Ajax’s black year knows no limits: the last negative page was written with the Ko per 6-0 on the Feyenoord field which cuts the 36-time Dutch champions out of the Champions League fight with five days to go, given that third place is 15 points away. The splash in the Eredivisie ‘Klassieker’ was thunderous, considering that the Lancers’ historic rivals from Rotterdam shot 30 times to just one for the guests, scoring two braces with Igor Paixao and Yankuba Minteh. Never before had Ajax lost by six goals to their rivals, even surpassing the 9-4 of 1964.
Already in the first leg in Amsterdam the defeat was 4-0 of September 24th, with the throwing of smoke bombs onto the pitch by the F-Side ultras and the suspension of the match. The worst start to the season ever has certified the end of the Ajax model and a sporting suicide in line with the tragic Greek hero who gives his name to the club. It wasn’t enough to fire coach Maurice Steijn and sporting director Sven Mislintat. The German manager was ‘guilty’ in the eyes of the fans of having overturned the club’s creed based on youth politics and the sense of belonging, giving up several promises and senators such as Inter’s Klaassen and betting everything on the innovative ‘moneyball’ system.
The first piece of the descent into hell was in February 2022 Marc Overmars resigns over a sex scandal, among the architects of the golden decade that began in 2012 and culminated in the Champions League final that was almost missed. Now the decline is also certified by national ‘oranje’: used to field the Ajax block, now in October he played without even a ‘aiacide’ in the starting eleven, for the first time since 1981. On Tuesday 2 April yet another blow arrived with the suspension of the club president on suspicion of ‘insider trading’.
