Ajax return to the Cruyff ideals as Peter Bosz leads new generation After brushing aside Lyon in the Europa League semifinal first leg, the Dutch club can scent a chance of a first European trophy in 22 years Jacob Steinberg Wed 10 May 2017 05.00 EDT t is a cold Thursday morning at Ajax’s De Toekomst complex, where the canteen doubles as a trophy room, the sheer weight of football knowledge can be overwhelming, and the atmosphere is unsurprisingly buoyant after the events of the previous evening at the I Amsterdam Arena. Nothing is being taken for granted but Ajax can be excused for feeling pleased with themselves after their stunning performance in the first leg of their Europa League semi-final. These occasions are supposed to be cagey, cautious affairs and they have just torn up the script by beating a dangerous Lyon side 4-1. Out on one of the pitches, the team are doing a light recovery session. The rondos are over and the time has come for some shooting practice. Edwin van der Sar is watching from the touchline and the coach leading the forwards is Dennis Bergkamp. One of the players to catch the eye is Justin Kluivert, a young winger who keeps finding the top corner with eerie calm. It is a scene that sums up Ajax’s philosophy, with each character representative of a part of the club’s soul, and the past and present combining to create a brighter future. Bergkamp is the cerebral genius who looks as if he could still do a job on the pitch, Van der Sar the former goalkeeper who has become an unlikely marketing expert and Kluivert the teenage son of the man who scored the winning goal when Ajax won the last of their four European Cups by beating Milan 22 years ago. The manager is elsewhere. Peter Bosz, who was so fascinated by Ajax in the 90s that he would drive from Rotterdam to Amsterdam to watch Louis van Gaal’s training sessions and whose ideals developed from his heaving scrapbook of Johan Cruyff articles, spends the morning inside his office, pinpointing areas for improvement before Thursday night’s second leg at Stade de Gerland. He is worried. Alexandre Lacazette, Lyon’s star striker, is fit again after a thigh injury. “I already saw five or six moments where if my defenders stand like they were standing yesterday, against Lacazette he will score,” Bosz says. “I have to show them.” Not many clubs can match this level of heritage, which explains the romance attached to the thrilling revival that has taken Ajax close to their first European final in 21 years, an achievement made even more impressive by how they are staying true to their identity: seven of the starting lineup against Lyon were 21 or under. For the time being, of course, they cannot hope to take part in the latter stages of the Champions League. Van der Sar calls it “a playground for the rich and famous” and Ajax know to their cost how much money talks in the modern era, how market forces have conspired against them and benefited the biggest clubs in the richest leagues. “For a club of the stature of Ajax, it’s been too long that we were away from the international podium,” he says. Edwin van der Sar, once a goalkeeper and now the CEO of Ajax, and the club’s manager, Peter Bosz. Photograph: Chris de Bode/Panos Pictures/The Guardian One of the finest goalkeepers in Europe during his playing days, now Van der Sar is one of the Ajax greats striving to turn Cruyff’s vision of how the game should be played into a reality. Bergkamp, Richard Witschge and Aron Winter are on the coaching staff, and Marc Overmars is the technical director. Jaap Stam worked with the defenders before moving to Reading. “He taught me how to use my arms,” Joël Veltman, a veteran in this team at the age of 25, says. “I was too shy in duels. He said don’t smash in but use your arms.” They are a fascinating group who regularly collaborate and debate football. There is no shortage of opinions. “That’s the funny thing,” Van der Sar says. “It is not always easy but we speak as one voice. We have a technical heart.” Intriguingly, however, Van der Sar’s role is not on the pitch. Marketing, rather than coaching, appealed to him after he retired. Now the former Manchester United No1 is responsible for increasing Ajax’s financial competitiveness. They do things differently here. “When I got a call from Johan Cruyff and Dennis Bergkamp two months after I retired, this was the idea that they had for the club, to bring an ex-player into the directors’ office and eventually as the main man,” he says. “Those six years at United showed me what a club needs. You need commercial revenue and exposure. I have brought that a little bit, getting three Chinese sponsors. It’s trying to connect two worlds. That’s why we want a footballer as a CEO.” While Van der Sar watches training from a distance for 10 minutes, Bosz eventually emerges from the main building shortly after midday. He is looking like an inspired appointment. His predecessor, Frank de Boer, won the title in each of his first four seasons but Ajax faded in his final two campaigns and made little impact in Europe. Bosz has energised the team since his arrival in the summer and is popular, despite spending five years at Feyenoord as a player. Ajax’s hated Rotterdam rivals are likely to win the Eredivisie, despite their 3- 0 defeat at Excelsior last weekend. They are a point above Ajax with one match left but optimism fills the Amsterdam Arena these days. Bosz’s young team started nervily against Lyon but the noise never died down during an awkward opening 20 minutes. The fans love what they are watching. Bosz cannot stand negative football. He was a defensive midfielder – “a destroyer” – but that is not his managerial style. “When I see my team only defending and destroying like I did I will not enjoy it,” he says. “I thought when I’m on the bench at least I will give myself a happy afternoon. If I give myself a happy afternoon, I can give it to the fans.” In an echo of Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona, Bosz favours a feverish pressing game. “Barcelona have a three-second rule,” he says. “We’re not Barcelona, so I put two seconds on.” Bosz laughs. “The five-second rule is something that if you lose the ball, this is the best moment to get the ball back again. The opponent needs more or less five seconds to get in the right positions. We have to get it back right away.” The 53-year-old is an admirer of Guardiola. His favourite book is Pep Confidential, Marti Perarnau’s account of Guardiola’s first season at Bayern Munich. He learned from Guardiola’s attention to detail, how he would work out in advance which opposition player was always free on the counterattack. “I always thought Bayern Munich is such a strong team that you don’t have to watch for the opponents for two or three days,” Bosz says. There are similarities between Bosz and Guardiola. Bosz’s critics believe his high-risk strategy asks for trouble but his principles have not changed since his first job at lowly AGOVV, from where he went on to enjoy success at Heracles and Vitesse Arnhem. “What they call naive is that my defence was on the halfway line with a lot of space at the back,” Bosz says. “But you have to organise really well. If you do that, you have the five-second rule. You lose the ball and press them immediately, then it’s possible. If you look at our performances in Europe, yesterday was [only] the second time we have conceded in our stadium.” That level of intensity requires mental sharpness as well as physical fitness. Any player who allows his head to drop after possession is lost finds himself on Bosz’s wrong side. “Don’t be disappointed in yourself,” he says. “Don’t be disappointed in your team-mate. You have to press. This is the moment. Not one player. The whole team. If you do that right, you will not concede. We have young players, so when we lose the ball, in their mind, they go back immediately because they have to defend. My way of thinking is we go forward immediately because we want the ball back.” Bosz should not be mistaken for a misguided idealist. He is focused on maintaining organisation and spends hours poring over matches to find seemingly innocuous mistakes. He does not smile much and his mother tells him to laugh more on television but he insists he is a positive guy. “But I am also critical,” he says. “There is no such thing as a perfect game. It doesn’t exist. It will never exist.” What about when Barcelona … “Beat Real Madrid 5-0? There were a lot of things in the game that they didn’t do well. I look on the computer and I write down the right-back, ah, he is too high.” The five-second rule works only if Ajax are alert to danger when they have the ball. Bosz calls this rest defence. “There may be 50 things we have to do well,” Bosz says.