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An Old Man In A Young Man's World


Feliks

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3rd May 2021

"Look, Louis, it's been an amazing run, and we've appreciated every minute of your time here. You've truly done the club proud. But maybe it's time to step down."

Louis van Gaal was not an idealistic young man anymore. Now 69, he had gone through his fair share of sackings and resignations.

For seven years now, he had been at the helm of Ajax - his second stint at the club he loved so dearly. And for six of those seasons, he had watched his captains, first Niklas Moisander, then Davy Klaassen, now Wesley Sneijder, lift the Eredivisie trophy. But the 2020/21 season was one he wanted to forget, and for good reason.

In the seasons leading up to last, Van Gaal had assembled a truly devastating home-grown side, so potent they went unbeaten in the 2017/18 season. With a midfield including Ricardo Kishna, Donny van de Beek, Wesley Sneijder, Abdelhak Nouri and Anwar El Ghazi, as well as a devastating strike force of Richairo Zivkovic and Viktor Fischer, the Dutch champions always seemed a chance on the European stage. However, they could never quite reach the pinnacle, only making it as far as the quarter finals in 2016/17. With massive pay packets for stars such as Sneijder, Zivkovic and Toby Alderweireld, Ajax recorded a huge £50 million loss in the 2019/20 season, and van Gaal was forced to sell players to make amends.

In 2019/20, Fischer and Zivkovic combined for 62 goals and 35 assists, and coincidentally were sold for a combined £62 million to Manchester United and Paris Saint-Germain respectively. Long-time stalwart Nick Viergever left to CSKA Moscow for £6.5 million, after over 200 appearances for the side, and winger Ricardo Kishna left for Porto on a free transfer after a lengthy contract stalemate. Meanwhile, the only player coming back into the system was Anwar El Ghazi, returning to the club after a two-year failed stint at Arsenal. He just so happened to get injured and miss the first 3 months of the season.

With both Zivkovic and Fischer gone, and El Ghazi injured, Van Gaal was forced to turn to Ezra Walian and Roberto Muric as his strike pairing. Now, Walian isn't a terrible player, and has been an able backup in years past with 59 goals in 4 seasons. However, he has always been paired with one of Fischer and Zivkovic, and would now be playing alongside Muric, who was a yo-yo player between the Ajax and Jong Ajax sides. The results were calamitous.

For the first time since 2012, Ajax lost the Super Cup, impotent as Twente recorded a historic 1-0 win. Incredibly, they then lost at home in the season opener to AZ, before going 0-0-2 with another loss to Twente. Despite a decent run of form in late August, Ajax were well behind the pace and sat in 6th in January. An early exit in the Dutch Cup at the hands of ADO Den Haag made matters worse, and although they managed to qualify from their Champions League group, they were swept aside in the first Knockout Round by Barcelona. Despite seven consecutive Eredivisie wins from December to February, and at one stage being just 6 points behind leader Feyenoord with 9 games to go, back-to-back away losses to Groningen and Vitesse put the nail in the coffin for Ajax, in the end finished third behind Feyenoord and PSV, 11 points off the mark. For a club that had won the last ten titles, it was their worst finish under van Gaal since 2014/15 when they won against Feyenoord on goal difference.

Now, he was called in front of the board, with technical director Edwin van der Saar at the head of the meeting. It was not just a matter of a poor season; if a 40 year old had managed the side to six consecutive titles and had one down season, they would not be having this meeting. But van Gaal was now 69, four years past retirement, and although he was an undoubted legend of the club, there were enough murmurs of discontent among the fanbase and the board about his inability to adapt to the times.

For 6 years, the club's policy of only fielding players developed by the club had worked well. It enabled them to develop stars such as Anwar El Ghazi, Ricardo Kishna and Donny van de Beek, as well as bring back big names like Wesley Sneijder, Toby Alderweireld and Thomas Vermaelen. However, with a number of stars gone in 2020/21, Ajax were well off the pace. Feyenoord and PSV both boasted a number of local and foreign stars - in particular, Brazilian superstars Gustavo Mosquito (Feyenoord) and Ademilson (PSV). Van Gaal was the main supporter of the club's home-grown policy, but after last season, the board was heavily considering dropping both the policy and van Gaal.

And at 69, although not an idealistic young man anymore, van Gaal was going to have to prove he was in touch with a young man's world.

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