Draakon

March 2032 Fixtures and Results Five games in March (a lot less than in February). Our focus is on our Europa League fixtures with Villarreal, because the lead in the Eredivisie could allow us to be a little bit more relaxed (and risky with starting line-ups) in the league games. We started with a confident win over NEC Nijmegen. Our opponents started with a bit of an unorthodox 4-3-1-2 narrow formation, switched it to a more conservative 4-4-2 after the break, but it didn’t change the fact that their defence was just not good enough to contain us. Amourricho van Axel Dongen scored a brace and Olivier Aertssen wrapped things up from the spot. Kenneth Taylor was suspended for this game because of accumulated yellow cards, but we didn’t really miss him. In the end NEC players made 32 fouls and collected 7 yellow cards against us - referee Siemen Mulder was blasted for his performance in the game, but perhaps don’t foul so much, then? Our xG was 3.94 in the end, so a pretty convincing win. We were confident ahead of our first leg with Villarreal at Johan Cruijff Arena. Villarreal are an extremely experienced (fancy way of saying - old) team. They have almost the entire first eleven over 30 years old and a number of veterans aged 33-35 in the team. But, as it often happens, they were too defensive in away games and came to Amsterdam with a conservative 4-1-4-1 DM formation. We controlled it from start to finish and created some good chances in the first half - Amourricho van Axel Dongen put us in front with an easy finish and John Meeuwis scored with a lovely chip to make it 2:0 before Villarreal’s Pau Torres curled in a beautiful strike from 20 metres to keep them in the game at half-time. van Axel Dongen’s second goal in the second half made it 3:1 and that looks like a good enough result to take us into the second leg. sc Heerenveen offered us a battle between two Europa League games. We took the lead in the first half after 17-years old Richard Svec scored his first ever goal for the club, but the rest of the match was a fairly even battle between two teams. I had rotated and made a lot of changes in our starting line-up and it clearly showed in our attack - chances were rare and we couldn’t turn our possession into goals. At the same time Heerenveen wasted some big chances themselves - their best opportunity came in the first half from a corner when their Lithuanian centre-back Edgaras Utkus headed it over from a point blank range. In the end it remained 1:0 - not the best performance from us, but kept a clean sheet and I was delighted for Richard Svec and his match-winning strike. Next Thursday it was time to travel to Spain. I was a bit surprised at how small that Villarreal town really was, and just a 23,500 stadium was packed for the match. Villarreal started the game well - ex-Ajax striker Brian Brobbey used his first chance to give them a lead and curled it into the top corner from 23 metres ten minutes later, so after 19 minutes we were 0:2 behind and our 3:1 lead from the first match was pretty much obliterated. The rest of the ninety minutes were a real struggle - both teams defended well and it was difficult to create something, but in the second half Diyae-Eddine Jermoumi struck home with a fierce strike and gave us the vital goal. We had 10 attempts in the end, but neither of the teams could get xG over 1.00 - a very defensive game and Villarreal certainly defended well. We returned from Spain with a 1:2 defeat, but it was enough to get through with a 4:3 aggregate score. Our opponent in the quarter final is Newcastle United. The last match against Excelsior was a potentially tricky one, because Excelsior is the most overachieving club in Eredivisie this season and they’re currently sitting in 8th position (although predicted just 16th in pre-season) .It was one of the ugliest games I’ve ever seen - we couldn’t get any of our shots on target (in the first half our shooting was 6/0 and 14/2 in the full match) and our concentration in defence wasn’t much better either, as Excelsior managed to create a number of half-chances. We created none in the entire match - so poor was our attacking movement and decision-making, but as in the number of times before, we somehow managed to grab the win in injury time. John Meeuwis saw his attempt being blocked, but the rebound fell to Stanis Idumbo Muzambo who nodded it into the empty net. The most undeserved victory - our xG was slightly lower than Excelsior’s and they definitely felt that they did enough to get something out of this game, but that’s football. Tactics and Players So, three wins in Eredivisie and we’re still in the Europa League, but our performances have been declining through March and especially our attacking game and cohesion left much to desire. Tactically the only decision was how to approach the second leg game in Villarreal - I opted for our usual setup, just tuned mentality down to balanced. It wasn’t a poor choice per se, but Villarreal scored two very clinical goals and that left us struggling, until our regular positive 4-2-3-1 got us out of the mud..Because I rotated the team, I sometimes opted for Amourricho van Axel Dongen on our left flank as IWs - a move that supported our left defence a little bit more, but on the other hand had a negative effect on our attack. In the future it might be a conservative option to preserve our lead in difficult games. Our attacking players have had really inconsistent performances after the first two matches and it’s difficult to praise anybody in particular. But Peter Misidjan made his debut for Holland in this international window and that certainly deserves a notice. Prince Aning was also involved in international games and 17 years old winger Marcus Mägi made his debut for Estonia. Player of the Month: Olivier Aertssen - I can’t really praise any of the attacking players, but at least we’ve kept some clean sheets and that’s mostly Aertssen’s doing. Also scored a penalty against NEC Nijmegen Goal of the Month: Diyae-Eddine Jermoumi vs. Villarreal - well struck into the top corner; also a vital goal to keep us in the Europa League Youth Intake 2032 A very interesting bunch of players this season. We have two excellent striker prospects in Sander van Dijk and Grzegorz Kmiecik (how on earth a Swedish-Polish kid ended up in Amsterdam?), a decent goalkeeper in Niciano Kuijsten and a couple of decent defensive midfielders. Overall it’s a very international group of kids - players from Sweden, Germany, Estonia, Somalia, Turkey (and a few from Netherlands, too). Football journalists published their NxGn 50 list to draw attention to top talents and wonderkids in football and to my surprise I saw Richard Svec high on the third place in the list. Loet van Fessem and Anass Sarpong are also in the list, but in places between 31-40. Eredivisie We’ve maintained our 10 points lead over PSV Eindhoven. At the bottom of the table SC Cambuur looks like to be relegated, but Willem II fight fiercely against relegation and have found a way to get some points to the board, so nothing is decided about them.

