As the players finish their warm-ups prior to kickoff at the Arena, “Freed From Desire” blares out and the stadium shakes with Taadeech on fiiiire! It’s the same routine before every match, so even though I’m busy buying a pint, I know that Dušan Tadić, captain of Ajax, is the only remaining player on the pitch. I know that he gets the ball just outside the box and takes a few touches before cutting inside on his weaker right foot. He shoots, looks up towards the fans, and applause ensues. The Serbian forward has given his best playing years to the club and the mutual respect between the two is palpable; he is still the talisman of the Ajax attack. But it is now a forward line that has failed to achieve a victory in the league since October. Tadić is not actually on fire, but that’s okay. Nobody is these days.
The referee blows to start, and, after five minutes of scoreless action, hundreds around the stadium reveal white tissues, a coordinated protest of the club’s poor management. The F-Side procures white banners emphatically calling for the sacking of head coach Alfred Schreuder. From that moment on there is no winning. It doesn’t matter who the opponents are. The Ajax fans have not surrendered, just shown the true state of the club. It seems like only yesterday that Edwin van der Sar, the club’s technical chair, was throwing all of his support behind Schreuder; despite the poor results, he hadn’t been given the proper resources to rebuild the team last summer, so the line went. The mass action on Thursday proved that most supporters in Amsterdam call bullshit.
After struggling to a 1-1 draw with league leaders Feyenoord, one would hope the team could at least manage a win over FC Volendam, the high-functioning relegation candidates who last played in Amsterdam in 2009, losing courtesy of Luis Suárez and Thomas Vermaelen. Alas. Ajax academy graduate Carel Eiting would captain Volendam in a stoic performance, leading a defensive unit which heavily constrained Ajax’s creativity, and provide the assist on the go-ahead goal, scored by another former Toekomst player, Damon Mirani. The home team could only muster one in response, after the introduction of Mo Kudus and Francisco Conceiçao. Lorenzo Lucca, the 6-foot-7-inch forward, also came off Schreuder’s bench to provide the assist, heading the ball on for Kudus to snipe a shot past the keeper. It was Lucca’s substitution for Devyne Rensch in the 76th minute that saw the last thrash of Schreuder’s regime, the final flicker of a fire struggling to ignite a sopping wet log. When Schreuder jogged down the tunnel as the players went to applaud the fans, he must have known his fate.
Half an hour later, he was sacked. Or, as the club says, “removed from active duty”. How militaristic. Tadić was questioned in the car park after the sacking, which rarely happens on the day of a match. “I feel sorry for him. I still think he’s a good coach. But this is normal if you don’t win so many matches at such a big club. That’s what [Schreuder] said himself. We talk too much, we talk about everything. I don’t know what to say anymore. We need wins, that’s the best medicine.” For months it seemed that talking was all Schreuder could do, in lieu of actually winning. Image maintenance is important for an army general, I suppose, but it’s in no way a substitute for material success on the field of battle.