In the high-pressure ecosystem of Amsterdam football, the distance between a crisis and a comeback is often measured not in points, but in patience. For those accustomed to the relentless standard of AFC Ajax, the recent turbulence has felt like a permanent winter. Still, Michael van Praag, a man whose career has been woven into the fabric of Dutch football, believes the club is finally turning the tide.
Van Praag, who previously served as the president of the KNVB and has a deep history with the Ajax board, suggests that the current recovery is not a matter of a few good matches, but a structural rebuilding process. While the external noise often demands immediate results, Van Praag argues that the damage inflicted during previous technical shifts requires a timeline that the modern era of “instant success” rarely grants.
The crux of the issue, according to Van Praag, lies in the aftermath of the tenure of former technical director Sven Mislintat. The philosophy and recruitment strategies implemented during that period created a ripple effect that continues to impact the squad’s composition and the club’s identity. Van Praag noted that recovering from such a fundamental shift in direction is a slow process, suggesting it takes roughly three years to fully move past the legacy of the Mislintat era and return to a state of stability.
The Weight of Technical Restructuring
Football management is often mistaken for a series of tactical adjustments on a pitch, but for a club like Ajax, it is an exercise in cultural preservation. The technical director is the architect of the club’s future, deciding which players fit the “Ajax way” and how the youth academy integrates with the first team. When that architecture is flawed, the demolition and rebuilding phase is grueling.
Van Praag has pushed back against the narrative that the club has suffered from “mismanagement” or wanbeleid. While critics have pointed to erratic hiring and firing cycles as evidence of a leadership vacuum, Van Praag maintains that the current administration is actively working to reverse the decline. He believes the efforts to stabilize the technical policy are genuine and that the club is moving in the right direction, even if the progress is not yet reflected in every trophy cabinet.
The challenge is that Ajax does not operate in a vacuum. The expectations of the supporters and the scrutiny of the Dutch media create a pressure cooker where a three-year recovery plan can feel like an eternity. Yet, from Van Praag’s perspective, attempting to rush this process would only risk further instability.
A Clash of Perspectives: Van Praag vs. Kroes
Not everyone shares Van Praag’s optimistic view of the current trajectory. Alex Kroes, a prominent businessman and investor who has been vocal about his criticisms of the club’s leadership, has frequently questioned the competence of the current regime. The tension between the two has evolved into a public disagreement over the club’s governance.
Van Praag has not been shy about dismissing Kroes’s critiques. In a pointed assessment, he suggested that Kroes is not acting out of pure concern for the institution, but is instead “cleaning his own street”—a Dutch expression implying that Kroes is attempting to improve his own position or image by criticizing others. By framing Kroes’s interventions as self-serving, Van Praag seeks to shield the club’s internal recovery process from outside influence that he deems opportunistic.
This friction highlights a broader struggle within the club: the tension between traditional board governance and the desire for a more corporate, investor-driven model of management. For Van Praag, the priority remains the sporting integrity and the long-term health of the technical structure over the short-term demands of outside financiers.
The Timeline of Transition
To understand why Van Praag emphasizes a multi-year recovery, one must seem at the cycle of a technical overhaul. A change in leadership at the top doesn’t immediately change the players on the pitch; it changes who is recruited and how they are developed. The “three-year rule” Van Praag references typically follows this pattern:
- Year One: Identifying the failures of the previous regime, clearing out incompatible personnel, and establishing a new technical philosophy.
- Year Two: Implementing the new recruitment strategy and integrating youth players who fit the updated profile.
- Year Three: Seeing the first full cycle of the new philosophy bear fruit in the form of consistent competitive performance.
| Phase | Primary Focus | Expected Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| Post-Mislintat | Damage Control | Stabilization of squad morale |
| Current Phase | Restructuring | Alignment of academy and first team |
| Future Goal | Sustainability | Return to Eredivisie dominance |
What This Means for the Future
The path forward for Ajax depends on whether the board can maintain its nerve amidst the noise. If Van Praag’s assessment is correct and the club is indeed turning the tide, the next 12 to 24 months will be critical. The focus will likely remain on the technical director’s ability to blend experienced leadership with the raw talent coming out of the De Toekomst academy.
For the fans, the patience requested by Van Praag is a difficult pill to swallow. However, the history of the club shows that its greatest successes often followed periods of deep introspection and structural change. The debate over whether the current path is “mismanagement” or “necessary medicine” will likely only be settled once the results on the pitch align with the vision in the boardroom.
The next major indicator of progress will be the club’s performance in the upcoming transfer windows and their ability to secure a consistent spot in European competitions, which serves as both a financial lifeline and a benchmark for sporting excellence. As the club continues its rebuild, all eyes remain on whether the internal restructuring can outpace the external pressure.
We invite you to share your thoughts on the recovery of Ajax in the comments below. Do you believe in the three-year timeline, or is the club’s crisis deeper than a technical shift?