February 2032 Fixtures and Results February has 29 days in 2032, but those days are packed with fixtures for us - eight games this month, so a football match in every three games or so, and to make things more difficult our squad that is available for selection has diminished - Nikita Tamm has left to England, Rik Vos is away on loan, Prince Aning is injured for at least a couple of more weeks; Amourricho van Axel Dongen suffered concussion in training and has to keep it easy for two weeks and Koen Verlijsdonk caught flu and was sent home for two weeks by our club doctor. We’ve enjoyed a relatively clean bill of health so far, but that’s not the case in February, it seems. And the fixture list itself offers some challenges - we got Feyenoord in the KNVB Beker quarter final - another Klassieker derby at De Kuip (a chance to revenge our defeat in December, but probably a really tough match for us), then away derby against PSV Eindhoven before we host Feyenoord at Johan Cruijff Arena. The rest of the Eredivisie games look easier and Astana in Europa League shouldn’t be a serious threat, but the trip to Kazakhstan is an exhausting eight hour flight in both directions (+ adjusting to time difference) so that will leave its mark on the squad with such a packed schedule. We started with probably the easiest game - relegation candidates SC Cambuur at home. SC Cambuur have been the yoyo club in the past few seasons, bouncing between Eredivisie and Keuken Kampioen Divisie and it should have been an easy game for us. We started well and took the lead after Olivier Aertssen headed in from a corner, but two minutes after scoring Aertssen picked up his second yellow card and was sent off. Playing with 10 men against 11 made it much more challenging, but we started to find more chances in the second half (and wasted some of them) and Kenneth Taylor drove it low from 20 metres to double our lead. In the final 15 minutes Cambuur finally started to take more men forward in attacks and found good chances as well - Riswan Sinaga made a couple of great saves and Frank Stromsnes headed in from point blank range to score for SC Cambuur in 85’, but it was a little it too late for them and we managed to keep it at 2:1. Happy with three points, but performance could have been somewhat better - we could have scored our third goal early in the second half and should have been better in defence, so might have avoided being under pressure late in the game. FC Utrecht were a strong opponent, too, but they don’t look like title contenders this season and went through major change in December - their manager Robert Maaskant chose to quit and move for the Southampton post and FC Utrecht called up no other than David De Gea for their vacant post. The legendary Spanish goalkeeper has some experience in football management in Ligue 1, but it’s the first time I’m head to head against him. At first FC Utrecht didn’t look like much under the new management - we controlled possession in the first half and it led to two goals from Ja-Ryong Kim and Kristian Nökkvi Hlynsson. They changed more attacking in the second half and switched their most dangerous attacking midfielder Wilfried Gnonto to their right wing where we had our young wing-back Richard Svec and that mismatch was punished by a goal in 72’ before I got to react and switch Svec to FBs instead of FBa. Slightly nervous in the last 20 minutes, but we held onto the lead and won in front of our home fans. A good win, but I don’t think De Gea thinks too highly about me after that first encounter. I was hopeful ahead of the Klassieker derby, but we were clearly beaten by Feyenoord at De Kuip. Our opponents demonstrated sharpness in attack with some really good movements and in 27’ our defence was ripped apart and Luis Sinisterra made it 1:0 for the hosts. We were lucky to equalise in 74’ after Feyenoord defence and goalkeeper made a mess of their clearance and the ball bounced into their own goal from their centre-back, but in the final 15 minutes they clearly showed that they deserved to win - three good chances and another goal in 88’ finished our cup journey. We were just not good enough - probably missed Prince Aning a lot in this match, because 17 years old Richard Svec was no match for Takefusa Kubo on our left flank who is one of the best wingers in Eredivisie. Our shooting was just 9/4 in this match, while Feyenoord had 27 attempts, so even to get into the extra time would have been riding our luck. But I have to admit, that I’m a bit embarrassed, because after ten years in this league we’re not used to be so soundly beaten very often. While everything seems to go poorly in the continental competitions and in the KNVB Beker, at least we’re strong in Eredivisie and bounced back with an away win over FC Twente. It was a bit drab match in the first half, but after the half-time team-talk we quickly scored (much better performance from Ja-Ryong Kim after his abysmal display at De Kuip) and Peter Misidjan curled it into the top corner to score his first goal of the season and secure all three points. Generally OK performance in the second half and good defence, because we didn’t allow FC Twente to create proper chances in this match. FK Astana is an obscure team in the Europa League and I went to the home game against them with clear intention to win and make sure we progress after the first leg and we did exactly that - a very convincing and comfortable 4:0 win at Johan Cruijff Arena put us in a very strong position in this tie and we can be quite relaxed before our second leg in Kazakhstan. PSV are our closest competitors in the league table, so the Topper derby at Philips Stadion was a crucial match for us. It was important not to lose, winning would be a bonus, at least that’s what I told myself. We started brilliantly - Ja-Ryon Kim scored out of nowhere with a limited space, but his attempt found the net and in 20’ John Meeuwis executed well after a long ball from Riswan Sinaga and in twenty minutes we were leading 2:0. Great start, but the first half ended 2:1, because PSV’s tall winger Naana Dalfour won a header against Jermoumi at the far post and headed it in. He scored a similar goal in our last encounter at Johan Cruijff Arena (that finished 2:2). I was really frustrated with that, but I acknowledge it’s difficult to defend against that when the opponent's jumping reach is 14 and Jermoumi has just 6. PSV changed their formation a little at half-time and in the beginning of the second half they started to get chances and their Russian midfielder Pavel Trifonov had three good looks in a row and finally in 53’ he was alone behind our lines and chipped it over Sinaga to equalise. Just then I realised their manager had switched him from BWM to MEZ and that led to untracked runs behind our defence that ripped us apart. PSV started to gain momentum and they dominated the second half - Jason van Duinen hit the post and wasted a couple of chances and we struggled to play through their high pressure, but somehow we managed to find the winning goal - PSV goalkeeper Maarten Paes dropped Ja-Ryong Kim’s cross in the box and John Meeuwis slotted it in to make it 3:2. Despite constant pressure from PSV we managed to hold on to that lead and returned from Eindhoven with a valuable 3:2 win. Statistically we were clearly beaten by PSV - we had possession, but just 6/3 shooting (all those three shots on target resulted in a goal) and 0.84xG while PSV had 25/9 attempts to our goal and 3.10 xG. We played the whole match with a balanced mentality - after scoring two goals in the first 20 minutes I didn’t feel we needed to be more attacking and then in the second half with 3:2 it seemed wise just to soak up that PSV’s pressure. So, a sort of tactical battle as well, in which we prevailed. Our trip to Kazakhstan was a tedious journey and Astana welcomed us with freezing weather and some light snow. The pitch looked decent despite that and we could play good football, but I chose to rotate the squad heavily and it wasn’t a highly entertaining match, finally ending goalless. We hit the woodwork twice (and Astana hit the post once), but it remained goalless. Our advantage from the first leg was enough to get us into the next round where we’ll meet Villarreal. And then it was time for our revenge match in the Klassieker derby. Feyenoord looked much more cautious at Johan Cruijff Arena - we had small initiative from start to finish and had things under control defensively. We created just a few good chances in the game, but they were enough to score one goal in each half and although we didn’t destroy our rivals in front of our home fans, it was a good and solid win. Tactics and Players Tactically the takeaway from February is that we tend to struggle in away games against big teams. Both away matches against Feyenoord and PSV were actually disastrous and it was a small miracle we managed to win 3:2 in Eindhoven. It doesn’t seem to be as much of a tactical problem, but our players are just too nervous in those high pressure games and fail to execute properly on the pitch. Lack of leaders (and determination), probably. In addition to that we have had some serious problems with injuries - Prince Aning and Quenten Hose missed most of the month with traumas, Ja-Ryong Kim and Amourricho van Axel Dongen suffered knocks, Stanis Idumbo Muzambo as well (but he’s very injury prone and that shouldn’t be a surprise), so my hand was often forced with squad selection. What delighted me was the fact that John Meeuwis ended his goal drought and scored a brace against PSV Eindhoven. He hasn’t been in the sharpest form in February, but he works really hard in training, his attributes improve and those bright moments indicate that he could pick up his goal scoring if he keeps his head down and has faith. While Meeuwis’ goals have dried up, our scoring is pretty evenly distributed. In February Amourricho van Axel Dongen reached 10 goals in the season and Ja-Ryong Kim scored four in eight games - he has started a lot more games after Nikita Tamm went to Chelsea and has managed to find his way to the score sheet more often as a result. With all the injuries and rotation I introduced Peter Misidjan back into the starting line-up and he offered some good performances in February, also scoring his first goal of the season. That’s the kind of impact we need towards the end of the season. I also introduced one new player and young midfielder Joel van de Sande made his debut in the away match against Astana. Player of the Month: Olivier Aertssen - a lot of inconsistency from our attacking players, but Aertssen has been rock solid in defence in most of the games and we need that kind of consistency. Goal of the Month: Peter Misidjan vs. FC Twente - curled into the top corner from 20 metres Eredivisie With our strong results in the league and wins over PSV and Feyenoord we maintain our big lead in the table and it looks like securing our next title shouldn’t pose much of a challenge any more.

January 2032 Fixtures and Results Four games in January and two of them against Heracles Almelo, and we meet Vitesse again with just a couple of weeks since our last encounter at Christmas. After our fantastic win over Vitesse we met Heracles in Eredivisie and returned with a 1:2 defeat. It was a disappointing game - we started with our positive 4-2-3-1 formation and didn’t underestimate them in any way, but were defensively fragile in the first half and after we conceded a goal from a corner I switched to a balanced mentality. It brought us level at half-time, but then we conceded another goal from a free kick in the second half and that was it. I was fairly upset with the team - two goals conceded from set pieces and we didn’t do enough in attack to create chances. Heracles could congratulate themselves, because they did well enough to contain our attacks and deserved a good result from here. In the next match, however, we took a good 1:0 win over Vitesse - Hlynsson scored after a nice combination in the first half and that was enough to secure all three points. We hit the woodwork twice, but it didn’t matter. Our defence was much better in this match and we didn’t allow Vitas to create any real chances, so well controlled from us until the end. Three days later we had a chance to take revenge on Heracles and we were more convincing at home than we had been in the away game - Hlynsson scored from the spot, Quenten Hose doubled our lead after the break and although Jonas Figge scored from a corner (again a set piece!) in 59’, we did enough this time to win the game and move forward into the KNVB Beker quarter final. The last game in January was a bit let-off again performance-wise, but at least the result came out right. After a drab first half Olivier Aertssen managed to head against the crossbar from a corner and Sparta’s Olvido Fer tried to make a clearance, but hammered the ball into his own net. Soon after the goal Sparta’s Brandon Pierrick received a red card for his hard tackle on Ja-Ryong Kim and in 82’ Aertssen headed in from another corner to make it 2:0. I stick to my argument that our performance was actually below-par, but a 2:0 win from an away game counts as a solid enough result. Tactics and Players In those four games we’ve been a bit unimpressive in attack and creating chances - not too much wrong defensively (except defending set pieces against Heracles), but we have around 60% possession in every game and with that much ball we should be able to create better chances. John Meeuwis is just a shadow of himself and looks completely out of shape - a goal in our first game, but below average performances after that. Ja-Ryong Kim hasn’t impressed either and our other wingers haven’t been so sharp either. It’s good we’ve been at least defensively sound most of the games. Prince Aning has been injured after the first match and he’ll be out pretty much until the end of February. Richard Svec did well enough so far in those games (especially impressed with him against a strong Vitesse side), but February will bring more difficult opponents and I’m again a little bit worried of how he’ll do in the long run. Aning’s injuries might turn out to be costly for us this season. Player of the Month: Olivier Aertssen - two really good performances against Vitesse and Sparta, also managed to score a goal Goal of the Month: John Meeuwis vs. Heracles Almelo - well placed shot, a true striker’s finish to level the game for us. I can’t understand why he couldn’t continue from this strike in the next matches. Transfer Window I made two decisions in this transfer window. The first one was to allow Nikita Tamm to leave for Chelsea in a bid of £48m. The Estonian winger has earned this chance and it was a decent fee for him. Ja-Ryong Kim will get more game time on our left flank as a result and Amourricho van Axel Dongen can switch over to left as well. I’m excited to see how young Anass Sarpong will develop on loan and he’ll probably get a chance in the first team after this Summer. The second decision was to send our young centre-back Rik Vos to PEC Zwolle on loan until the end of the season. Our usual Aertssen-Can Tas-Rajkovic rotation should be enough to cover the centre-back position and Vos could benefit from more first team game time. A number of Jong Ajax players also left - they had contracts running out in Summer and I set them all free to release in January and when clubs came in I allowed them leave early. Our reserve team is somewhat unbalanced because of that, but it will be this way only until March when the new batch of youngsters will come in. Eredivisie We still have a decent lead in the table and the top five are somewhat moved away from others. At the bottom it looks like SC Cambuur and Willem II struggle to retain their place in the top tier.

