Ajax turns to Jordi Cruyff to restore the soul of the Amsterdam club

By Graham Ruthven

Johan Cruyff shaped the club into its modern form. His principles and values ​​still guide Ajax today. Their stadium is named after the great man whose style of play and vision for the game made him the most influential football figure of all time.

This context is important to understand why the appointment of Jordi Cruyff as Ajax’s new technical director was greeted with great fanfare. If anyone understands the identity of the Amsterdam club and why it must be protected at all costs, it is the son of the legendary striker.

Ajax haven’t played Cruyff-ball for a long time. The club has lost its way in recent times, lurching from crisis to crisis in the years since Erik ten Hag’s departure. Since Ten Hag’s departure three and a half years ago, Ajax have gone through five different managers, some of whom have never been a natural fit for the club.

Francesco Farioli would have led Ajax to the Eredivisie title last season if not for a sensational collapse which saw a nine-point lead evaporate in the final seven games of the campaign. However, Farioli’s pragmatic style was the subject of much debate in Dutch football, even as Ajax were on course to win the Eredivisie.

This explains as much the exit of Farioli at the end of the 2024/25 season as the collapse in the title race. History will remember the Portuguese coach as the one who spectacularly ruined a championship, but many Ajax fans will remember how boring they found his football. They argued that Ajax’s identity was being eroded.

Under his replacement Johnny Heitinga, the hope was that the former Ajax defender would be able to re-instill values ​​lost under a series of ill-suited coaches. However, he has already been replaced by his assistant, the experienced Fred Grim, former Ajax goalkeeper who will act as interim for the rest of the season.

Ajax’s average share of possession per game is the second highest in the Eredivisie this season. However, this control rarely translated into a real threat of attack.

Indeed, Ajax have only scored 37 goals in 19 league matches this season. For context, NEC Nijmegen scored 47 while PSV scored 59. Brought in to be Ajax’s attacking focal point, Wout Weghorst only found the back of the net six times while Kasper Dolberg, who returned to the club last summer, only scored three times.

The fact that Ajax signed Weghorst in the first place was seen by some as a sign of how the club was in the midst of an identity crisis. While the Dutch international has his uses, he is a very different type of centre-forward to the icons who have led the Ajax line in the past. It’s neither Dennis Bergkamp nor Patrick Kluivert.

At 33, the signing of Weghorst was also a short-term move. Instead of allowing a young striker to come out of Ajax’s famous academy, the club opted for a short-sighted solution. Even the signing of Dolberg, a player who had left Ajax six years previously, highlighted a lack of imagination. They would run out of ideas.

Cruyff was hired to remodel all areas of the Amsterdam club. The 51-year-old has a wealth of experience as a technical director having held similar positions at AEK Larnaca, Maccabi Tel Aviv and Barcelona. At Barça, Cruyff was instrumental in the Catalan club’s transition to a new era.

Not so long ago, Barcelona, ​​like Ajax, seemed to have moved away from Cruyff’s principles. This coincided with a period of near financial ruin. Now the club is once again producing young talents like Lamine Yamal and Gavi. Hansi Flick’s side are among the most entertaining in Europe and Cruyff has played a central role in this renaissance as sporting director.

Ajax will be hoping Cruyff can do something similar. They need a new transfer strategy. They must find a way to restart the treadmill of young talent that has slowed in recent years. They need a new permanent manager after Heitinga’s departure in November. Cruyff has a lot to live up to.

“It goes without saying how much this means to my family and me,” Cruyff said after his appointment. “In the stadium that bears my father’s name and in the club that has meant something to me since I was young. Ajax is a unique club with a rich history and I will do everything I can to write a new chapter of success.”

While Ajax may not be the force they were in the 1970s, mid-1990s or even a few seasons ago when they reached the Champions League semi-finals under ten Hags, they remain one of the most distinctive and romantic clubs in the world. Football is more dynamic thanks to a strong Ajax. Cruyff is responsible for making this a new reality.

(Images from IMAGO)

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