De Telegraaf mentions two previously unknown trainers at the top of Ajax’s list

Ajax will make a decision within 48 hours about who should be in the first team squad next season, as we know The Telegraph. John Heitinga is still formally a candidate, but seems written off after Supervisory Board chairman Pier Eringa mentioned ‘the new trainer’. Technical director Sven Mislintat now has two Scandinavian trainers in mind to replace Heitinga.

It concerns the Norwegian Kjetil Knutsen, who became champion this year with FK Bodø/Glimt, and the Danish national coach Kasper Hjulmand. Both coaches are contracted for another year and should therefore be bought out. Knutsen plays with Bodø/Glimt, where he has been in charge of the first team since 2018, very attacking football and achieved international fame in 2021. Then AS Roma was beaten 6-1 in the group stage of the Conference League.

More: Klaassen responds tellingly to Heitinga’s future: ‘To be honest…’ | Heitinga receives good news in the run-up to a crucial duel with FC Twente

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Hjulmand has been the national coach of Denmark since 2020. His team made a big impression, especially at EURO 2020, which was only played a year later due to corona. In the semi-finals it went wrong against England (2-1) in extra time. The World Cup in Qatar then ended in a total disappointment in November. The Danes only took one point in Group D with France, Australia and Tunisia and went home early as the last team. Hjulmand has been head coach since 2006, almost always with teams in his own country.

The Telegraph seems to assume, given his reporting, that Kutsen and Hjulmand have an advantage over a Dutch candidate at Mislintat, with Peter Bosz being the most obvious. Bosz applied openly Rondo in Studio Football, but until now did not receive an invitation from Ajax to come for a meeting. The sudden departure of general manager Edwin van der Sar, who had a tiff at Ajax with Bosz in 2017, seems to speak in favor of the latter.

Johan Derksen’s reaction in Inside today
Johan Derksen finds it incomprehensible that Mislintat thinks of a Danish or Norwegian trainer, as suggested by The Telegraph. “They always talk about ‘the Ajax DNA’ there. Then you don’t take a Northman from a ship from a fjord,” says Derksen cynically on TV. The analyst also finds the appointment of Mislantat, who, as a German technical director, would not know the Dutch market well, incomprehensible. “No, that was already ridiculous. A ridiculous choice.”