retired_bbcarr

Ajax Squad - 11th November 2007

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">| Pkd | Inf | Name | Position | Nat | Age | Value | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | - | | Kenneth Vermeer | GK | NED | 21 | £1.5M | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | - | | Jeroen van Binsbergen | GK | NED | 19 | £1.4M | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | - | Wnt | John Heitinga | SW/D/DM RC| NED | 23 | £3M | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | - | | Julien Escudé | D C | FRA | 28 | £1.7M | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | - | | Mitchell Burgzorg | D/DM R | NED | 20 | £775K | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | - | | Alexander Buttner | D/DM L | NED | 18 | £70K | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | - | | Jeffrey Sam-Sin | D/DM L | NED | 18 | £95K | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | - | | Toby Alderweireld | D/DM C | BEL | 18 | £100K | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | - | Yel | Khalid Boulahrouz | D/DM C | NED | 25 | £2.5M | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | - | | Hedwiges Maduro | D/DM C | NED | 22 | £1.6M | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | - | | Jerko Leko | DM C | CRO | 27 | £3.9M | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | - | | Vurnon Anita | M RC | NED | 18 | £425K | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | - | | Rasmus Lindgren | M L | SWE | 22 | £1.8M | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | - | Req | Kiran Bechan | AM R | NED | 25 | £1.6M | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | - | Inj | Tom De Mul | AM R | BEL | 21 | £1.9M | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | - | | Steven Pienaar | AM RC | RSA | 25 | £3.1M | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | - | | Nourdin Boukhari | AM L | MAR | 27 | £2.5M | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | - | | Saïd Boutahar | AM C | NED | 25 | £3.3M | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | - | Unh | Mauro Rosales | AM/F RLC | ARG | 26 | £3.7M | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | - | | Johan Elmander | F RC | SWE | 26 | £3.7M | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | - | | Ryan Babel | S C | NED | 20 | £5.5M | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | - | | Angelos Charisteas | S C | GRE | 27 | £6M | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | - | Inj | Ciprian Marica | S C | ROM | 22 | £5.75M | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | - | | Jack Tuyp | S C | NED | 24 | £2.1M | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| </pre>

retired_amyslack

Interesting change of direction there Simon - all the best in Holland and let's see at least one of us start to win a trophy or two :thup:

retired_bbcarr

Cheers, Bob. I was disappointed to get the boot at Wigan, but as you say, hopefully I can actually win some trophies at Ajax

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December 2007

The last month before the mid-season break began with us facing NAC Breda in Amsterdam just four days after out defeat against Utrecht. Jack Tuyp was giving a starting berth up front and repayed that fiath when he opened the scoring in only the fifth minute. Breda caused us plenty of problems in their efforts to get back on terms, but luckily Vermeer was in far better form than against Utracht, and he kept them out long enough for Tuyp to grab a second after the break and seal the match in our favour.

The deciding match in the Champions League group stage had us visiting the Olypiastadion to face Djurgården whilst PSG entertained Real Madrid. We began in storming fashion, Ryan Babel netting twice inside twenty minutes (and he could easily have had a hat-trick) to put us on course for victory. That course was confirmed by the break, Mauro Rosales and Rasmus Lindgren grabbing a goal each, and although Toby Alderweireld put through his own net to give the Swedes something to cheer, there was little doubt that we would go on to win.

I had’t, however, expected the win to be finished off in quite such style. With a 4-1 half-time lead, I’d expected the players to go out and just keep things tight, not wanting to give the hosts even a sniff, but within four minutes of the restart we had our fifth through Saïd Boutahar. The chances kept coming, and so did the goals, Steven Pienaar grabbing number isx just after the hour before Rosales rounded off the night with a stinging twenty-yard drive for number seven. PSG had beaten Real by two goals in Paris, but it was still us and the Spaniards who qualified for the first knockout round.

I had expected that such a win in the Champions League would do nothing but fill us with confidence. The boys still obviously thought of the league in a different light though, as we fellt behind in just five minutes to Zwolle on their own patch. We could, probably should have been level before half time, but if we were going to rescue a point, it would have to be a late show. Thankfully it was, Babel continuing his good form with a rocket shot into the top corner past Wilburt Need in the Zwolle goal.

The Dutch Cup provided another chance at silverware – probably our best this season if I was to be honest – and our fourth round tie saw us travel to face ADO Den Haag. Dennis van der Pennen put the hosts in front early on, but within sixty seconds we had found an equaliser, Pienaar bursting through ADO’s defence and clipping a shot in front twelve yards. The scores stayed level until after the hour mark, and in the end it was us who triumphed, goals from Tuyp and Elmander putting us safely through to a quarter final tie against Feyenoord.

