Ajax’s exile from the Champions League is a testament to lost youth | Amy Lawrence
As Ajax battle to stay in the Europa League against Juventus, it is clear that the former kings of youth policy have lost their way
There was no Champions League music blaring into the Amsterdam ArenA. Ajax and Juventus crossed swords on the more modest stage of the Europa Cup last week, but it was impossible to avoid a nostalgic nod to a time when this fixture was the pinnacle of club football.
Twice Ajax have been champions of Europe returning to the final to defend their title against Italy’s Old Lady. In 1996, they were foiled in a penalty shoot-out. In 1973, Johnny Rep’s goal sustained a period of dominance and Ajax were allowed to keep the trophy permanently to respect the achievement of winning it three times in succession. On both occasions, the contrast was marked between the prodigious, home-grown talent of Ajax and the experienced squad fused together from stars of Serie A.
Ajax have been in Champions League exile for five years now. Inevitably, it rankles to be on the outside looking in when it is such an integral part of their heritage. Inside their home, imposing pictures of Johan Cruyff and Patrick Kluivert celebrating feats of the past surround the silverware itself. To see such teams as FC Twente or AZ Alkmaar gain entry alongside a PSV Eindhoven side they believe to be painfully dour is like scratching an itch.
Ajax’s slip has been unfortunate. They are, arguably, the biggest victims of football’s globalisation over the past decade. The Bosman ruling hastened the break-up of the team of the mid-90s and ensured the club did not benefit financially as much as they should have from the gems they produced. They lost such talents as Clarence Seedorf, Edgar Davids, Nwankwo Kanu, Marc Overmars, the De Boer brothers, in rapid succession.
At the same time, clubs all over Europe began to extend their scouting network in youth football. The Netherlands’ reputation as the ideal starting point for prodigies from Latin America and Africa – such players as Ronaldo, Romário and Kanu used their time in the Eredivisie as a valuable stepping stone towards major stardom and mega money – ceased to become so tempting for starlets already on the radar of wealthier clubs.
Ajax are still committed to the principle of building their club from the youth players up. It was telling that when Martin Jol was appointed head coach last summer (the 12th man to hold the post in as many years, incidentally, which tells its own story) the CEO, Rik van den Boog, made a point of praising Jol’s regard for development. “Martin has all the qualities that the new coach of Ajax should have in our opinion,” he said. “He is a coach who has proven that he is willing to give talented young players a chance, which is of the utmost importance for us.”
De Toekomst, the academy which they call “the Future”, was once the benchmark of youth development. Clubs from all over the world visited to learn from them. Interestingly, Ajax recently reached a point where they were looking elsewhere to see how they could make things grow better in their own back garden.
Nowadays, even though they are still churning out teenagers with comfortable skills, they have not found it easy to emulate the golden standard of the past. And when they do produce someone eye-catching, there is the eternal problem of fending off the vultures. Look around Europe’s top clubs and players developed in Amsterdam are flourishing: Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Edwin van der Sar, Nigel de Jong, Wesley Sneijder, Thomas Vermaelen, Steven Pienaar. Luis Suárez, their Uruguayan top scorer and most valuable asset, is already being linked with a host of Premier League sides.
Jol is a steady and popular influence, but the burden of Champions League qualification lurks. Ajax are third in the Eredivisie, nine points behind the leaders, PSV. The prize in the Netherlands is all the bigger as they have only one automatic place for the Champions League and one play-off place available. Will another year pass them by?
Ajax’s players looked crestfallen at the end of their 2-1 Europa Cup defeat at the hands of Juventus. It was a victory of efficiency over enthusiasm. The Dutch played with great heart, but it was not enough to overcome Italian pragmatism. “We did what we needed to do in this match, and we still didn’t win. That’s too bad,” Jol mused. His team are not great on the road, and at the final whistle the players looked as if they knew they could not overturn the deficit in tonight’s second leg in Turin.
In the closing stages, there was a poignant vignette as two substitutes came on that may as well have come from different planets. For Ajax, a waif-like teenager called Christian Eriksen floated in front of goal, a keen talent with barely any experience. For Juventus, the brawny veteran David Trezeguet trundled on to add presence up front.
Time passes. Competitions change. But the traditions of these two great European clubs stays the same.
Thursday’s football transfer rumours: Neil Warnock to QPR?