December 2031 Fixtures and Results Six more games this year. We start with a crucial Klassieker derby at De Kuip and on Christmas Eve (sic!) we’ll travel to Arnhem, but the schedule has easier opponents, too, and there’s nothing to play for in our remaining Champions League fixture, so we have opportunities to rotate a lot, if we need or wish to do so. The Klassieker derby was a huge letdown. We had no selection problems and could send out our best team, but Feyenoord were clearly better than us and created chances at the end of the first half. It remained 0:0 at half-time, but in the second half ex-Ajax player David Kalokoh (who moved to Feyenoord after several seasons in Bundesliga) scored the winner for them. I tried to change things tactically, but whatever I tried, it did not make any difference. Our players looked more nervous on the pitch than I would like to see - lack of leadership and determination evident (or perhaps inability to perform under pressure in big games). Our shooting was just 4/2 and our average rating was 6.56 in this game, underlying our lack of threat in attack. Thoroughly embarrassing performance and a lot to think about as a manager. Our trip to Denmark provided a good chance to bounce back from that - I could rotate the team and we ran out clear winners against AGF. A number of goals scored certainly boosted confidence and improved morale. The next league game against PEC Zwolle turned out to be a hard-fought 1:0 win in a match where we were clear favourites. Again, our creativity was not good enough and Zwolle’s defence was surprisingly difficult to break down, but Ja-Ryong Kim provided a moment of magic when he curled his strike into the top corner from 20 metres. I wasn’t happy with our attacking performance, but Kim’s goal proved to be enough to get all three points. In our first KNVB Beker match of the season we managed to beat Fortuna Sittard more comfortably. For whatever reason we were against the Eredivisie side while much easier opponents were drawn against other clubs, but we did fairly well at Johan Cruijff Arena to beat them 3:0. Amourricho van Axel Dongen put us ahead with a volley in the second half and Kenneth Taylor scored with a free kick in 57’, before Fortuna’s left-back Ronald Reus was sent off with his second yellow card. Substitute Stanis Idumbo Muzambo completed the rout in injury time - good game overall and not a lot of complaints from me. Willem II Tilburg are in the relegation zone and it should have been an easy win for us even in an away game, but it wasn’t just the case. Ja-Ryong Kim scored two quick goals for us in the first half, but we then allowed Taichi Hara to score one for Willem II and so the second half was not without some tension for us. We held on to our lead, but I feel it should have been more comfortable. The last match was at Gelredome against Vitesse Arnhem. First I need to say it takes a special kind of idiot to schedule a league game on Christmas Eve at 20:45. Not sure what the people in the Eredivisie office were thinking. Most of the teams played on 23rd, but Feyenoord and NEC Nijmegen were also forced to drag their players out on Christmas Eve. Equally I couldn’t understand why thousands of fans should come to the stadium instead of sitting at the Christmas dinner with their families. Either way, it was a difficult match and Vitesse have been in great form this season so far. We had our defeat in Rotterdam still fresh in mind and I tried to avoid the similar situation where we would be played off the park, so we started with a balanced mentality - a rare occasion in domestic games. We looked good in the first ten minutes and created some half-chances, but Vitesse took the lead in 21’. The first half was actually quite even battle stats-wise, but Vitesse were more clinical with their opportunities and that gave them an edge. However, all of that was to change in 59’ when their left-back Julien Melchior was sent off with a red card after a two-footed tackle on Jermoumi and we could take control of the match after that - we scored two goals, created chances and even though our sloppy defending allowed Vitesse to equalise with 10 men, a late goal from van Axel Dongen made it 3:2 and we returned with a crucial win from away game. Vitesse could really wonder what it could have been without Melchior’s red card - they had control in the game and the win in this game would have brought them to one point from us in the table, but they lost it after the red and now there is a seven points gap before the Winter break. How small details and individual errors change the fate of the campaign. Tactics and Players December offered some different results and feedback on tactical changes. I was confused whether I should use a balanced or positive mentality, because sometimes how it played out on the pitch didn’t actually make a lot of sense. One tactical problem seemed to be the role of John Meeuwis - my coaching staff claimed that he’s now capable of playing as CFa and I started him as a complete forward in some games, but the performances suffered (although Dramane Guehi excelled in my setup in the same role). The bigger problem seemed to be inconsistent performances overall, especially in the games we struggled and I suspect it has something to do with some players getting too nervous in big games or when we were under pressure. My shouts had effect sometimes, and sometimes didn’t but the mental pressure seemed to hamper some players a lot. The positive is that we have a full squad fit at the moment, everybody has trained well and younger players have developed enormously, so hopefully we’ll improve in the second half of the season. Our goal scoring is well distributed between players. John Meeuwis had just one goal in December and his total is 11 in all competitions, Kenneth Taylor has 10 (but most of them are penalties), the others have less. I’d be surprised if anyone could get to 20 goals this season. John Meeuwis was selected as the European Golden Boy at the end of the year Player of the Month: Ja Ryong Kim - Korean winger hasn’t really shone this season, but scored some important goals in December Goal of the Month: Ja-Ryong Kim vs. PEC Zwolle - curled into the top corner from 20 metres. Youth Intake Preview That’s quite promising, but let’s wait until March and see what there really is to offer. Eredivisie We have 44 points with 17 games and that’s actually fantastic points total, but a number of other clubs have had a strong first half of the season as well. Champions League So, we finished third in our group and will continue in Europa League, where our first knockout round opponent will be Astana (damn long travel).

