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Ajax Amsterdam Season 2026/27 Preview

Evening all. For the last several months I've been playing a single save on FM2012 as the famous Ajax Amsterdam and now finally I think it's time to write some of it down. I hope to give you all an insight into the way that I play the game, not only tactically but in terms of my strategy when it comes to squad management. First of all though I will give you all an introduction into the save so far.

My plan for the save was really very simple. I wanted to bring European success back to Amsterdam but I wanted to do it the Ajax way, in other words I wanted to rely heavily on our own famous De Toekomst youth academy to develop the stars of the future. This has been broadly achieved although I have also signed a plethora of players from abroad although not always with the same aim in mind - but more on that later. The lessons of both Moneyball by Micheal Lewis and Soccernomics by Simon Kuper and Stefan Szymanski in which they talk about the need to constantly freshen your squad and specifically in the latter be willing to sell players when offered above their value.

As an example the following are a selection of the players that I have sold over the last few years of my career.

Haruna Maidawa - A striker from my own youth academy sold to Inter for £20M

Mike Hoek - Imperious defender who gave years of superb service before moving to Lyon for £19M

Gregor Postma - Another player developed at the clubs academy. Despite only being 23 Postma was sold on to make way for the next wave of exciting young midfield talent. Going to Barcelona for £24M

Nahuel Tenaglia - One of the foreign players I brought in to strengthen the club. He gave almost a decade of great service before moving to Real Madrid for £25M

Jan Ten Heuvel - Without a doubt the one that hurt the most. Homegrown and club captain for years. He eventually became a disruptive influence and began demanding contracts that I wasn't willing to pay. Moved to Arsenal for £35M. Just look at his international goalscoring record!

They are by no means the only players of that quality to have left the club but they should serve as an example of what I'm trying to do here. Indeed as I type I'm in the middle of another cull following a very successful season, that can wait for another update though.

So, has my strategy been successful thus far? So far we have won 16 Eredivisie titles in a row. You may point out that this is not that impressive given that it's the Dutch league. In the first season though PSV were bought by a tycoon who has pumped insane amounts of money into the club season after season to fund the transfer policies of a succession of famous managers, still they haven't beaten us to a title. Not only that but given my method of squad management we have only the 4th highest wage bill in the league with Vitesse, PSV and Feyenoord all paying more than we do. Bear in mind as well that the Dutch league is not renowned as a particularly high payer.

What of Europe I hear you say? Slightly less impressive here having lifted the trophy on 6 occasions. The best has to have been the first when I beat Barcelona to the title with none other than Xavi scoring the winner having been released by Barca the season before. Such incredible drama.

I don't really want to go on too much more as this post was intended to raise your interest more than anything else. In my next update (soon) I'll introduce you to my current squad as well as giving some insights into my current tactics and plans for the future.

Until then.....