How a D*** Pic destroyed Ten Hag’s Ajax

Imre Himmelbauer

• Updated: 31 Oct 2023 08:28 GMT
• 5 min read

Erik ten Hag’s Manchester United are enduring a disastrous start to the 2023-24 season.

With five defeats from 10 in the Premier League, and two from three in the Champions League, this is the worst start to a season by Man Utd in over 30 years.

They are already 11 points off the Premier League summit and at risk of failing to qualify for the Champions League knockouts.

READ MORE: Set for the sack? ‘Ten Hag has LOST the Man Utd dressing room’

This has resulted in Ten Hag being at risk of the sack.

However, if you thought Man Utd had it bad right now, just take a look at Ten Hag’s previous club Ajax.

One of world football’s most historic clubs and the biggest team in the Netherlands, Ajax are having a horror season of their own.

READ MORE: Which football managers have been sacked this season?

They are currently bottom of the Eredivisie after eight games, losing five matches and winning only one. They are also bottom of their Europa League group without a win.

Ten Hag left Ajax in 2022 to join Man Utd.

So what has gone so horribly wrong since he left and who is to blame?

Imre Himmelbauer of FootballTransfers’ Netherlands editions gives us five causes of the crisis, all stemming from one x-rated picture.

1. D*** Pic Director

The downfall of Ajax probably started with the exit of director of football Marc Overmars, who departed the club in February 2022 after he was found sending d*** pics to female colleagues. He was the one responsible for taking the financial risks of signings like Dusan Tadic and Daley Blind that led them to domestic and European success in the first place.

He was an especially good deal maker and has an incredibly good network, as is visible in his work at current club Royal Antwerp as well, who managed to pull off signings like Toby Alderweireld and Gyrano Kerk.

Following his exit, Ajax relied on the inexperienced duo Klaas-Jan Huntelaar and Gerry Hamstra to deal with transfers.

They spent over €100 million on players that simply didn't cut it. Winter signing Gerónimo Rulli, who was brought in from Villarreal for €10m has been the only semi success story.

2. Ten Hag’s exit

Ten Hag was a very good coach for Ajax, both in philosophy and in discipline. His exit is also partly explained by the exit of Overmars. De Telegraaf reported that Ajax were too passive in extending his contract.

3. Alfred Schreuder and John Heitinga

Alfred Schreuder started off fairly well as Ajax coach after Ten Hag, but that turned around pretty early on in the 2022-23 season. His side was unable to impress against better opponents and he got sacked in late January.

The Ajax board pretty inexplicably thought John Heitinga, who had no experience on the highest level, was the man for the job. He also started off fairly well, but as soon as Ajax faced better opposition, his side would crumble. Ajax ended up not winning against any of the other top five Eredivisie sides, only gathering three points from those eight encounters.

Ajax finished third last season and missed out on Champions League qualification, which was already budgeted for.

4. Mislintat and Steijn

Ajax appointed Sven Mislintat as technical director in May and the German himself appointed Maurice Steijn as head coach soon thereafter. This turned out to be a recipe for disaster. Ajax spent over €100m again on players largely active in the second divisions, including Jakov Medic (St Pauli), Georges Mikautadze (FC Metz) and Chuba Akpom (Middlesbrough). Steijn openly declared war on Mislintat by saying he had no say in pretty much any signing and he didn't know how good they were. On 24 September, Ajax ended up giving Mislintat the boot.

5. From bad to worse

Even with Mislintat gone, the damage was already done, especially with Steijn still as head coach. He showed almost no tactical awareness and largely blamed the poor results on mentality. His side, meanwhile, gave away so much space that you pretty much had to book an airplane to get from their defense to their midfield.

After the defeat against FC Utrecht, who are having a horror season themselves and were bottom of the table until their 4-3 win over Ajax, Steijn and Ajax decided to part ways the Monday after.

Assistant Hedwiges Maduro took over temporarily as coach, while Ajax were negotiating with John Van 't Schip. Unsurprisingly, Ajax lost to Brighton (2-0) and league leaders PSV (5-2), though the Amsterdam side put on a very impressive display in the first half against the latter, actually going into halftime with a 1-2 lead. After the break, however, PSV started playing more directly with two substitutes and Ajax crumbled again.

Ajax have now gone 10 games without a win, losing four matches in a row. It has been a nightmare decline since the exit of Ten Hag.