November 2031 Fixtures and Results We started November by hosting Excelsior. It was my 500th game in football management and Excelsior should have been an easy opponent by every sense, but we struggled a lot in this match. Stanis Idumbo Muzambo started as AMCa in midfield, but had to come off with injury in 18’ and we didn’t find our rhythm in the first half. And as it often happens, one mistake made a lot of difference in the game - Diyae-Eddine Jermoumi missed his header and allowed Thierry Ambrose to give Excelsior the lead in 65’ and then we had to push hard to get anything out of this match. Good thing was that the players reacted well - John Meeuwis levelled the game with a simple finish and three minutes later Kenneth Taylor scored from the spot to make it 2:1. A very difficult win, with a performance that left a lot to desire, but we finally turned things around in the last fifteen minutes and I have to be happy with that. I expected a tough game at Stadio Olimpico against AS Roma and it was indeed a difficult challenge for us. The first half finished goalless, even though we were under some pressure in the first ten minutes. Later we managed to level the game somewhat and even found a couple of decent chances in attack, so overall I was slightly encouraged by our performance. It was a different story in the second half - AS Roma found another gear in the final 20 minutes, chances started to come their way and two goals in 78’ and 84’ sealed our fate - we were not too bad defensively for large part of the match, but didn’t threaten enough in attack in the second half and keeping 0:0 was our only hope, but it wasn’t to be. A lot of below-par performances from attacking players. While trips to the northern part of the country could be tricky away games, we returned with a fairly comfortable win this time. FC Groningen looked like a wounded animal - they haven’t strengthened their squad a lot, but competing in the Champions League this season has come with a toll - a lot of (physically) challenging games, defeats that hurt morale and a lot of travelling means they’ve been really poor in Eredivisie as a result and find themselves in the relegation zone after the first ten games. And it was a humbling defeat from us in front of their home fans. I went with a risky option and offered our young striker Koen Verlijsdonk a chance to start and he caused havoc in the FC Groningen defence. Both of our wingers (van Axel Dongen and Tamm) fed Verlijsdonk with well-measured through balls and he was clinical with his finishing and after Tamm curled his attempt into the top corner from 22 metres it was 3:0 in the first half. Verlijsdonk went on to complete a hat-trick in the second half (talk about second best striker!) and the game concluded 4:0. FC Groningen manager Jeroen Esseboom was finally sacked after this defeat and counts as the first casualty of the season. While we rolled over FC Groningen, what happened against FC Twente was a full-blown destruction in the second half - we had a few players that looked a bit tired after the international break and I thought - what the heck - and started with Koen Verlijsdonk again in attack. The first half went pretty much as expected - we had initiative and took the lead, but 1:0 at half time left all possibilities open. However, my positive team talk at the break inspired the team and we ripped them apart in the second half - six goals (including one own goal) in forty-five minutes. Both Koen Verlijsdonk and Amourricho van Axel Dongen scored hat-tricks in this match and we also hit the woodwork four times. Seven goals was perhaps a bit much, because our xG was just 3.86, and FC Twente players’ frustration was palpable, but we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves on the pitch and the only downside was their consolation goal, so again we couldn’t keep a clean sheet. I was hopeful before our key match against FC Barcelona, but out of nowhere we were trailing 0:2 after the first ten minutes. Gabriel Martinelli’s attempt from outside of the box went in off the post and then Ronald Araujo headed in from a set piece and we were down by two goals, but we actually didn’t play poorly and at half-time I was disappointed, because it looked like an even game in the first half. We improved even more after the break and created some good chances to ourselves, but failed to finish - Claidel Muringen had the best opportunity of the match, but his attempt was saved and in the end it was Dejan Kulusevski who made it 0:3 with a nice chip over Riswan Sinaga. The final score looks like we were clearly beaten, but actually it was just the quality of finishing that was the difference between the two teams - the stat sheet was pretty close and our xG was even somewhat better than Barcelona’s, but that’s football sometimes. The defeat meant that we can’t catch AS Roma in the group any more and our final place is third - short of the board’s expectations for this season. FC Utrecht away were potentially difficult opponents and in reality they were exactly that. We controlled possession, but struggled to create good moments against their well organised defence and only had one half-chance in the first half. FC Utrecht stunned us with a counter-attack in 58’ and our situation looked dire before substitute Koen Verlijsdonk scored the late equaliser. I was disappointed with the result, but at least we rescued a point here and continued undefeated. Tactics and Players Tactically our focus was with Champions League games. My balanced formation didn’t work in Rome. It offered us a chance or two in the game (perhaps the problem was our finishing), but we lost possession and while we were more-less OK defensively it’s difficult to see that our chances could be good enough with those instructions in the long term. So, we have to change something, but what? Time to contemplate about player roles and instructions and perhaps I’ll get a chance to test it against stronger opposition in a friendly in January. Tactics seemed to work better against FC Barcelona and this defeat was perhaps undeserved. For the moment, at least, I believe that our usual positive 4-2-3-1 should suffice in home games. What has been wonderful to see is our number of goals in Eredivisie. Scoring a lot of goals gives a lot of confidence to players and praise obviously helps to build morale, so big wins over FC Groningen and FC Twente spurred us forward. I have rotated the team a little and minutes are relatively well spread out (except Peter Misidjan who struggles to get starts and Stanis Idumbo Muzambo who has a number of injuries). Situation with Idumbo Muzambo is still unclear - his contract is still about to run out in next Summer; he is a high earner in the squad, but expects significant raise with his new contract, but he’s very injury prone and I’m not sure if he’ll last over 20 games in a season, so he’s more like a rotation option in my mind, but it’s difficult to pay more than £40,000 p/w for that rotation option. We have December to sort out that contract issue, but it better be resolved this time. Good performances attract other clubs. Manchester United are searching for a new midfield playmaker and both Kenneth Taylor and Kristian Nökkvi Hlynsson have been on the radar of their manager Erik ten Hag. ten Hag came to Amsterdam to watch our match against FC Twente and commented about his interest in signing Hlynsson, I replied to this speculation in press conference that I’m open to discussion when the price is right, so this information has been given the Dutch football media a lot to write about in the past two weeks. Let’s see if it leads to any actual bids in January. Youngsters have continued to surprise at the Eredivisie level. Centre-back Rik Vos made his starting debut against FC Twente and had a good game (at least one comfortably tall centre-back in the squad who keeps on winning headers against most strikers) and Koen Verlijsdonk is not perhaps the match for John Meeuwis according to his attributes, but his two consecutive hat-tricks raised a lot of eyebrows and it’s more difficult to keep him on the bench in the future. At the same time John Meeuwis’ form has dropped significantly and he has just one goal to show for in November. I understand that he’s played against stronger opponents in the Champions League and lost confidence is difficult to find when opposition defence is better, but his poor performance against FC Utrecht showed that something is seriously wrong with him and I have to help him improve. Player of the Month: Koen Verlijsdonk - breath of fresh air in our attack, seven goals and two hat-tricks in November. Goal of the Month: Nikita Tamm vs. FC Groningen - well struck effort from 22 metres Eredivisie We are slowly gaining points on the competitors. PSV Eindhoven and Vitesse made a goalless draw in November and that helped us to get another two points advantage over both of them, but our draw in Utrecht allowed them to get a little closer again. At the bottom of the table it looks like FC Groningen is close to getting away from the relegation zone, but both SC Cambuur and Willem II have got one win in November and the difference is not too big for them. Champions League Our defeat to Barcelona meant that we had a slim hope to qualify, but it required that AGF would beat AS Roma in the other match and it didn’t happen, so our 0:2 away defeat at Olimpico is a decisive factor in the table and we’re third. The last match in Denmark doesn’t change anything in that regard.

October 2031 Fixtures and Results Only four games in October, but difficult matches against PSV Eindhoven and AS Roma. The Topper derby brought an almost full crowd to Johan Cruijff Arena and we started this match well - Ognjen Rajkovic headed in an indirect free kick and we took charge of the game, but just two minutes later PSV equalised. Amourricho van Axel Dongen squared for Hlynsson who made it 2:1 to give us the lead at the break, but in truth it was a game with just a few good chances for both teams. We held our lead in the second half and didn’t look in trouble defensively, but in 67’ Riswan Sinaga made a terrible mistake and played the ball straight to Jason van Duiven who had no problems converting this gift to an equaliser. We couldn’t score another goal and Sinaga’s error meant that spoils were shared in this derby. It has to be said that PSV defended well - we made only nine key passes in this game and John Meeuwis was well isolated in ninety minutes. You could say that PSV came to Amsterdam with a good game plan, it worked somewhat well most of the match and they were helped by a glaring mistake from our goalkeeper, but either way they were happy to get a point from this. I expected a fairly easy game against NEC Nijmegen and our team selection reflected the fact that some of our (younger) players were tired after the international window. There was a scary moment for us in 17’ when NEC’s Amine Essahel went for the ball in our six yard box and tackled it well, but Riswan Sinaga made a great save to keep it out. We went to half-time with a 1:0 lead, courtesy of a simple tap-in from van Axel Dongen. In the second half we were awarded a rather dubious penalty (that was surprisingly upheld by VAR) and when Nikita Tamm slotted in another clear cut chance it looked like NEC was starting to fall apart. However, their best striker from the last season, Conor Noss, headed in to give them a consolation goal. Two-goal win from away game was a decent result nonetheless. That gets us to our crucial home game against AS Roma. I’m happy that we have our best eleven available for those important Champions League games. We started with a positive mentality and took the lead in 12’ - van Axel Dongen’s attempt caused some difficulties to AS Roma goalkeeper Justin Bijlow and John Meeuwis was first to react and tuck it in. Portuguese striker Vitinha was labelled as the danger man for Roma and he showed it in the first half - he was everywhere where anything remotely dangerous happened, had a half-chance (that Riswan Sinaga turned away), won headers in our box and eventually he scored the equaliser after Claidel Muringen lost possession in midfield and allowed AS Roma to build a counter-attack. Vitinha’s skill was evident when he turned away from Can Tas with his first touch and put the ball next to the post calmly. The second half was a hard-fought battle, the one where one goal could be decisive and in this tactical challenge I did better than my counterpart on AS Roma bench - I sent out Ja-Ryong Kim and Quenten Hose and they built a lovely attack through the middle and Hose finished his opportunity nicely - he has wasted a number of chances in Eredivisie games and perhaps hasn’t been in the best form this season, but here the young winger delivered us the winning goal - such an important win, but also a warning that the repeat match in Stadio Olimpico in just two weeks is not going to be easy. The last match against Heracles was an easy one, but finished with a narrow 1:0 win. Our opponents came to Johan Cruijff Arena with a defensive 4-1-4-1 formation and couldn’t pose a real threat in attack. We created a number of chances in the first half, but our right winger Quenten Hose scored just once. In the second half we missed two big chances and hit the post twice, so I criticised our finishing in the post-match team talk. We could have dropped points easily here - Heracles only needed one corner or attempt to find a goal out of nowhere. That’s why we need to make sure earlier in the games. Players and Tactics Nothing to report tactically. Performance-wise we’ve managed to score goals, but struggled to get clean sheets, so there’s something to work on - we just have to keep our concentration up in defence and avoid conceding avoidable goals. Most of the results have come our way, but I’m disappointed with the inconsistency of most of our players and I don’t feel that we play as well as we should. Wingers have been under my special scrutiny in October - Nikita Tamm had one good performance in Nijmegen, but disappeared completely in matches with bigger opponents. Ja-Ryong Kim started against Heracles instead of him, but failed to impress. Quenten Hose scored the winner against AS Roma and Heracles, but at the same time missed more chances in front of goal than I count. Player of the Month: Ognjen Rajkovic - very difficult choice, because we changed so many players in the line-ups and there were just four games, but Rajkovic started against PSV and NEC Nijmegen and was very good in both of those games, getting on the score sheet as well. Goal of the Month: Quenten Hose vs. AS Roma - not because of the finish, but the passing combination that led to the goal and the sheer importance of that win. Eredivisie We still face close competition from Vitesse and PSV Eindhoven. Extremely surprised to see FC Groningen in the relegation zone (the club who’s in the Champions League this season!). SC Cambuur, on the other hand, looks like a clear relegation material. PEC Zwolle are probably the overachievers of the season so far. Champions League So far, so good. The home win against AS Roma helped us enormously.

