Ajax:Pre-Season 2009

Hello friends and welcome to what I hope is this time is a much longer story than my previous effort with Oxford. Before I go any further a big thanks to all who voted and in the end Ajax came out the clear winners.

The company I work for sponsors Ajax so here’s a link to the sponsorship page.

http://www.aegon.com/en/EN-Homepage/About/Sponsorships/Ajax-soccer/

So in looking at the Ajax first team squad I was already happy with what was available but took the advice of my Assistant Manager Danny Blind (unfortunate name) to seek out a right back and  defensive midfielder. Danny’s suggestion was to go with a Brazilian named Fabricio from Cruzeiro.

As for the board of directors they were expecting me to challenge for the title and handed me a £4million transfer budget for new players.

Negotiating with Cruziero proved very tough and in the end it took nearly all of my transfer budget to bring him to Amsterdam and I think he was worth it.

For the right back problem I managed to find another Brazilian, Denilson and  he was out of contract so I signed him for free. Perfect.

My final signing was Nacer Barazite who I got on loan from Arsenal for the season and will rotate with the ageing Kennedy on the right flank.

So July turned out to be a very quite transfer market for the club with just three players leaving for other  teams. I’m hoping with just a minimal amount of new players that team harmony will remain good and will easily adapt to my tactics.

Transfers: July 2009

I decided that my tactic for the season would be  a 4-3-3 formation with a high defensive line and playing a loan striker in Luis Suarez who Chelsea made an immediate bid of £11,000,000 before our first game. I rejected it.

Ajax Tactic 2009 Season

I was happy with the pre-season results and the way the team was playing despite all the fixture congestion at the start due to the Friendly Cup and as a bonus we finished on a high note away to St. Etienne.

The only set back to our pre season was an injury to Urby Emanuelson who is going to be out with torn knee ligaments for at least 2 months but given the depth of the squad I feel we should be okay.

The season proper will start away to FC Groningen and there’s the prospect of a difficult game against PSV in the middle of the month. Thanks for reading and I look forward to providing more updates.