Ajax in crisis: Managerless Amsterdam club second from bottom in Eredivisie

Ajax Amsterdam have never experienced a crisis quite like this.

For the four-time European champions, being second in the Eredivisie is cause for consternation: as it was back in late 2017 when Erik ten Hag was appointed to replace Marcel Keizer following their Dutch Cup exit at the hands of Twente Enschede.

Hopes of a domestic double ended before Christmas, and second in the Dutch championship - five points behind PSV Eindhoven - that was deemed a sackable offence.

Ten Hag would restore Ajax in the hearts and minds of footballing purists. The club's DNA ran through his Ajax team, and took them to the heights of a Champions League semi-final in 2019. It took him to Manchester United.

There was a 13-0 win over VVV-Venlo on this very day - October 24 - two years ago. It was Total Football.

What would Johan Cruyff be thinking of the mess that is currently engulfing his ArenA?

Sunday's 4-3 defeat at Utrecht left the Dutch giants sitting one point off the bottom of the table with just one win from their first seven games.

It was especially damaging given it was against one of the few sides beneath them in the table - made all the more demoralising by the surrendering of a second-half fightback from two goals down to lead 3-2 only to lose in stoppage time.

They do have two games in hand, but this is the club's worst-ever start to a season. It is now four league defeats in a row, the first time that has happened since April 1999 under Jan Wouters.

Ajax have failed to win any of their last eight games in all competitions, losing five. It is the longest run for the club without victory since the start of professional football in the Netherlands, stretching back to 1954.

Unsurprisingly, manager Maurice Steijn has now left with immediate