September 2031 Five games in September. The Champions League starts with a must win home game against AGF, but the Eredivisie schedule offers some tricky away fixtures against mid-table teams. My main concern is not to lose points until Prince Aning is fit again (he could be back for the Barcelona match, but we’ll know in a few weeks). It was nice to see our loan player Loet van Fessem start for ADO Den Haag in our first game of the month, but it was he who lost possession to John Meeuwis and we scored a quick goal in 12’ to take charge of the match. ADO equalised with a good header from close range, but a penalty restored our lead before half-time and the second penalty, awarded in the second half, made it sure. Penalties surely helped us, because we didn’t create too many opportunities from open play and ADO-s 5-2-3 WB formation packed their box with five players at most times. The home game against AGF turned out to be a walkover. We scored from a set piece early on and went to the half-time with a 2:0 lead, but the defining factor was that AGF had two men sent off in the first half, so we cruised after the break and finished the match with five goals. Kenneth Taylor produced the best goal of the night with a thunderous strike from 20 metres. We continued this form at Heerenveen - I anticipated a much more difficult away game, but I suppose Heerenveen made some serious tactical errors, because their defence looked all over the place and we found gaps and spaces between the lines and defenders easily. Finishing was excellent as well, Kristian Nökkvi Hlynsson and John Meeuwis scored a brace and Diyae-Eddine Jermoumi found himself at the score sheet too. After two impressive results we hosted Fortuna Sittard at Johan Cruijff Arena. This game had ups and downs for as, starting off with a missed penalty by Kenneth Taylor. Then Hlynsson and Meeuwis combined two good goals in four minutes to give us a solid lead, but Fortuna stunned us with a counter-attack in 30’. Because of that our second half was a little bit nervous and our third goal kept itself waiting until Rajkovic scored from a corner to put this result beyond doubt. Decent win. Away game at Camp Nou was not supposed to be easy. I used our Champions League setup, but it still resulted in conceding two goals in the first 20 minutes. Barcelona players were just so technically gifted and managed to dismantle our defence with their measured passes. One good attack from us in 40’ made it 1:2 before half-time and gave us some hope for the second half, that if we’re lucky we might steal a point from here. This didn’t happen - we kept our defence more-less in order after half-time, but couldn’t create anything dangerous (just 3 key passes in the whole game and 3/2 shots for us), so a bit disappointing result, but at least we didn’t suffer more serious beating and we kept the final score respectable. Tactics and Players Tactically our positive 4-2-3-1 formation has gotten us through from domestic games easily. I expected tricky away matches and perhaps somewhat stronger opposition from ADO Den Haag and sc Heerenveen, but we felt fairly comfortable against them. The Champions League setup was tested against FC Barcelona, but the results were inconclusive - we were pretty much dominated in the game, but we got a goal in an away match, so it hints that in the right circumstances we might stun big teams with this tactic. The players have done incredibly well. Our main concern was Richard Svec at the left-back position, but the youngster has done OK to fill the gap in our team and has developed incredibly in the process. His performances are mediocre, because he’s not really in the first team level and I ordered him to play it safe and take less risks with the ball, so clearly his impact in attack is much lower than Prince Aning’s, but that’s OK. His main job has been to avoid mistakes defensively and not to give away easy chances, and he’s done really well in that regard in Eredivisie games. Aning should be fully fit for our first league game in October, so we don’t have to rely on Svec too much in the future. I’m happy with the progress of both Claidel Muringen and Mohamed Tahiri in midfield - both have trained well and performed OK, too. Kenneth Taylor is our leading scorer in midfield with 6 goals, but he has got many chances from the penalty spot, so that explains it. Nikita Tamm has continued to find a goal and he has earned us some penalties, too, so good form continues for him. John Meeuwis has scored six goals in the league. He’s a different kind of forward than Dramane Guehi - Meeuwis plays as PFa and doesn’t contribute much in build-up, but he’s there to finish off his chances and his composure has been evident in September. Player of the Month: Kristian Nökkvi Hlynsson - scored four goals in September and was really driving our attack forward. Even in our worst match against Barcelona it was Hlynsson who managed to create a goal. The Icelander is in fine form. Goal of the Month: Kenneth Taylor vs. AGF - a lot of penalties for Taylor this season, but this was beautifully struck from 20 metres. Eredivisie Six games played and we’re at the top of the table, but Vitesse have started incredibly well and share the top with 18 points from their matches. So far it’s been clear that some of the contestants (AZ Alkmaar, FC Utrecht) are not up to the challenge for the title this season, but the competition is still fairly tight. Champions League Group G Quite as expected - we won at home against AGF easily and struggled at Camp Nou. Important games are the ones against AS Roma.

August 2031 Fixtures and Results The Johan Cruijff Schaal final was a bit of a revenge match because of the two finals we lost against FC Utrecht in the last season, but this time we didn’t give them any chances - two goals in the first half put us in charge and FC Utrecht were sinking without trace. Mohamed Tahiri headed in from a corner in 76’ to make it 3:0. It was a very convincing win because we had 64% possession and FC Utrecht didn’t get any chances in the full ninety minutes. An excellent start to our season. The first league game was at home and Sparta Rotterdam came to visit. Nothing too difficult on paper and we should have won that easily, but we couldn’t find a goal at first - we had a number of set pieces and even created chances from them, but couldn’t finish them off and at the other end of the pitch Sparta had two decent opportunities as well (perhaps partly because Olivier Aertssen served his suspension and defensive partnership of Rajkovic and Can Tas didn’t work together too well). Things got easier in the second half when Sparta’s Jürgen Braun was dismissed for a dangerous tackle on Quenten Hose and in the final ten minutes we finally were on the mark - John Meeuwis broke the deadlock and Kenneth Taylor wrapped things up with a penalty in injury time. In the end we had 26 shots with 3.67 xG - should have finished better. Trip to visit the newly promoted SC Cambuur was an equally difficult feat - Nikita Tamm scored with an accurate volley to give us the lead, but Prince Aning was carried off the pitch with an injury soon after the goal and it affected our match. 17 years old Richard Svec came on for him to make his first team debut. We had some good chances to extend our lead, but couldn’t finish (again!) - Olivier Aertssen headed against the crossbar and Nikita Tamm wasted a clear cut chance in the second half. We weren’t in trouble defensively and didn’t concede any chances, but I would have much preferred the second goal. The last match in August was the Noord-Hollandse derby at home. Our main concern was left defence - Prince Aning’s injury that he suffered in the last league game was a pretty serious one and sprained knee ligaments will keep him out for 4-6 weeks, so Richard Svec (who had just turned 17) started as our left full-back. We started well and soon Diyae-Eddine Jermoumi delivered a low cross into the six yard box where Nikita Tamm was ready to score with a simple tap-in. Despite our lead there was a certain anxiousness in the team and in 17’ AZ’s Ludwe Sibiya got through our defence, only to be denied by Riswan Sinaga. AZ’s equaliser came out of nowhere, though, when their midfielder Aymen Barkok hit the scorcher into our top corner from 27 metres. The penalty in 33’ restored our lead and our position improved a lot in 43’ when AZ’s Manfred Ugalde received his second yellow card and was sent off. We dominated possession in the second half (obviously, because we were 11 against 10), but couldn’t turn it into goals, even though we created some good chances and Olivier Aertssen headed against the crossbar from a corner. Substitutions looked risky, because most of our bench seemed nervous despite our lead. It remained 2:1 and I was pleased with a win, but I feel our second half performance was a disappointment. We should have grabbed AZ by the neck and finished them off after Ugalde’s dismissal, but we failed to do that. Overall I’m pleased with our results in August and to start with three wins in Eredivisie marks a good start. Players and Tactics Nothing interesting to report tactically there. Players have done what was expected of them and defensively we’ve looked fairly good. Prince Aning’s injury is an obvious concern before September. Nikita Tamm has been impressive in attack - he has two league goals in August and it looks like the form he had in the first half of the last season has returned. At least he’s getting into the right positions and taking his chances. John Meeuwis has started all four games and so far he’s done OK. Stanis Idumbo Muzambo and Ja-Ryong Kim have not featured as much, but that’s an extra gear we have in the coming weeks. Player of the Month: Kenneth Taylor - since that friendly against Arsenal where he scored a brace he’s been outstanding - two penalties in the competitive matches and one assist to add. He’s been excellent in every single game so far. Goal of the Month: Nikita Tamm vs. FC Utrecht - not so much because of the simple finish, but because of the cheeky backheel pass from John Meeuwis that set Tamm up for the goal Eredivisie Three clubs have three straight wins so far, with PSV Eindhoven and Vitesse sharing the lead with us. Feyenoord lost a match against FC Utrecht. AZ Alkmaar has had a long Summer in Conference League qualification and their Eredivisie form has suffered because of that and last season’s sensation FC Groningen is also low in the table. Champions League The draw landed us in the group G with Barcelona, AS Roma and AGF (that is Aarhus from Denmark). While the Danish are way out of their depth in this group, AS Roma are tricky opponents and like always, away fixtures (and ability to get at least a point out of those) are key.

