Maurice Steijn (49) had sinds zondagavond zijn twijfels, maar wilde maandag – ondanks de pijnlijke nederlaag bij FC Utrecht (4-3) en de zeventiende plaats in de eredivisie – in principe door als trainer van Ajax. Maar dan wel zónder Hedwiges Maduro en Steven Berghuis, die hij ervan betichtte een mes in zijn rug te hebben gestoken. Die eis was echter onbespreekbaar voor de Ajax-leiding, waarna in goed overleg werd besloten het tot de zomer van 2026 lopende contract van Steijn te ontbinden.
The thing is I do think there are some valid excuses like he didn’t get any of the players he asked for and the whole ‘build a squad while the competition is already on its way’ thing.
Berghuis and Maduro ‘backstabbing’ probably came after those two concluded that he’s not good enough for ajax. I think that part is bs.
But it wasn’t made easy for Steijn, that much is obvious as well.
I agree it’s a legitimate excuse. It did sound like Steijn actually had a much better idea what the squad needed than that surf fraud.
At the same time you can’t go and throw all those signings under the bus literally the first game things go wrong. How are you supposed to build a cohesive squad that way?
He also chose to play those guys out of position immediately when he easily could have waited to integrate them if they weren’t ready. He definitely started making excuses for his dismissal from the start.
The players that he wanted, baring Olij, would all have asked for above/significantly above the now salary cap that the board had placed on Mislintat.
And it was known for a long time that we had to sell before bringing anyone in, with Mislintat only getting the go ahead after the first part of the Timber money being officially on the bank balance.
So, sure it wasn’t easy for Steijn, but that was because the board was being difficult, not Mislintat.
Oh yes agreed it wasn’t just Mislintat. The board made a gigantic mistake with this half baked investing in the squad. We could’ve had Ziyech and Tagliafico, but we got forbs (nothing against him but he has some stuff to learn) Avila and Sosa. Etc.
Really they could have simply bought less players that cost more instead of so many. Sutalo, vd boomen, Tagliafico, Ziyech, Dest, Maybe go for zerrouki because we needed a dm?
The rest we didn’t really 100 percent need! This is also made evident by who’s playing now. It’s really a lot of players we already had and the new guys are playing only if the spot was really vacant like Sutalo and forbs or if someone is injured.
So the board made a huge gigantic mistake there with the caps. A cheap buy can be an expensive buy!
Eh, Ziyech has been constantly injured for Gala; and while Tagliafico would probably have been a solid addition, he is on more than both of Sosa and Avila combined afaik.
Don’t know about that, if I’m completely honest, yes there were some signings that felt like they were being bought to fill up the squad, and it would have been preferable to have done that with youth players, Ajax did lose a lot of players this summer.
Let’s not forget that Mikautadze has yet to be played as a striker, Mannsverk has only featured in one game due to Injury, the only time Akpom has started was at Right wing and Ramaj hasn’t played because Steijn was angry at not getting Olij.
While I do agree that sometimes a cheap buy can become an expensive one, the only ones that threaten to go that way, are players who Steijn hasn’t really given a chance.
Ah Ziyech injured constantly? So the rumours are probably true ok fine not Ziyech then. Paying a bit extra for Tagliafico to get to the cl wouldn’t have hurt us though…
And yeah in most players except honestly akpom I see some future at Ajax for. It’s just that I mostly see future and not much now that is dragging us down hard this season.
My point around Tagliafico is that Sosa is close to the salary cap, while Tagliafico is on more than both him and Avila combined.
Probably (still have my doubts about Gaaei tbh), but I genuinely think, that with a decent head coach/manager, this squad is easily good enough for second or third.
Ramaj hasn’t played because Steijn was angry at not getting Olij.
That’s what people say about Steijn, but I think he genuinely saw that his team lacked cohesension and communication and tried to help create that by fielding a Dutch goaly that has been at the club for a while.
Ramaj never played for a club like Ajax, nor under this amount of pressure, and doesn’t speak the language. That is fine for 1 player, but Ajax already had to field to many new players that were still settling in and had no clue about what it means to play for Ajax.
Also, Steijn was quickly getting a lot of criticism for subsituting to much and not giving his players confidence, had he also changed his keeper those voices would have been even stronger. Gorter played in the pre-season and did alright, naturally he didnt want to swap another player.
Steijn would have played Rulli or Pasveer if they werent injured and we would never be talking about who is second or third in line in the goal. Mislintat should have never spend 10M EUR on a secondary keeper nobody knew to begin with, and it would have been super easy for Mislintat to give Steijn a sense his opinion mattered by giving him what he wanted for an unimportant role as backup keeper.