Our final game of the month was back in the league and was the visit of VVV to the Amsterdam ArenA. I was determined that we wouldn’t drop any further behind in the race for the title – or at least a Champions League place for next season – and we began well, forcing Marcel Meeuwis into a ninth minute own goal. Jack Tuyp missed a penalty two minutes later, but we did have a second by the break, Khalid Boulahrouz heading in from Rosales’ corner. Rosales himself missed our second penalty attempt just four minutes into the second half, but then turned provider again, laying on a ball for Pienaar to run onto a flash into the net.

League Position: 5th

retired_bbcarr

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">| Pos | Inf | Team | | Pld | Won | Drn | Lst | For | Ag | G.D. | Pts | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 1st | | Heerenveen | | 17 | 12 | 4 | 1 | 34 | 10 | +24 | 40 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 2nd | | PSV | | 17 | 11 | 2 | 4 | 29 | 13 | +16 | 35 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 3rd | | Feyenoord | | 17 | 11 | 2 | 4 | 28 | 13 | +15 | 35 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 4th | | FC Utrecht | | 17 | 11 | 2 | 4 | 28 | 16 | +12 | 35 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 5th | | AJAX | | 17 | 9 | 2 | 6 | 27 | 18 | +9 | 29 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 6th | | AZ | | 17 | 7 | 6 | 4 | 22 | 21 | +1 | 27 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 7th | | FC Twente | | 17 | 7 | 4 | 6 | 24 | 21 | +3 | 25 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 8th | | Vitesse | | 17 | 6 | 4 | 7 | 15 | 15 | 0 | 22 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 9th | | NEC | | 17 | 7 | 1 | 9 | 24 | 28 | -4 | 22 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 10th | | RKC | | 17 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 23 | 28 | -5 | 21 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 11th | | Willem II | | 17 | 5 | 4 | 8 | 21 | 27 | -6 | 19 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 12th | | Zwolle | | 17 | 5 | 4 | 8 | 16 | 26 | -10 | 19 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 13th | | FC Den Bosch | | 17 | 4 | 6 | 7 | 18 | 23 | -5 | 18 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 14th | | VVV | | 17 | 5 | 3 | 9 | 20 | 31 | -11 | 18 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 15th | | NAC Breda | | 17 | 4 | 5 | 8 | 16 | 24 | -8 | 17 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 16th | | De Graafschap | | 17 | 4 | 4 | 9 | 18 | 26 | -8 | 16 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 17th | | RBC | | 17 | 4 | 3 | 10 | 19 | 26 | -7 | 15 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 18th | | Emmen | | 17 | 2 | 6 | 9 | 17 | 33 | -16 | 12 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| </pre>

retired_bbcarr

January 2008

With the winter break in effect, we had only one match in January, a home league match against AZ on New Year’s Day. New signing Mike Zonneveld, who joined for €3.1M from Willem II, was named in the starting line-up, but came off after just thirteen minutes with a gashed head. We had to wait until the second half to break the visitors down, but eventually we did, Rosales and Tuyp grabbing the goals which fired us to victory.

The rest of the month was spent splashing the club’s impressive bank balance around Europe. Mohamed Zidan had impressed me at Wigan, and they were happy to let him go for €7.5M. My search for a quality goalkeeper took me to Moscow, and eleven times capped Russian international Igor Akinfeev. €5.25M was needed to pry open CSKA’s fingers, but the talented Russian was soon ours.

I wanted to improve the side in pretty much every position, and next to join was right winger Scott Brown. The Scotland internationl had joined Man Utd but failed to make the grade at Old Trafford, and so was available for a bargin price of just €3M, a price I had no hesitation in paying. He would be joined on the right side by Brazilian full back Cicinho. Capped once for his country, the Santos defender was being trailed by a number of European clubs, but we stole the march and brought him in for €9.25M.

Another raid on Wigan was needed, and Alou Diarra was the man to join our forces. He was obviously not particularly well thought off after I’d left the JJB, as they only wanted €2.8M to secure his siganture. Some of the money flooding out of the door was brought back in with the €5M sale of Angelos Charisteas to Manchester City, and the €2M departure of Tom de Mul to Dunfermline. One player I hadn’t wanted to sell was Ciprian Marica, but unfortunately, Monaco matched his €8M release fee clause and the Romanian was whisked off to the south of France.

Therre was still time to bring another three players in, Uruguayan international midfielder Horaci Peralta joining from Extremadura for €3.8M whilst Mexican striker Santiago Fernández made his way from Barcelona for €3.7M. The final piece of the puzzle was another striker, newly capped Portuguese star Cicero from Leiria. The five times capped internatioonalist had a €5M release clause in his contract, and we were quick to make the bid.