Squad Update 2031 Goalkeepers We have only one true first team goalkeeper in Riswan Sinaga (although Calvin Francis is pushing up from Jong Ajax). He doesn’t seem exceptional attribute-wise, but he’s surely talented and only 20 years old. Despite that young age he played 48 games in the last season and showed remarkable fitness (his injury susceptibility is below average) so he’s quite reliable for the whole season. Defence Here we have a solid first team trio that’s my preference for important matches - Diyae-Eddine Jermoumi on the right, Olivier Aertssen in the middle and Prince Aning on the left. Left centre-back position is shared between Can Tas and Ognjen Rajkovic (and mainly decided by how tall the opposition strikers are, because Can Tas isn’t really an aerial power). The main strength in our defence is that key players are reaching their best years of football. The main weakness, however, is that those influential players have usually just ‘balanced’ personalities and aren’t suitable mentors. Jasper Vogels left this Summer and we will probably miss his versatility, but instead we have several youngsters stepping up to fill the ranks. Giorgio Jongebloet featured in the last season as well and the 18 years old right-back has played in 12 Eredivisie games - he’s resilient, determined, brave, aggressive and with a good work rate, so he has all the necessary qualities to become a great player. In the central defence we have Rik Vos, who spent a year on loan in Belgium. Vos looks like a good prospect - no real weaknesses, and he’s tall (!) compared to most of our centre-backs. On the left side I needed a replacement for Vogels and promoted 16 years old Slovak talent Richard Svec to the first team. The boy is arguably not ready for first team football, but he’s another defender with excellent determination, teamwork and work rate attributes, so I expect him to develop quickly. Midfield No real changes here - Kenneth Taylor and Claidel Muringen are our go-to pair in midfield. Mohamed Tahiri can play as an attacking midfielder, but proved in last season that he can fill the BBMs role, too. Young Ruben Sergio is here just to fill the numbers and (perhaps) provide some resting minutes for Taylor if the game is decided, but in times of need I much prefer to drop Kristian Nökkvi Hlynsson down to DLPd if Taylor is not available. Attacking Midfield At the moment attacking midfield looks like our strongest area on the pitch. On the right we have Amourricho van Axel Dongen who can score and assist. Quenten Hose has provided some competition for him for the place in the line-up - he’s young, quick, agile and good with the ball. Hose can be young, but he scored 6 goals and assisted 7 more in Eredivisie last season. In the middle we have Icelandic international Kristian Nökkvi Hlynsson (possibly our most creative players and also our corner taker), Stanis Idumbo Muzambo (probably the best player with the ball) and Peter Misidjan who is just 22 years old, but it feels like he’s been around forever. On the left we have Estonian Nikita Tamm (who plays as IFs), a very inconsistent player, although his attributes are great, and South Korean international Ja-Ryong Kim (who is a Ws) - a player with great flair and the one who created most chances in Eredivisie games in the last season. There are no really young prospects in the first team at the moment, but there’s some interest in our key players and if there’s an opening in the January, we have some options to come in from Jong Ajax. Strikers Dramane Guehi has left, so John Meeuwis has to carry the load this season. He’s a wonderful talent - just 20 years old but finished the last season with 19 goals from 16 starts - but he can’t play as a CFa, so we go with PFa with both him and Koen Verlijsdonk. Verlijsdonk can certainly expect to get more minutes this season, as his game time was rather limited last year. He has certain weaknesses (like low rate, not too accurate passing and poor concentration), but he’s quick and can score and has a lot of flair, so that’s a start.

Summer 2031 Transfer Window After reaching the Champions League semi finals in Spring, I knew that there will be some departures this Summer. Quick look at our squad list indicated that we have a number of players reaching their prime and being in the Ajax first eleven at 24-25 years of age, it’s the right moment to step up and move to Premier League, Serie A or La Liga if the player wants to further his career. The first unavoidable loss was Dramane Guehi - the African striker moved to PSG in June for the club record £75m + clauses. He was probably the best player (by ability) in the team and way too good for Eredivisie. At some point he was valued for around £100m, but it’s always tricky to get an actual bid for that amount and I settled for the offer that PSG made. I’m not overly worried about our attack, because we still have John Meeuwis who can contribute and develop in Ajax for a couple of seasons, at least. The second departure was Jasper Vogels - a versatile defender who went to Everton for £30,5m - a decent fee for him and I hope he’ll do well in the Premier League. We have a few younger options for full-back positions to replace him. We also loaned out youngsters Anass Sarpong and Loet van Fessem for the next season to get them some first team experience. The Club We have improvements for training facilities and youth facilities in progress this Summer and it looks like the board is willing to invest into the club, so they proposed to increase coaching staff wages (a thought that I was delighted to accept). With training facilities and youth facilities improved, I also managed to convince the board to increase the junior coaching budget. Our finances are huge. Selling Dramane Guehi and Jasper Vogels in June for a combined £105m brought our bank balance to £1,2b and so I received a curious message that the club has directed a large portion of those funds into investment reserves. I’ve never seen anything like that, but more than £300m disappeared from our books and I have no clue where they are or if we ever can use it if we need to.

Thanks. About Champions League - it's not the main target. Obviously I try to do as well as I can, but because my youth only policy and transfer policy that allows best players to leave I know that I'm always handicapped compared to big teams and sometimes it's just too difficult to compete with them. I know that I do most of the times everything right tactically, but if the individual level of players is so much higher in the other team, it's really difficult to prevent all goals you concede. I have won the Champions League in previous versions of FM with the same 'youth only' strategy. I believe I won in FM16, but in FM20 I reached to the semi-final once. Here in FM22 I've got to the semi final several times, so it builds a platform, but let's see how it goes. About favourite player - that's a tough question. From the initial group of players it's difficult to choose, because in almost every FM and every Ajax save you have a lot of interest in the players from big clubs and several of the players are sold in early years, so Ryan Gravenberch? Because he has a great potential that is obvious from the start and I managed to keep him around for some years to get the maximum out of him before allowing him to move forward with his career. But I also felt attached to Daley Blind and Davy Klaassen, because they were true leaders on the pitch and remained in the club almost to the end of their careers (and Klaassen continued to be part of our coaching staff after hanging his boots). From regens I have to say that Dramane Guehi has reached the highest ability level so far - driven personality, a lot of talent, experience on both club and international level. He's the first player in the team who has been touted to have around £100m transfer value and because of that he's probably the biggest talent who has come from our youth ranks into the first team in those 10 seasons I've been in charge.

Competitions We won our tenth Eredivisie title in a row (a small reminder, that I’ve been managing Ajax for ten years already) and this time it was a rather impressive campaign. We pretty much ran away with the title after the New Year and clinched it at the beginning of April, so the second part of the season was pretty relaxed. It was a great Champions League campaign. Reaching the quarter finals counts as a very successful season for us, but the semi final is quite exceptional. Perhaps we had a bit of luck to get Hertha in the first knockout round, but beating Chelsea proved that we deserved to be there and with this squad managed to be very competitive until the end. We were called the biggest overachievers of the competition as a result. Champions League final was Italy’s inner affair and Inter beat Juventus in the final (ex-Ajax player Gabrial Misehouy scored a goal for the winners!) Domestic cups continue to escape from us and we were beaten twice by FC Utrecht - firstly in the Johan Cruijff Schaal final and then in the KNVB Beker Final. It means that FC Utrecht seems to have a real knack for the cup silverware. My inability to win the KNVB Beker two seasons in a row was the main criticism from the board and players alike. Jong Ajax had a pretty good season with 7th place finish in Keuken Kampioen Divisie, while our academy youngsters finished 2nd in the table after AZ Alkmaar U-19. Players The main question before the season was our goalkeeper and how Riswan Sinaga will do in goal after Mert Alegoz departed to FC Barcelona. In the end the young goalkeeper did fairly well - not an exceptional season, but sold enough and he finished as runner-up in the Eredivisie Goalkeeper of the Year category. Not bad for a 19 years old bloke. He developed well throughout the season and has a much better ability for next year. Our defence looked solid throughout the season, although a serious injury to Ognjen Rajkovic left us a little bit thin in the centre-back department. On the other hand Jasper Vogels provided cover for both full-back positions and in the second part of the season young Giorgio Jongebloet started to get first team appearances, so that helped to increase our options. Prince Aning sometimes featured for the Holland national team (and sometimes didn’t) so in and out of international football. Our key defensive players start to get into their prime years, so I expect them to mix ability with experience in the coming seasons. In midfield we were thin. Team captain Kenneth Taylor carried a huge load. Young Claidel Muringen filled the BBMs role - wasn’t exceptional, but wasn’t terrible either and more attacking midfielders Kristian Nökkvi Hlynsson and Mohamed Tahiri had to drop to deeper positions once in a while to provide rotation options. Hlynsson excelled as DLPd in several games, so that was a nice surprise, but at some point I included some youngsters like Ruben Sergio or Jaap Prinsen who were clearly not ready for first team football. Attacking midfield seemed to work the best, even Nikita Tamm was great in the first half of the season (but his form dropped dramatically since March). We had the most options in attacking midfield and at some point it seemed that however I rotated, we still managed to create chances and score goals. Young winger Quenten Hose emerged to the AMR IWa position this season. In attack Dramane Guehi was clearly our best striker, but John Meeuwis also scored 19 goals for the club and I had the luxury to rotate even our best players. Guehi was away at AFCON in January and our attack didn’t skip a beat. With two such good players in front of him, Koen Verlijsdonk struggled to get into the team. Eredivisie Awards I rotated a lot and that left a mark to our award season. Olivier Aertssen managed to collect 30 games in Eredivisie and retained his Golden Boot award, but my rotation policy and AFCON didn’t allow Dramane Guehi to get enough goals to reach top three in the top goalscorer charts. As I already mentioned Riswan Sinaga was the runner-up in the Goalkeeper of the Year category and we made a clean sweep in the Young Player of the Year list. After a brief pause I was again selected as the manager’s manager of the year by my peers. Elsewhere in the World Meanwhile, Leicester City surprised everyone by winning the Premier League again after 15 years (wow!)

