Ajax coach Knutsen has a military on his staff, but can follow Klopp’s example

Kjetil Knutsen currently has the best papers to become Ajax’s new trainer. Yet there are serious doubts about his abilities among the Ajax watchers. After Mike Verweij already shared doubts, Football International journalist Freek Jansen is also included in that list. He points, among other things, to the current coaching staff of the coach at FK Bodø/Glimt.

Bee Football talk the situation in the Johan Cruijff Arena was also discussed. Jansen jokingly calls the candidate in the Johan Cruijff Arena ‘the Norwegian synthetic turf trainer’, who trains a team somewhere ‘between the polar bears’. “He has never worked outside Norway. And that must be the possible successor to Heitinga?” Jansen wonders aloud.

He cites Knutsen’s technical staff in Norway as an example. “There are five psychologists, two breathing coaches and a soldier in there,” Jansen sums up. According to him, ‘a healthy skepticism’ is therefore appropriate when appointing a new coach, precisely because the entire technical framework within Ajax has left. In Jansen’s eyes, Bosz and Pascal Jansen from AZ would be good (read: better) options than Knutsen.

Craft new Klopp?
His table companions Kenneth Perez and Willem Vissers (de Volkskrant) have more confidence in the possible arrival of Knutsen. As an example, the latter mentions the scouting of Jürgen Klopp in the time of Borussia Dortmund. “They scouted them at Mainz, which played in the 2. Bundesliga. Of course there have been plenty of trainers who have made a career in this way. Names you’ve never heard of. They probably want to do that at Ajax too,” says Vissers.