Ajax in relegation zone and in disarray before Europa League trip to Brighton

Ajax are a complete mess. The Dutch club are preparing for their crucial Europa League trip to Brighton against the backdrop of their biggest crisis in decades. 

Without a manager after sacking Maurice Steijn on Monday, the club are second bottom and in the relegation zone of the Eredivisie, and are currently on their longest winless since the introduction of Dutch professional football in 1954.

Could Ajax really be relegated? Probably not, but things are getting worse, not better. A month ago, even with the club in the bottom half of the table, you could get 2,500-1 odds on them dropping out of the top flight. Now, those odds are 150-1. 

Club legend Rafael van der Vaart said this week that Ajax “have to think like a relegation candidate at the moment. That’s very sad, but it’s true. You are no longer Ajax. You have to assume that you are not better than your opponent, because they simply do not have the qualities for that.”

On Wednesday 27 September, the Guardian published this piece on how Ajax had already descended into chaos. That evening they lost De Klassieker 4-0: a behind-closed-doors league match against Feyenoord. The game had been suspended a few days earlier after ultras threw fireworks onto the pitch to halt the match, following Feyenoord taking a 3-0 lead in the first half. 

A riot ensued outside the stadium, with supporters vandalising their own stadium, the Amsterdam Arena, and police using tear gas and charging at fans on horseback to disperse the crowds outside. Steijn admitted it was “a jet black day” in the club’s history.

It was around that time the club sacked their sporting director, Sven Mislintat (formerly of Stuttgart, Borussia Dortmund and Arsenal), and hired Louis van Gaal as a ‘consultant’