Today’s piffle loves the smell of Dulux in the morning
Woo-woo. Dum-chum de-de de-de de. Woo-woo. Please allow The Mill to, er … Dum-chum de-de de-de de. Woo-woo. Something about driving a tank when the bodies stank. Dum-chum de-de de. Woo-woo.
For reasons that aren’t immediately clear, this morning the Mill feels a little different about the biggest story in the history of not-that-big stories painfully overinflated by righteous and self-serving gusts of hot air heated solely by the heart from hot air generated by pure hot air.
Whereas yesterday The Mill felt itself ranged squarely shoulder-to-shoulder, cheek-to-cheek alongside Cheryl, handsome dancer Derek, the dirty-looking blonde one from Girls Aloud and the perfumed-handkerchief-dabbing moral arbiters of the filthy red-tops. Today it has started to feel a slight dilution of its frothing indignation towards the world’s most evil left-back.
The Mill suspects it has something to do with this morning’s Sun. One of these people going about their business in a French medical clinic is behaving really quite strangely. But which one?
“ASHLEY Cole refused to say sorry for betraying Cheryl yesterday after the Sun tracked him down to a swish sports clinic in south-west France. We asked him the question the whole nation wants to ask: “How could you?” But the shaken Chelsea star could only reply: “I just can’t talk about that.”“Cole, having treatment on his broken ankle at the clinic in Capbreton, a seaside town near Biarritz, tried to hide behind an exercise machine when challenged by our reporter. And wearing a supportive sandal on his injured foot, he hobbled away on crutches after refusing to comment further.”
The Mill asks you. You get the bleeding Eurostar. You blag your way in through the gates. You then accost a weeping man on crutches and distract him from flexing his toes repeatedly while listening to sad power ballads on his chrome-plated iPod. And all you get in return is a polite refusal to discuss the most traumatic few days of his life.
Also, there’s this:
“LOVE rat Ashley Cole has blamed his mother-in-law over his marriage break-up. He told pals that life with Cheryl went downhill when her mum Joan, 50, moved in to keep an eye on her.“A source close to Ashley was last night reported to have said their sex life dwindled to virtually nothing.
They added: ‘It’s a bit of a passion killer to have your mum in the house.’”
The Mill was rather surprised to read these words and would like to extend a personal invitation to Joan Tweedy to infiltrate The Mill’s own dank and cobwebbed crawl space in the eaves of fashionable .Co.Uk Integrated Towers in London’s horrible Kings Cross any time she fancies it. Blurry mobile phone photographs of The Mill’s ancient, sodden, mildewed sewn-in smalls are available on request.
Meanwhile in the world of almost non-existent actual concrete flimsy football tittle-tattle the Mirror says Arsène Wenger is “keeping tabs on” the 18 year-old Ajax starlet Christian Eriksen, who has been recommended by Dennis Bergkamp.
Arsenal have also given a trial to the 17 year-old Icelandic whiz-kid Ingolfur Sigurdsson, who plays, sadly, not in goal for, but in midfield for Knattspyrnufelag Reykjavikur. Robin van Persie is going to be fit for the last six games of Arsenal’s “title push” according to Bert van Marwijk, who says: “I spoke to Robin on the phone last week and he is improving all the time and feeling better. You can hear it in his voice that he feels he is improving.” Hopefully this involved him saying at some point “I feel I am improving”.
Wayne Bridge is “in turmoil” over his expected England call-up this weekend. He’s still too cross to kick a ball around next to John Terry, because Terry had sex with his ex-girlfriend, who had previously split up with Wayne Bridge, reportedly in part because of his own “philandering ways”.
Next week: fur singlet-clad Wayne Bridge drags woman through village by her hair because that shirt’s not going to iron itself. Roberto Mancini says his job is completely safe. “I don’t feel under pressure at all,” he said, speaking from beneath a small nest of antique stain occasional tables.
Neil Warnock is being “coy” over whether he’s about to leave Crystal Palace. “Can I deny speculation about going to QPR? No,” he said, before taking to the stage to sing “Happy Birthday Mr President” in a strapless ball gown while making a range of creepily child-like cooing kissy kissy noises.
In the Daily Mail Hull’s Kamil Zayatte says he’s going to leave in the summer. “I see myself at a bigger club than Hull. If I could land a move to Manchester United, Arsenal or Chelsea it would make all Guineans proud of me,” he said, making all Guineans feel at first amused and slightly protective and then perhaps even a little worried. In an EXCLUSIVE it turns out Bridge will refuse to shake hands with Terry when Man City play Chelsea this weekend.
