Johan Cruyff shaped the club in its modern form. His principles and values still guide Ajax to this day. Their stadium is named after the great man whose playing style and view of the game made him arguably the most influential football figure of all-time.
This context is important to understand why Jordi Cruyff’s appointment as Ajax’s new technical director has been greeted with such fanfare. If anyone grasps the identity of the Amsterdam club and why it should be protected at all costs, it’s the son of the legendary forward.
Ajax haven’t played Cruyff-ball for a long time. The club has lost its way of late, jumping from one crisis to the next in the years that followed Erik ten Hag’s departure. Since ten Hag left three-and-a-half years ago, Ajax have gone through five different managers, some of whom were never a natural fit for the club.
Francesco Farioli would have led Ajax to the Eredivisie title last season had it not been for a sensational collapse which saw a nine-point lead evaporate over the final seven games of the campaign. However, Farioli’s pragmatic style was the subject of much debate in Dutch football, even as Ajax were on course to win the Eredivisie.
This explained Farioli’s exit at the end of the 2024/25 season as much as the collapse in the title race. History will remember the Portuguese coach as the guy who blew a championship in spectacular fashion, but many Ajax supporters will recall how dull they found his football. They argued Ajax’s identity was being eroded away.
Under his replacement Johnny Heitinga, the hope was that the former Ajax defender would be able to reinstil the values that had been lost under a series of poorly suited coaches. He has, however, already been replaced by his assistant, the experienced Fred Grim, a former Ajax goalkeeper who will act as caretaker for the remainder of the season.
Ajax’s average possession share per match is the second-highest in the Eredivisie this season. This control, however, rarely translated into genuine attacking threat.
Indeed, Ajax have scored just 37 goals in 19 league games this term. For context, NEC Nijmegen have scored 47 while PSV have netted 59. Brought in to be Ajax’s attacking focal point, Wout Weghorst has found the back of the net just six times while Kasper Dolberg, who returned to the club last summer, has scored just three times.
That Ajax signed Weghorst in the first place was seen by some as a sign of how the club was in the midst of an identity crisis. While the Netherlands international has his uses, he’s a very different sort of centre forward to the icons that have led the line for Ajax in the past. He’s no Dennis Bergkamp or Patrick Kluivert.
At 33, Weghorst’s signing was also a short-term measure. Instead of providing a pathway for a young forward to emerge from Ajax’s famed academy, the club opted for a short-sighted solution. Even the re-signing of Dolberg, a player who left Ajax six years previously, highlighted a lack of imagination. They’d run out of ideas.
Cruyff has been hired to remould all areas of the Amsterdam club. The 51-year-old has a wealth of experience as a technical director having held similar roles at AEK Larnaca, Maccabi Tel Aviv and Barcelona. At Barca, Cruyff was instrumental in transitioning the Catalan club into a new era.
It wasn’t so long ago that Barcelona, like Ajax, looked to have veered away from the principles of Cruyff. This coincided with a period of near financial ruin. Now, the club is once again producing young talent like Lamine Yamal and Gavi. Hansi Flick’s team is among the most entertaining in Europe and Cruyff was central to that renaissance as sporting director.
Ajax hope Cruyff can do something similar. They need a new transfer strategy. They must find a way to restart the conveyer belt of young talent that has slowed in recent years. They need a new permanent manager after the departure of Heitinga in November. Cruyff has a lot on his plate.
“It goes without saying how much this means to my family and me,” said Cruyff after his appointment. “In the stadium named after my father and at the club that has been important to me since I was young. Ajax is a unique club with a rich history, and I will do everything I can to add a new successful chapter together.”
While Ajax might not be the force they were in the 1970s, mid-1990s or even a few seasons ago when they made the semi-finals of the Champions League under ten Hag, they remain one of the most distinctive and romantic clubs in the world. Football is more vibrant for having a strong Ajax. Cruyff is charged with making that a reality again.
(Images from IMAGO)
You can follow every Ajax game on FotMob – with in-depth stat coverage, including xG, shot maps, and player ratings. Download the free app here.
