Maarten Wijffels has spoken in the football podcast of the Algemeen Dagblad looks back on the interview of Alex Kroes, the new general manager of Ajax. The sports journalist saw the new policymaker of the Amsterdam team make a very striking statement, which does not suit a club like Ajax at all.
“I think it will be interesting from what he said next, that Ajax should not count on an Ajax title next season,” Wijffels begins in the Football podcast from the AD. “You can call that a smart tactic, aim low and then it can only be better than expected. Yet I am surprised that there is so little fuss that the boss of the richest club in the country, the club of we are Ajax we are the best, that it actually says: don’t count on us next season, we will come again later,” the journalist indicates.
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“You should think about that, it is unprecedented that this is said,” Wijffels continues. “And apart from the fact that a lot has to be done, but someone from Ajax who conveys that to the outside world… You can hardly imagine that, can you? It could become something quite quickly,” Wijffels thinks: “But what concerns me more is that this just passes silently,” after which the journalist of the AD cites an example in which Roger Schmidt was tackled after a statement about the title chances for his club PSV, which were slightly lower than those of Ajax.”
Wijffels believes that Kroes can also be said to have made a courageous statement: “It is also courageous in a way, because at Feyenoord they never dared to say: we don’t participate. Only, Feyenoord was never the richest, but Ajax was. Of course that remains above water. In fact, that is really not possible in Dutch relations, but it happens,” the journalist concludes.