The Mirror also reports that Rafael Benítez was asked why he’s so fat by Romanian journalists yesterday. One cheeky scamp asked: “Mr Benítez, the last time I saw you was at the 2005 Champions League final, and your, erm, silhouette seems to have changed since then. Why is that?”
Benítez replied: “It is the stress of having to answer so many questions from the press. Thank you and goodnight,” before clearing the soup bowls away, and going into the kitchen to flob in the beef Wellingtons. Jermaine Pennant has been sent home from training by Real Zaragoza after arriving late for the third time in two weeks. And the Portsmouth defender Dusko Tosic is going to leave on a free transfer having never played in a league game, which is probably all for the best.
In the Sun Ryan Babel has “vowed to knuckle down after a heart-to-heart with boss Rafael Benítez”. Babel said: “I have had a good talk with the manager and I know what I have to do.
“That is what I am going to concentrate on. I just have to try to be patient, keep working hard and doing my best.”
Landon Donovan has “hinted” he might like to make a permanent move to Everton. “I think it’s been an incredible experience and away from football, the people have been extremely nice,” he said, implying that English football might contain people who are something other than “incredibly nice”.
And according to Goal.com Kansas City Wizards wizard Luis Gil has been signed by Real Salt Lake.
“Real Salt Lake provides a prime environment for the development of young players,” says the excitable, blazered wise-cracking, golf-playing, sample-carrying, Cadillac-driving, wife-flirting, squirtie-water-flower-wearing overly friendly American man in a suit Garth Lagerwey.
“The dream of venturing on to the Rio Tinto Stadium turf will surely inspire Luis to work hard every day in training. We have a talented, veteran team and we have no expectation that any young player will easily crack our championship line-up, though our hope is that Luis is eventually able to earn minutes in the years ahead,” he added, sounding like a demented alien.
Amauri brace gives ten man Juventus victory over Ajax
• Juventus win 2-1 in Amsterdam
• Valencia lose in Belgium after Villa dismissal
Hasan Salihamidzic was one of three Europa League red cards when he was sent off in the closing stages of Juventus’ away tie with Ajax. Miralem Sulejmani looked to have put the Amsterdam club on course for the shock of the evening when he put Ajax in front against Juventus inside 16 minutes. However, a brace from Carvalho de Oliveira Amauri ensured that the Italian giants will take a one-goal advantage back to Turin.
Elsewhere, David Villa was sent off as Valencia lost 1-0 on a poor night for Spanish clubs. The Cameroon striker Rostand Kouemaha scored Clubbe Brugge’s winner early in the second half as the Belgians recorded the upset of the night.
Villarreal completed the hat-trick of dismissals when Ivan Marcano was sent off for serious foul play. However, Marcos Gullon secured a point for the home side against Wolfsburg with an equaliser five minutes from time.
Trailing by two Marc Janko goals at half-time, a brilliant second half display by Standard Liege earned the Belgian champions a 3-2 home win over Red Bull Salzberg.
Steve McClaren’s FC Twente also began the knock out stages with a victory, beating Werder Bremen 1-0, while Lille travel to Istanbul 2-1 ahead after defeating Fenerbache in France.
Clarence Seedorf paints picture of hunger and intelligence
The Dutch master has played for some of the world’s greatest managers, is the only player to win the Champions League with three different clubs and, though battling an injury, is desperate to play against Manchester United
At his home in Milan, Clarence Seedorf’s personal physio is working overtime on the AC Milan player’s hip. It is late and the physio has already done several sessions, but Milan host Manchester United in the Champions League on Tuesday and Seedorf is desperate to be fit in time. “If my voice suddenly changes, you will know why,” he says, as his physio doggedly kneads away.
Seedorf, 33, one of the most decorated players in the modern game, is still as hungry as ever to achieve more. The only player to have won the Champions League with three different clubs – Ajax in 1995, Real Madrid in 1998, and twice with Milan in 2003 and 2007 – he has a career total of 17 club trophies across three European leagues. The Dutchman has played under some of the greatest managers in the game, Fabio Capello, Sven-Goran Eriksson, Carlo Ancelotti, Guus Hiddink, Marcello Lippi, and Louis van Gaal among them, and earned 87 caps for the national side.
That desire stems in part, he says, from his parents – Surinamese immigrants who instilled a strong work ethic in their son as they struggled to forge a new life in the Netherlands. Extended family crammed into the modest family home, “everyone trying to find a better life”, he says.
