had passed away after losing her battle to cancer. Marco van Basten's former assistant manager got the difficult task of leading Ajax back to the upper regions of the Eredivisie shortly after Sven Mislintat's more than tumultuous reign. Unfortunately for Van 't Schip, things would not get off to a good start as Ajax failed to win their third consecutive Europa League group stage match and fell to the 18th and final spot in the Eredivisie table for the first time in their history.
December 2023
Just as Van 't Schip had started stabilising the situation in Amsterdam, the club had hit a new low after getting eliminated from the KNVB Cup by amateur side USV Hercules after a 3-2 loss. It took Ajax 83 minutes to reply to two goals from Hercules' Tim Pieters as Brian Brobbey and Chuba Akpom got Ajax back level, but a 93rd-minute winner from Alex Grotenbreg realised perhaps the biggest upset in Dutch cup history.
March 2024
After beating Norwegian champions Bodo/Glimt in the Conference League playoff round, Aston Villa beat Ajax in Birmingham 4-0 to end their European campaign. This came in the middle of yet another form crisis, in which Ajax won just two of 11 games in February and March.
Van 't Schip led Ajax back to the European places in the Eredivisie, but had to deal with a mightily leaky defence, which conceded 48 goals after 27 games. A fifth place had Ajax in the heat of the battle, but a 28-point gap to league leaders PSV was more than painful for the fallen giants.
However, the club had finally appointed a new director: AZ director Alex Kroes had agreed to join Ajax and started his new job on March 15th.
April 2024
Alex Kroes was suspended on April 2nd for insider trading allegations. Two days before his appointment was announced to the public, Kroes had bought at least 17,000 shares of Ajax with a total worth up to €190,000. A new war broke out in the upper regions of the club, which had earlier announced its wish to end the cooperation between them and Kroes. Michael van Praag, head of Ajax's board of directors, officially closed the door for Kroes' return in an interview with Ajax Life, citing the irreparable damage it would cause to the Ajax brand.
"First, Ajax's credibility. With us comes ethical leadership. You have to deal with the Ajax organisation and with the outside world. How strong is Alex still with negotiations, for example? Unfortunately, we cannot get away with saying he has been a bit stupid. Alex himself also says he has been a bit stupid. But insider trading simply cannot be done legally. That is a criminal offence. Ajax cannot say: never mind the law, we'll just do it anyway. Nobody accepts that."
The saga took a new turn on April 25th when Ajax announced that Kroes would assume the technical director role. Kroes had received significant support from the executive board - the highest governing body within Ajax -, club members, and Ajax fans, who demanded the director's reinstatement and called for Van Praag to resign during the Eredivisie game against FC Twente.
A second meeting with bitter rivals Feyenoord earned Ajax the biggest league defeat in club history. Feyenoord beat Ajax 6-0 in Rotterdam after doubles from Igor Paixao and Yankuba Minteh, and further goals from David Hancko and Quinten Timber. "An unprecedented blamage and a historic defeat. Words fail to describe Ajax's unmasking after the team lost 6-0 to Feyenoord," Dutch newspaper Het Parool said about the historic loss.
However, it would be Ajax's final loss of a disastrous Eredivisie campaign. Ajax beat FC Twente before being held to a draw by relegation candidates Excelsior in the last game of April.
May 2024
Ajax confidently beat Almere City and FC Volendam before being held to a 2-2 draw by already-relegated Vitesse in the final game of the Amsterdam side's historically bad Eredivisie season.
A fifth place and a spot in the second qualifying round of the UEFA Europa League is all Ajax have to show after a turbulent season in which the director of football and manager were fired, a massive riot broke out, Feyenoord beat Ajax with an aggregate score of 10-0, PSV won the league with a staggering 35-point gap to Ajax, and a broken club flailed their way to a consolation prize.
As John van 't Schip waved goodbye to Ajax, the Amsterdam side proudly presented a new head coach: Francesco Farioli, the 34-year-old Italian who just got Ligue 1 side OGC Nice to the UEFA Europa League.
And little would the club and fans know, his arrival would drastically change the course of the club.