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Ajax does not have to count on an earlier start date for Alex Kroes. The new general manager starts on March 15 and according to the Algemeen Dagblad Ajax makes no plans to bring forward the appointment of AZ’s current director of International Football Strategy.
Kroes himself also assumes that he will only start working in the Johan Cruijff ArenA in March. He is said to have prepared a world trip for early 2024. Ajax would have previously made attempts to welcome Kroes earlier, but AZ wanted ‘a package of future agreements’ – not a sum of millions – to drop the non-competition clause. “From experience, AZ wants to prevent competitors from stealing personnel, for example,” write Johan Inan and Sjoerd Mossou.
Ajax did not agree to it and therefore has to wait for the long-awaited successor to Edwin van der Sar. There is also a good chance that Ajax will resolve the winter transfer period internally, when the selection may need reinforcement and a few outgoing transfers, and will not appoint a technical director until the arrival of Kroes. No one at the top of Ajax is assured of continuity. The supervisory board can be formally dismissed by the new management council.
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Filling the vacancy of the dismissed Mislintat within the management is entirely the responsibility of Jan van Halst. However, it is unlikely that he will appoint a long-term technical director, which Kroes may not be completely satisfied with in six months’ time. Formally, Kroes is not allowed to be involved in decision-making from the waiting room.
According to the newspaper, there is a good chance that Ajax will handle any outgoing transfers internally in the winter. “The management will be working on this in the coming weeks. The club management does not have much in the way of doing the honors of the dismissed Sven Mislintat.” Klaas-Jan Huntelaar and head scout Kelvin de Lang could temporarily take over Mislintat’s tasks via an ‘adhesive tape construction’.
With the appointment of Mislintat, Huntelaar became solely responsible for the youth contracts and supervision of Young Ajax, but last year, together with the dismissed Gerry Hamstra, he had a more prominent role in the purchasing policy of the Amsterdam team. According to the newspaper, there is admiration within Ajax for the way in which De Lang manifests himself in his first months. The chief scout, who was taken away from Manchester City, brought an impressive network with him to Amsterdam.