May 2031 Four games in May and our main focus is on the second leg match in Turin. Remaining Eredivisie fixture list is rather difficult and offers strong opponents, but the results don’t matter, so we can ignore what happens there. We started with a home game against Vitesse and there was a hint of revenge in this match, because we lost our away game against them 1:4, if some of you remember that - our only defeat this Eredivisie season. The first half was a rather uneventful one, until Quenten Hose had a good chance to score just before the half-time whistle, but the right winger hit the post from a good position. The second half was a little bit better - Stanis Idumbo Muzambo and John Meeuwis missed their chances, but we got a penalty after a Vitesse player handballed in the box and Kenneth Taylor scored from the spot. Peter Misidjan returned from an injury and was available for selection for this match and he came on in the second half to score after a good team move in 88’ and that made it 2:0. A solid win in the end. Our attack looked much better after the break. And there was the day - the second leg in Turin, against Juventus, with a decent 2:1 lead from home in our bag. The players looked rested enough, although we had to do without Nikita Tamm (who picked up a knock in the Vitesse game) and Ognjen Rajkovic. I started with the same tactics that proved to be successful against Chelsea, but I have to say that Juventus dominated the first half - they a few good chances, but also eight corners in the first period and 70-80% of those corners led to a dangerous header that they won in our box and that was a serious threat. We had a quiet first half ,but in 41’ Dramane Guehi had a great chance to score, but his shot was held by the Juventus keeper and this was the sort of chance you need to take in the game against teams like Juventus. Unfortunately, Juventus used their opportunities better in the second half - Sandro Veloso scored their first goal in 55’ and stunned us with a chip in 88’ that gave them aggregate win over two legs. Our chances dried up in the second half and eventually our shooting was just 5/2 in this game - nowhere near good enough to get anything from an away match and Juventus were deserved winners, while our campaign ended in the semi final. We then managed to beat AZ Alkmaar quite comfortably. I say, comfortably, because we took the lead after a fairly even first half and Dramane Guehi doubled his tally in the second half to make it 2:0. At the same time AZ managed to get some shots in, but didn’t create any real chances in this match and although we didn’t have a dominating performance, we didn’t look under pressure either. Home fans obviously helped (and/or AZ just didn’t dare to take too many risks in an away game). A bit bland for a derby, but so it was. The last game in Eredivisie was the Topper derby at Philips Stadion. We obviously wanted to win because it was against our rivals, but PSV were undefeated in the league since we beat them in January and looked very confident, so perhaps it wasn’t a wonder that they managed to score the first goal - their attacking midfielder Fran Villalba looked well marked by Olivier Aertssen, but still managed to put a places shot next to the post. We then wasted a number of chances in the first half and Kristian Nökkvi Hlynsson was denied by the crossbar with his attempt from some way out, so the first half finished 0:1. Hlynsson found the net with a nice volley in 57’ to score an equaliser. We had initiative for the most of the second half, but couldn’t find the winner. PSV’s left-back Kevin Paredes was sent off after a dreadful two-footed lunge on Stanis Idumbo Muzambo in 78’ and then we obviously had an initiative and in the end John Meeuwis managed to score the late winner to put the final touches to our pretty wonderful season. Tough match, but great second half performance and a dramatic winner that sent the fans home happy. Players and Tactics Strong opponents in May demanded less rotation from the squad, but we fared well against other Eredivisie teams and there were some good performances from the players. Just a few injury problems in May - we still missed Ognjen Rajkovic, but Nikita Tamm and Amourricho van Axel Dongen had also problems with minor traumas and had to skip some games. Some landmarks were also reached in May - Dramane Guehi’s second goal against AZ Alkmaar was the 100th league goal of his career. Player of the Month: Kenneth Taylor - one of the few players who had a decent match against Juventus, but he also scored from the spot against Vitesse and was the man of the match in the PSV game with a number of chances he created. Goal of the Month: John Meeuwis vs. PSV Eindhoven - expertly placed shot by the young striker that won us the derby. Eredivisie We have a huge lead in the table at the end of the season. 23 points - wow. FC Groningen managed to hold on to their second place and FC Utrecht can be really happy with their season - finished 3rd in the league and won the KNVB Beker. Feyenoord and PSV Eindhoven finished in Europa League places. Go Ahead Eagles and NAC Breda were relegated - no surprises there. FC Twente managed to keep their place after the play-offs, but I still wonder why they underperform so often and find themselves perilously close to relegation in every other season.

April 2031 Fixtures and Results A number of games in April. Our strong position in the Eredivisie table allows us to rotate the squad and focus on matches against Chelsea and the KNVB Beker final. We started with a visit to Heracles. Home game with Chelsea was just three days away, so I rotated the team and started with pretty much our second eleven. Heracles had four straight defeats before the match and it also helped our cause. We scored two early goals and looked fairly comfortable in the first half, but then allowed Heracles to score right after the second half kick-off and the rest of the game was more nervous because of that than I would have liked. Heracles clearly gained momentum after the goal and they hoped to find an equaliser, but we held firm in defence and maintained our narrow lead. This win also secured our Eredivisie title with five match days to go and we could go on to Champions League fixtures without pressure. The 3:0 win over Chelsea in the first leg was a pleasant surprise for us - we started really well, van Axel Dongen scored a flyer and we generally dominated the first half. Olivier Aertssen doubled our lead from a corner and Chelsea found themselves in trouble. They’re a good team and of course, had a couple of moments in the first half, but our finishing was clearly better than theirs. We managed to control the game fairly well in the second half as well, and Stanis Idumbo Muzambo scored a wonderful solo goal in injury time to make it 3:0 - that might prove incredibly important in the second leg match at Stamford Bridge. That three goal win was probably the result I’m most delighted with in April. I rotated a lot again in the next match against NEC and the team offered ups and downs performance - we scored an early goal, but then allowed NEC to equalise (their striker Conor Noss is the top goalscorer in the league at the moment). Stanis Idumbo Muzambo scored to send us to half-time with a 2:1 lead. We looked very good in attack, but careless in defence and in the end it finished 4:2. A decent win, but we shouldn’t concede two goals against teams like NEC Nijmegen. The away leg at Stamford Bridge was a big test. I started with our usual 4-2-3-1 formation, but tuned the line of engagement lower, but started with a balanced mentality and in the first half it worked really well. We kept Chelsea under control for the first 20 minutes, but they slowly started to find opportunities in attack in 23’ Romelu Lukaku scored their first goal and at half time it was a deserved 0:1 to them. But in the second half everything changed - Quenten Hose came on for van Axel Dongen a(who picked up a knock in the first half) at half time and soon Diyae-Eddine Jermoumi found him with a long forward ball and the young winger kept his composure, rounded the keeper and scored. Three minutes later Dramane Guehi showed why he’s the best striker in Eredivisie and curled his shot into the top corner - 2:1! Chelsea was in serious trouble and they needed to score four more goals to save something from here, but they managed just one - Lukaku doubled his tally to make it 2:2 and that was it. Very good result in a tough away game. We had reached the Champions League semi finals, but we still had to win the KNVB Beker Final to add to the trophy cabinet in Johan Cruijff Arena. The final was held at De Kuip which was a neutral ground for both teams. FC Utrecht started the final better and their centre-back Hans-Jürgen Berger scored from a corner in 8’. The early goal gave them some confidence, but we didn’t play too well in the first half and Dramane Guehi missed one big chance in 30’ that should have been our equaliser. FC Utrecht continued to play well in the second half - it was a fairly even battle in midfield, but they were very disciplined in defence and managed to limit our chances. I started to see more and more nervous faces on the pitch and it was clear that players were not handling the pressure well. In the end we failed to find a goal and FC Utrecht celebrated their consecutive KNVB Beker wins - they did beat us a year ago as well, if you don’t remember. We had just 9/3 shots in the final, we made only 9 key passes and our tackling was just 50% - some numbers from the stat sheet indicate that the players were not in the game and couldn’t make right decisions on the pitch. That’s a huge setback and the board was obviously unhappy as well - they expected to win the KNVB Beker at least once in a couple of seasons and we’ve failed now two years in a row. I had to leave the cup final disappointment behind us and focus on the remaining games. Go Ahead Eagles are in the relegation zone and I didn’t think of them as a threat. We’re now focused on Juventus, so I again allowed rotation players and youngsters to step up for that game. The match itself was a fairly boring one - we controlled the midfield and didn’t give Eagles any good opportunities in the first half and took a solid 2:0 lead at half-time. John Meeuwis scored and Kenneth Taylor doubled our lead from the spot. I made changes at half time and we sent on Loet van Fessem and Ruben Sergio to give Olivier Aertssen and Kenneth Taylor some rest, so that led to an Eagles chance in 50’, but Luuk Browers wasted his opportunity to mount a come-back by sending his clear cut chance just wide of the post. We hit the woodwork three times in this game, so we probably could have scored more, but 2:0 was good enough in the end. At the same time I wasn’t happy with complacency that was more evident in the second half, especially from attacking players and that was one of the causes that limited our goals to two. We need better focus in the coming league games, because we have three much stronger opponents coming up. And then there was time to play Juventus in the Champions League semi final. We were bold enough to continue with our positive mentality and 4-2-3-1 formation against them, but the first half wasn’t very entertaining. Juventus looked slightly better before half-time and they managed to hit the crossbar once, but we were well in the game. I switched to standard tempo at half-time and that improved things somewhat - Amourricho van Axel Dongen surprised the Juventus goalkeeper with a good strike and although Dylan Tavares equalised for our opponents, Stanis Idumbo Muzambo scored the winner with a nice curled effort from the edge of area that landed in the top corner. An excellent result and we have a good position before the return leg in Italy. Our shooting was 6/6 with 0.53 xG in this game - on one hand we managed to get all our attempts on target, on the other hand we didn’t have too many good opportunities, but finishing was just exceptional. Players and Tactics Focus has been clearly on Champions League matches and the cup final, so we’ve rotated a lot in Eredivisie and player form or performances are very difficult to evaluate, because the level of opponents has been so different. Our rotation options in defence are somewhat limited, because Ognjen Rajkovic is out with a serious injury. Olivier Aertssen and Can Tas have carried the weight in central defence, but young defender Loet van Fessem made his senior debut for the club. Ruben Sergio and Tomas Koikkalainen have also played some minutes. Nikita Tamm has been in poor form again - he disappears completely as IFs in our formation and whenever Ja-Ryong Kim comes on, he plays a lot better than Tamm. That has limited our attacking threat seriously and Tamm’s five game average rating is just 6.40. Tactically I feel that I’ve found a good setup for away games in the Champions League. At least our 2:2 draw at Stamford Bridge indicated that if we could play a similar game in Turin, we might have a chance to beat Juventus on aggregate. The recipe is quite simple, actually - maintain a balanced mentality (to keep at least some level attacking threat and create some chances) but tweak pressing and line heights to limit space for opponents. We’ve also played without WBIB instruction, because even though it works well in Eredivisie, the big teams rarely give you this kind of time and space around their area. At the same time we lost the KNVB Beker Final against FC Utrecht and that left me puzzled, because we failed to play our usual game and in the second half I was a little bit out of ideas tactically. Player nervousness had an obvious impact, because the players who are anxious will not follow instructions very well, but we didn’t dominate the possession and midfield like we’ve used to in league games. Player of the Month: Stanis Idumbo Muzambo - the attacking midfielder has changed games whenever he has come on in April, scored four goals and has been a consistently good performer. Goal of the Month: Stanis Idumbo Muzambo vs. Juventus - curled into the top corner from the edge of the area. The Club After securing another Ereidivise title it looked like a great opportunity to ask for club improvements and the board happily agreed with my request to improve youth facilities. More than £5m will be invested this year to training grounds and supporting infrastructure. Eredivisie Our title is secured early and now all that is left to do is watch how next positions in the table will be distributed. FC Groningen are holding onto their second place and Feyenoord has stepped up their game late in the season and they’ve reached top three now. At the bottom of the table it looks like Eagles are bound to drop back into the Keuken Kampioen Divisie after four seasons of top tier football - with three match days to go it looks unlikely that they could find at least two wins and to be fair, their squad is not good enough to be in Eredivisie anyway.