At 14 years old, progressing through the ranks at Ajax, that instinct was strong in Seedorf and he was already insanely competitive. “I was already dreaming about winning the Champions League three times,” he says. “My idol, Frank Rijkaard [whom Seedorf also played for during the former Barcelona coach's brief tenure as Holland manager], had won it twice at that stage and so I wanted to win one more than him.” He laughs at the memory, but that desire to always have “one more” has not changed in him, even after all his successes.
“When you have ambition then it’s never enough to win,” he says. “If I was happy with three trophies, then suddenly I had to have four. If I was happy with four then I had to have five. A couple of months [to enjoy it], then when you start again the next season all you can think about it is wanting to do it again.”
Which is why Seedorf is so keen to be fit to take his place in midfield for Tuesday’s game against Manchester United, a team who hold special memories for him. Milan beat United 3-0 in the second leg of the 2007 semi-final and that night, he says, remains the best moment of his career. Seedorf’s performance drew great praise from Wayne Rooney, who told the Italian press that Seedorf was the best footballer he had ever played against.
“We played an incredible game,” says Seedorf, smiling at the memory. “Everything about it was fantastic. We began one goal down on aggregate, and it felt like everything was against us.” Milan had started that season with a 15-point penalty for their part in the calciopoli scandal. “At the start of that season we could not have imagined winning any trophies. But the team just came together in a way that was really special. We beat Bayern Munich, then Manchester United, and then Liverpool – after losing to them in the [2005] final. It was an incredible explosion of emotions. And it was justice through sport. They wanted to take away our possibility to play in the Champions League when we had done nothing to deserve that, and we won it back.”
Seedorf, prodigiously talented, enjoyed success from a young age. At 15 years old his parents turned down an offer from Real Madrid, and aged 16 years and 211 days he made his debut for Ajax, becoming their youngest ever player.
Silverware has been plentiful, but some question whether Seedorf’s personality has, at times, caused him undue problems. Highly articulate – he is studying for a masters degree in business – Seedorf is refreshingly expressive and opinionated – but in football terms that means outspoken. Unprompted, he tells a story about being racially abused last year. It is the kind of incident that would give most footballers sleepless nights as they try to decide whether to speak out or not, but Seedorf is totally unfazed. “After the game I wanted to make an official statement,” he says, “not to cause a problem but because I wanted to make the point that if players treat each other like this what message do we send to the outside world?”
In the end he felt the Catania player learned a far more personal lesson, as his wife and kids approached Seedorf for autographs and photos after the game. “You can imagine how embarrassing it was for him,” he says, taking care to describe the scene. “I didn’t say anything, I just turned to him and gave him my hand. The moment was incredible.”
Seedorf is deeply spiritual, and does not touch alcohol or coffee. He describes himself as a “volcano” off the pitch, dividing his time between his sports-business company, which manages the Serie C club Monza, and his humanitarian commitments. His charity, Champions for Children, has pioneered an educational playground model for use in developing countries around the world, and his work has brought him into contact with Nelson Mandela, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Kofi Annan.
For his former club psychologist at Milan, Bruno de Michelis – now at Chelsea – Seedorf is a fascinating case. De Michelis describes him as closer to the personality type of a coach than a footballer. “He talked 10% like a player, 70% like a coach, and 20% like a general manager,” he says, “I’ve never seen such a strong personality.”
When Seedorf’s biographer approached De Michelis for further insight, the psychologist explained that in football if the manager tells the players to defecate on the pitch, the players would do so without question. “But Seedorf would say: ‘Certainly, mister, but what colour should our shit be?”‘
His readiness to speak his mind has not been welcomed by everyone. During Euro 2000 a Dutch public opinion poll showed 81% against his inclusion in the squad, but Seedorf seems genuinely hurt by the suggestion that he is contentious – or unpopular. “Wherever I go the fans are warm to me, even from Inter,” he says. “I think I’m outspoken, but I think people respect me for that. Who does not talk cannot be judged. Who does not shoot the penalty cannot miss.”
Whatever his own view, over the years stories have circulated about infamous run-ins with managers and players. Famously Fabio Capello, then manager of Real Madrid, was alleged to have thrown his jacket at Seedorf because the player was talking tactics at half-time, shouting: “If you know it all so well, you be the coach!”