The whole keper debate is one of the many examples of that Steijn was dealt a really bad hand.
Also try to manage 2 new expensive strikers that dont fit a 4-3-3 while already having an expensive striker in the squad. Also no RW or Cam was attracted. Mislintat bought several interesting players, but it seems like he didnt put much thought on squad building
The thing is I do think there are some valid excuses like he didn’t get any of the players he asked for and the whole ‘build a squad while the competition is already on its way’ thing.
Berghuis and Maduro ‘backstabbing’ probably came after those two concluded that he’s not good enough for ajax. I think that part is bs.
But it wasn’t made easy for Steijn, that much is obvious as well.
I agree it’s a legitimate excuse. It did sound like Steijn actually had a much better idea what the squad needed than that surf fraud.
At the same time you can’t go and throw all those signings under the bus literally the first game things go wrong. How are you supposed to build a cohesive squad that way?
He also chose to play those guys out of position immediately when he easily could have waited to integrate them if they weren’t ready. He definitely started making excuses for his dismissal from the start.
The players that he wanted, baring Olij, would all have asked for above/significantly above the now salary cap that the board had placed on Mislintat.
And it was known for a long time that we had to sell before bringing anyone in, with Mislintat only getting the go ahead after the first part of the Timber money being officially on the bank balance.
So, sure it wasn’t easy for Steijn, but that was because the board was being difficult, not Mislintat.
Oh yes agreed it wasn’t just Mislintat. The board made a gigantic mistake with this half baked investing in the squad. We could’ve had Ziyech and Tagliafico, but we got forbs (nothing against him but he has some stuff to learn) Avila and Sosa. Etc.
Really they could have simply bought less players that cost more instead of so many. Sutalo, vd boomen, Tagliafico, Ziyech, Dest, Maybe go for zerrouki because we needed a dm?
The rest we didn’t really 100 percent need! This is also made evident by who’s playing now. It’s really a lot of players we already had and the new guys are playing only if the spot was really vacant like Sutalo and forbs or if someone is injured.
So the board made a huge gigantic mistake there with the caps. A cheap buy can be an expensive buy!
Eh, Ziyech has been constantly injured for Gala; and while Tagliafico would probably have been a solid addition, he is on more than both of Sosa and Avila combined afaik.
Don’t know about that, if I’m completely honest, yes there were some signings that felt like they were being bought to fill up the squad, and it would have been preferable to have done that with youth players, Ajax did lose a lot of players this summer.
Let’s not forget that Mikautadze has yet to be played as a striker, Mannsverk has only featured in one game due to Injury, the only time Akpom has started was at Right wing and Ramaj hasn’t played because Steijn was angry at not getting Olij.
While I do agree that sometimes a cheap buy can become an expensive one, the only ones that threaten to go that way, are players who Steijn hasn’t really given a chance.
Ah Ziyech injured constantly? So the rumours are probably true ok fine not Ziyech then. Paying a bit extra for Tagliafico to get to the cl wouldn’t have hurt us though…
And yeah in most players except honestly akpom I see some future at Ajax for. It’s just that I mostly see future and not much now that is dragging us down hard this season.
My point around Tagliafico is that Sosa is close to the salary cap, while Tagliafico is on more than both him and Avila combined.
Probably (still have my doubts about Gaaei tbh), but I genuinely think, that with a decent head coach/manager, this squad is easily good enough for second or third.
That’s what people say about Steijn, but I think he genuinely saw that his team lacked cohesension and communication and tried to help create that by fielding a Dutch goaly that has been at the club for a while.
Ramaj never played for a club like Ajax, nor under this amount of pressure, and doesn’t speak the language. That is fine for 1 player, but Ajax already had to field to many new players that were still settling in and had no clue about what it means to play for Ajax.
Also, Steijn was quickly getting a lot of criticism for subsituting to much and not giving his players confidence, had he also changed his keeper those voices would have been even stronger. Gorter played in the pre-season and did alright, naturally he didnt want to swap another player.
Steijn would have played Rulli or Pasveer if they werent injured and we would never be talking about who is second or third in line in the goal. Mislintat should have never spend 10M EUR on a secondary keeper nobody knew to begin with, and it would have been super easy for Mislintat to give Steijn a sense his opinion mattered by giving him what he wanted for an unimportant role as backup keeper.
The whole keper debate is one of the many examples of that Steijn was dealt a really bad hand.
Also try to manage 2 new expensive strikers that dont fit a 4-3-3 while already having an expensive striker in the squad. Also no RW or Cam was attracted. Mislintat bought several interesting players, but it seems like he didnt put much thought on squad building