March 2031 Fixtures and Results After such a good month we had something more to anticipate in March besides our annual youth intake. We’re going against FC Groningen (who are second in the table!) in the cup semi-final and travel to Berlin for our second leg match where our odds are rather good to get into the quarter finals of the Champions League. Eredivisie games don’t have the usual edge when we’re so far ahead in the table. At the same time it feels like most of the other teams have already given up before kick-off. That was certainly the case with Sparta Rotterdam who offered very little resistance at Het Kasteel - we scored four goals, including two from set pieces by Olivier Aertssen (who finished with 9.5 rating) and enjoyed the game without much pressure. Sparta could make just one shot in the game and that was from some way out and fairly late in the game, so we never felt any real threat. The KNVB Beker semi final against FC Groningen was a different sort of test - Groningen sit in the second place in Eredivisie at the moment, so they should be considered a strong opponent, but we used our home advantage well. After the first half when we held possession, but failed to get our shots on target, we scored two good goals in the second half (both assisted by substitute Ja-Ryong Kim) and secured our place in the final. We have a really good lead in the league and I have to admit that we didn’t take Excelsior seriously enough. I know that even small teams could be tough to beat in some away games, but I rotated the team and sent out bench players. Despite that we looked well in control and scored two goals late in the first half to give us a solid 2:0 lead at half time. Peter Misidjan hit the post early in the second half, but then I made substitutions and sent on Giorgio Jongebloet and young Ruben Sergio and I think that was our undoing - Excelsior got some space in midfield and scored two goals from set pieces while our defence looked complacent and all over the place. The second half performance was clearly not good enough, but it was more of a let-off by myself, because I’m responsible for substitutions and keeping the team focused. The only positive is that the draw probably doesn’t cost us much in the league. We then travelled to Germany to play our second leg against Hertha Berlin. As we expected, Hertha were much more attacking minded in the home game. We had an early chance in 5’ when Kristian Nökkvi Hlynsson could have scored with a chip, but the ball landed against the post and the rest of the first half was controlled by Hertha. They had a few good chances, one of their long shots clipped the crossbar and at the end of the first half their striker Christos Tzolis wasted a clear cut chance. We were carved open 2-3 times in the first half and were grateful for our opponents’ poor finishing that the score was still 0:0. Tzolis wasted another easy opportunity after restart but then Amourricho van Axel Dongen hit the crossbar. As Hertha took more risks it looked like we were more in the game in the second half and could have snatched the winner with our late chances, but it remained goalless and we moved into the quarter final with 3:1 aggregate win. Tough game, but I was pleased with the result. NAC Breda were 18th in the table and I went against them with rotation players. It was a drab match, honestly - we took the lead, allowed NAC to equalise early in the second half, but reacted well and John Meeuwis struck it into the top corner to secure all three points. The result aside, it was a poor performance - our shooting was just 9/2 with 0.95 xG and we made only 9 key passes in the game - well below par in front of our home fans. The last match was a potentially important trip to Groningen. I selected our best eleven and chose to start with a balanced mentality in the away game and it brought dividends - we controlled things more-less through the match and a couple of through balls led to chances in the first half, one of which Nikita Tamm turned to our first goal. Dramane Guehi extended our lead with an excellent strike in the second half and FC Groningen didn’t have real answers to that. A solid 2:0 win on the road to prove that we’re clearly above FC Groningen in level of football. So, despite that little mishap against Excelsior we had a good month. Eredivisie title is almost secured, we’re in the cup final and also in the last eight in the Champions League. Players It has been an up and down month for most of the squad. Performances have been uneven and we haven’t had any leaders who were carrying us in games, so perhaps it’s a good thing? March was probably the worst for Peter Misidjan and Ognjen Rajkovic who both got injured in training before the Hertha match. Rajkovic had the worst of it and a broken foot will keep him out until August. Misidjan could be fit for our last games in May. Young midfielder Mohamed Tahiri also missed most of March due to injury, so in some games our bench was shorter than ideal. Goals have distributed nicely - Dramane Guehi has 23 in all competitions, as Nikita Tamm and John Meeuwis follow with 15 each. Both Kristian Nökkvi Hlynsson and Amourricho van Axel Dongen have 15 assists, Kenneth Taylor has set up 10 goals so far. The NxGn list was announced out in March and perhaps surprisingly John Meeuwis topped the list. I knew he was talented, but I never knew to rate him that highly. Quenten Hose also made the cut and was placed 40th. Player of the Month: Olivier Aertssen - good in most games and exceptional in a couple of them, perhaps the most consistent performer in March. Scored a brace against Sparta Rotterdam as well. Goal of the Month: John Meeuwis vs. NAC Breda - fired into the top corner from 19 metres. Youth Intake The youth intake arrived and I was a bit disappointed this time - yes, we had a decent striker from Serbia, but his personality is poor as it often happens (more on that below). Overall it’s a decent group, but I’d prefer 2-3 real talents to several average prospects who could make it into the first team. Sladan Krunic is a 15 years old striker from Serbia, who sadly has low self belief. It’s possible we can cure that. I’d prefer him to have a better finishing attribute, but he doesn’t have real weaknesses in his game (besides poor vision) and that’s good. Metodi Borisov is a young goalkeeper from Bulgaria. Has decent basics (reflexes and handling), but needs to improve on the tactical side of things and he’s not the tallest keeper, so his aerial ability is lower than ideal. Frank Goossens is a right-back/centre-back from Belgium and this lad I really like, because he boasts good physical attributes, has 15 for decisions and no real weaknesses for a defender. He could really make it in Ajax. Csaba Urban is from Hungary (we’re supposed to be a Dutch club, right?) and looks like a midget with his 155cm. Obviously he’s terrible physically, especially in the air, but perhaps can make it up by his intelligence. At least he can pass the ball. Revy Martinus is a decent right-back - nothing more - but the best option from local players. Eredivisie Our lead of 16 points means we have a chance to secure our title on the next match day. FC Groningen and Vitesse are second and third while Feyenoord and PSV are still a bit further from top three. Ex-Feyenoord manager Colin Balkenstein took charge of PEC Zwolle.