Alfred Schreuder has been fired as trainer of Ajax. The seventh Eredivisie match in a row without a win, Thursday evening against FC Volendam (1-1), has been fatal for the 50-year-old trainer. The Amsterdam club has ‘no longer confidence in further cooperation’. Michael Reiziger will take over Schreuder’s duties for the time being.
“It is a painful decision, but also a necessary one. After a good start to the season, we then lost many points unnecessarily. The game was also inconsistent. Due to the World Cup there was an early and long winter break. Alfred was given the time and kept our confidence to change and improve things,” says general manager Edwin van der Sar on the website of the Amsterdam club.
,,In recent weeks it became increasingly clear that he could not turn the tide, while we believe that despite the many transfers he had a strong and champion-worthy selection at his disposal. We have also lost a lot of points in recent weeks and unfortunately we did not see any progress.”
Schreuder became a trainer of Ajax last summer, after becoming champion at Club Brugge the season before. Schreuder was no stranger to Amsterdam, as he was also an assistant coach there from early 2018 to mid-2019. Yet Schreuder never got it on track in Amsterdam. Ajax won only one of the nine top matches this season and was eliminated in the group stage of the Champions League.
None of the past seven Premier League matches have been won. The Amsterdam club, number five in the Eredivisie and after eighteen games no less than seven points behind leader Feyenoord, was therefore working on its worst run in 58 years.
Van der Sar acknowledged that Schreuder has not had it easy. “A lot of football players have left”, he referred to the departure of eight potential basic players. ,,But there is still a strong selection that can become champions. It is also about the game shown. That didn’t get any better. I also missed player hunger. We sat together before winter break. But we still don’t see any progress. This is just not good enough for Ajax.”
Already a new trainer on Sunday?
Michael Reiziger and Richard Witschge will lead the training of the club from Amsterdam on Friday. General manager Edwin van der Sar does not exclude the possibility that a new head coach will already be on the bench during the away match against Excelsior on Sunday. Who that will be is not yet known. ,,Tomorrow we will meet again and then we will make a decision about that”, Van der Sar said at the press conference after the resignation was announced.
That would mean that Ajax has been toying with the idea of saying goodbye to Erik ten Hag’s successor for a while. “A club like Ajax must be prepared for anything,” said Van der Sar, who did not want to say whether he wants to appoint a coach for the short or long term. “It can be both,” he replied without wanting to go into names.
Matthias Kaltenbach
Ajax has also ended the collaboration with assistant coach Matthias Kaltenbach. It was previously known that the German probably had to leave the field, because Ajax wanted to intervene in the technical staff. Johnny Heitinga was one of the intended assistants of head coach Schreuder. With Schreuder’s resignation, that is of course no longer the case.
Van der Sar recently extended his contract with Ajax until mid-2025. He is not thinking about leaving himself. “But that’s not what I’m about, that’s what the supervisory board is about,” said the former goalkeeper.
goal alert
Don’t miss a goal: install Goal Alert for free and receive a notification and a video of every goal scored by your selected club within five minutes during matches. Also follow all the (international) football of today in our live football center.
Program premier league
Premier league standings
Statistics Premier League
Free unlimited access to Showbytes? Which can!
Log in or create an account and don’t miss a thing of the stars.
#Ajax #coach #Alfred #Schreuder #fired #disgrace #decision