Ajax’s new director of football Alex Kroes made a trip to view Manchester United behind the scenes last year and was left far from impressed by what he saw.
That’s according to Algemeen Dagblad, who cover Kroes as he takes charge at Ajax and sets about making major changes at the club.
They explain that a new manager is at the top of his list of priorities but he’s postponing the search until mid-April when he believes the managerial merry-go-round will really kick into gear.
The plan is to find a manager who can implement the ‘high standards and performance culture’ that Erik ten Hag had instilled at the club and has been sorely lacking since his move to Manchester United.
It’s because of that, that rumours about a return to Amsterdam for Ten Hag have been popping up of late but ‘the chance that Ten Hag himself will return is small’ according to the newspaper.
That’s not stopped Kroes from doing his homework, though, and he travelled to Manchester last year for a look behind the scenes at Manchester United in preparation for the work he’ll need to do at Ajax.
Rather than being impressed, though, he ‘saw flawlessly at one club in particular how things should not be done’ with it claimed that Manchester United are currently a ‘dated version of Ajax’. In other words, the set up behind the scenes and under Ten Hag is not up to scratch.
Kroes certainly won’t be copying what he saw and was instead more impressed by Manchester City, where the ‘organisational structure and direction are crystal clear’ and plans are carried out by people who know exactly where their responsibility starts and ends.
He wants to structure Ajax in a similar way and will set about doing that now he’s in charge in Amsterdam, having seemingly saw how things shouldn’t be done during his trip to Manchester United.
