AjaX files - the chronicles of the giant's fall, Steijn got what was coming

The painful memory of Lucas Moura, the Brazilian who heralded the dark days of the famous team from the Johan Cruyff Arena, still appears in nightmarish dreams for Ajax fans. On May 12, 2019, the Amsterdaamers were on the threshold of the Champions League final and a duel with Liverpool, they had the 2-0 lead at halftime in the second leg of the semi-final, but then the Tottenham striker, and the current player of Sao Paulo, scored goals in the last moments of the match to make it 3-2 and shocked Amsterdam.

From that shock, the giant did not recover, like a boxer stumbling on the ropes. After that match, Ajax's car went downhill. Each subsequent season was weaker than that brilliant one, when Dušan Tadić gave football lessons, broke Casemiro's back, danced at the Santiago Bernabeu, and later taught Juventus a thing or two about football...

A crisis simmered in Ajax last season. The best players left, hundreds of millions poured onto their account, but the results suffered. Relegation from the Champions League during the first part of the season, and later only third place in the Eredivisie sounded the alarm in Amsterdam, but there was no one to hear it...

Dušan Tadić pointed out the problems. The Serbian was clairvoyant, he hinted at this nightmare, but even in the worst scenarios, it could not have been assumed that after seven rounds of the Eredivisie, Ajax would be in the place leading to the second league.

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Everything was fine while the transfer policy was led by Marc Overmars, but after a sex scandal and harassment of a club employee, he had to leave the club. Edwin van der Sar is also out of the club due to his health. Chaos ensued.

The first one to pay for the awful results this season was Sven Mislintat who came with an enviable pedigree, he was the head of the scouting service of Borussia Dortmund, he is credited with bringing in Robert Lewandowski, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Shinji Kagawa, Ousmane Dembele and others... He continued his mission in Arsenal, brought eight players, lost 60,000,000 euros on Aubameyang alone, all together made a minus of almost 120,000,000 and very quickly got fired from the ranks of the Gunners. He returned to the top of the game via Stuttgart, reached Ajax, arrived in Amsterdam and - ruined everything.

This summer, Ajax spent 109,300,000 euros on 12 reinforcements, but in the humiliating derby with Feyenoord last month (0-4), only Croats Josip Šutalo and Borna Sosa played in the starting line-up. After the interruption of De Klassieker with the neighbors from Rotterdam and the frenzy of the fans, the German left, but the problems remained.

In the meantime, the legendary Louis van Gaal, coach of the Netherlands at the World Cup in Qatar last year, arrived at the club as an advisor. Better days seemed to be coming, and a new doom on Sunday afternoon in Utrecht. The home team scored two goals at the end, turning it around to 4-3 in a crazy match of the relegation-battling sides.

Coach Maurice Steijn persisted on the bench, but after another defeat and the penultimate place that leads to a lower rank - he got sacked. One of the worst season-openings in the history of Ajax resulted in parting with the head of the profession, who achieved only two victories in the opening 11 games at the beginning of the campaign.

Ajax's struggles also started with Erik ten Hag's departure to Manchester United last year. Schroeder didn't manage well, John Heitinga kept his team somewhat alive, but he didn't stay at the helm for long either. Steijn came after a great season with Sparta Rotterdam and messed everything up.

The Amsterdaamers have a miserable one win in the first round, followed by four losses and two draws. Only Volendam are ranked lower. The dark days are on the horizon, the fans are furious. Something has hit the fan.

The players were devastated. Steven Bergweijn said that he does not know which loss in a row that was.

"I stand here before you with an sh*tty feeling. We lost once again. Honestly, I can't describe how I feel," said the former Tottenham player in front of the media.

An interesting dialogue was held in the studio of the Dutch television by the former Dutch internationals, Pierre van Hooijdonk and Rafael van der Vaart.

"You are 17th in the league! There has never been an Ajax manager who has received this treatment. Next week you can go to the bottom of the league, this is a humiliation for everyone who supports Ajax, this reaches all the media around the world, and Wesley Sneijder and you say: No no.. it's not because of the manager," Van Hooijdonk said.

Van der Vaart defended the manager.

"You say Maurice influenced me because he asked me to be his assistant. I speak for myself".

Van der Vaart often criticized Tadic while Ajax was fighting for the Champions League last season. Now the former Real Madrid player remains stubborn in defending the indefensible.

"Out of 100 percent, I think only 20 percent is Maurice Steijn's fault. I would continue with him," Van der Vaart said in the discussion.

And Wesley Sneijder, another fierce critic of Tadic and Ajax from last season, said that he stands behind Steijn. He was on the verge of joining Ajax's coaching staff, but ultimately turned down the offer.

"Terrible game. Many goals, but actually a match between the sixteenth and seventeenth teams in the championship. A festival of mistakes," reports the Dutch outlet vi.nl.

According to Sneijder, it's not all Steijn's fault.

“I mean, what can that guy do about this? Very little. It doesn't matter what trainer you use, the material just isn't good enough. It will be very difficult for you to do anything about it. I think it's too easy to blame the coach. But in the end he will be the one who will be sacrificed, that is the law of football".

Even the former ace of Ajax, Real Madrid and Inter Milan doesn't know what the exit from the tunnel is.

"I don't see Maurice every day, so I can't know what his training is like, what his conversations are like. The coach is always responsible, but in everything you can see that there is a real lack of quality. I don't want to blame that on Maurice alone. He had no influence at all on the policy of bringing in players."

If he was in a position to decide, what would he do, Sneijder was asked.

"What should I change? I wouldn't know either. The players are not good enough for Ajax. You know that every opponent in the Eredivisie wants to beat Ajax. Then it becomes very difficult for the coach. It is not looking good, but I hope for Ajax that they will move up the table very soon. This is no place for Ajax," Sneijder concluded.

In the following period, the Amsterdaamers will face Brighton on Thursday in the Europa League and a derby with PSV Eindhoven in the Dutch championship on Sunday.