One player who didn’t enjoy all the arrivals was Jack Tuyp. The Dutchman had been enjoying his time at Ajax since joining from Wigan, but felt I was trying to force him out of the side with so many attacking players joining the club. He may have had a point, but his outburst did him no good as he was placed on the transfer list and relegated to the reserves.

rastilbear

Cracking story Terk, definitely deserving of award-winning status. FM05 was a gem of a game, but I found it maybe slightly easy? When you can assemble a monster side with Barnsley and march to the Premiership in 3 seasons, something isn't right. Anyway, I have 'form' with Wigan, and I'm not surprised to see that you did well with them. unlucky on getting the boot, and I hope your luck improves in the surprisingly tough Dutch league. (My Barnsley game saw me leave for Feyenoord - who named one Jack Tuyp among their number when I got there... coincidences, eh? - with Barnsley a good 20 points clear at the top of the Championship and on their way to certain failure in the Prem )

retired_milissac

Great story Terk. Really enjoying it. Hopefull you can get on that "run" with Ajax and make a late dash for the league title

retired_manragh

Wow thats harsh there Terk, best of luck in Holland though and your with a pretty good team so you should do well

retired_bbcarr

Cheers for the support, guys Analog, my experience with FM05 has been that it's very easy to go in either direction. I've done straight promotions from League Two to the Premiership, but equally if you get on a bad run of form, it's nigh on impossible to break. And sometimes the board can be very unforgiving.

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February 2008

Heerenveen had gone eight league games unbeaten before they travelled to Amsterdam to face us at the beginning of February, and we managed to bring the league leaders crashing to earth with a wonderful performance. Things had not begun well, Cristiano putting the visitors in front before, in the thirty-fifth minute, Peralta picked up his second yellow card of the day and headed for the tunnel.

It all pointed to a mountain to climb in the remainder of the match, but we caught Heerenveen perhaps a little complacent, and Boutahar’s strike from distance meant the scores were level at the break. The side was re-organised for the second half, CÃ*cero left up front alone with Elmander bridging the gap between midfield and attack. It worked superbly. CÃ*cero, making his debut, netted twice to put us clear in front and late goals from Elmander and Zonneveld, the latter striking from the penalty spot, gave us a crushing, and at times thoroughly unexpected victory.

Three days later we were in cup quarter final action, Feyenoord the visitors to the Amsterdam ArenA. The game was tightly fought throughout and neither side could break the deadlock either in the regulation ninety minutes or the extra thirty provided to try and force a result. We came closest to avoiding the penalty shoot-out, Feyenoord ‘keeper Vyacheslav Malafeev had to be on his best for to keep us out, but he couldn’t repeat his feats in the shoot-out, and two saves from Igor Akinfeev were enough to put us through to a semi-final against PSV.

Back in the league, our defeat of Heerenveen had failed to move us any further up the table, and victory at RKC was just the same. Mauro Rosales put us in front with a scrambled effort on twenty-five minutes, and a CÃ*cero double put us firmly in control by half time. We only added one in the second half, Pienaar curling a free kick into the top corner, and though no positions were gained, it was a valuable three points nonetheless.

Before Feyenoord paid us a second visit in ten days – this time on league duty – we made an addition to our squad. Brazilian winger Daniel Carvalho had left CSKA Moscow at the end of his contract and we pounced to sign the twenty-four year old, and he went straight onto the bench for the visit of the Rotterdam side. We managed to score in the ninety minutes this time, indeed we did it twice as CÃ*cero continued his fine start for the club, and Elmander sealed the win late in the second half.

Akinfeev was ineligible to feature for us in the Champions League, so Vermeer took his place between the sticks for the trip to face Panathinaikos. It was his opposite number, Dimitris Alexiou, however, who stole the show with a stunning performance to keep us out. Thankfully, his teammates were toothless in attack, and we at least had a goalless draw to take back to the Netherlands for the return leg.

Before then, however, we had to remain busy with our attempts to storm back up the league table, the next hurdle of which came in the form of an away game against NEC. It was our toughest league game for a while, and at many points we looked likely for defeat, especially when Joris Mathijsen gave the hosts the lead in the first half. We didn’t buckle under the pressure though, and goals from Carvalho, making his first start for the club, and Escudé in the second half meant we took the three points and fourth place in the table home with us.

Our final game of the month did see us stumble in the league as Vitesse took a point away from Amsterdam. Again we came up against a ‘keeper in truly magnificent form, and again we failed to beat him. This time it was Oscar Moens in the Vitesse goal, and nothing we tried was good enough to beat him. After a thoroughly frustrating ninety minutes, we had to settle for a goalless draw.

League Position: 4th