Seedorf plays down the story as, “a discussion about nothing”, but his recollections of the England manager are revealing. “When you talk about me and Capello, you talk about two personalities. If I have an opinion and I don’t agree with you that’s it, and he was the same. Capello used the guys with strong personalities – I remember he did it with [striker] Predrag Mijatovic as well – he motivated the team by creating a discussion with somebody, by looking for conflicts. And when he did, the team would go out and kick butt.”
He recalls his own version of the jacket-throwing incident – minus the jacket but with a good deal of yelling. “One time we were losing 1-0 to Atlético Madrid,” he says, “playing with 10 men, and we came in the dressing room and began talking about the game. Capello was on the other side of the room and he asked what we were talking about, but he didn’t listen to the answer he just started yelling. So I yelled back. That was a hot moment. But he wanted to make a statement and it worked: the team went out and won 4-1 and I scored.
“And then just before you go out to play he will clap you on the back. That’s his thing, it’s over, right there. After the game I remember I walked to my car, and he stopped his car beside me, wound his window down, and shook my hand. That’s Capello.”
Seedorf remembers the Italian coach fondly, and there is genuine affection in his voice as he describes being taken under his wing. “I was just 19 when he took me to Real Madrid. He asked me personally to go with him, and that carried a lot of importance. He was always very clear and very tough, but also very caring. He was one of the most important coaches in my career.”
Well accustomed to Capello’s autocratic style, Seedorf says he is not at all surprised by the coach’s decision to strip John Terry of the England captaincy. “Capello couldn’t do anything other than what he did. You have to send out the right message, I don’t think you can get away with those things – like Thierry Henry and his handball, that was a big mistake that they did not punish him.
“Footballers are role models. At the One Young World summit [in London] last week I spoke about the responsibility we have as sportsmen in the public eye. Yes it is a shame that the story came out, but paparazzi and tabloids are just part of society and you as a sports celebrity should be aware of the risk.
“But Terry has been a great captain for Chelsea and England, and I hope he will be an even better captain in the future. Everybody makes mistakes.”
Seedorf still keeps in touch with Capello, but it is England’s first foreign manager with whom he has the closest bond. A year spent at Sampdoria, in the care of Sven-Goran Eriksson, had the biggest impression on his career.
“Eriksson was like a father to me,” he says. “He told me about life, he helped me to understand what was needed to survive outside Holland. It went beyond football, it was the culture, the mentality of the Italian players. If you don’t understand that, you can become frustrated.
“There were many problems. I came from a country where people expressed their opinions. The mentality in Italy is to shut up and run. That’s it in a nutshell. When things go bad don’t discuss it, just run harder. In Holland it’s: ‘Let’s sit down and discuss things until we understand what the problem is.’”
Seedorf paints an intimate picture as he describes Eriksson using allegory to explain the Mediterranean football culture that was so alien to his young charge. “He said it was like people building a house. People can relate better to the labourers working on the house than to the architect who actually created it. In Italy everything was about being a hard worker. I like to be strategic when I play football, but people who don’t understand the game cannot appreciate that. Sven taught me to ombine those qualities.”
His relationship with the Dutch national team over the years has not been so harmonious. Seedorf has not played more than a few minutes of international football since 2006. A falling out with then coach Marco van Basten prompted him to rule himself out of playing for Holland at Euro 2008 before the tournament even began, and under the current manager, Bert van Marwijk, the situation has not improved.
Raising the issue provokes a weariness in his voice as he reluctantly covers old ground, such as the alleged racial divide in the team of the mid-1990s. “That was 14 years ago,” he says, irritably. “It wasn’t like that. There wasn’t any divide whatsoever. The media made it like that, that’s how they function.
“The truth is there was a whole other issue going on. But I can guarantee you that Van der Sar is not black and Bergkamp is not black and yet I was in their rooms during practically all of the tournament. The team had a problem that was beyond anything that came out.”
Can he relate to the internal problems of the current England team? Seedorf bristles. “I have experienced internal issues that were internal then, and are still now,” he says. “First you have to forgive, then you have to work together again. But it’s easily said, not easily done.”
Seedorf has not retired from international football, but he will not play a part in the World Cup this summer other than as a television pundit. “I don’t have any feeling about it at the moment,” he says, “that feeling has probably passed already. I’m still playing for AC Milan. The national team are not calling me. I don’t want to talk about it. It [the decision] doesn’t depend on me.”
As the interview draws to a close, Seedorf’s physio is still working away. “I think I’ll tell him to go easy now,” he says, but he is joking. Seedorf’s mind is too focused on winning his next Champions League trophy to go easy any time soon.