Internal support at Ajax for Jordi Cruijff

Menno Geelen insists there is no truth at all in claims that Jordi Cruijff is running things alone at Ajax. Het Parool reported that recently, but the general director has dismissed the rumours as nonsense.

"I do not recognise that portrayal at all," Geelen said in an extensive interview with De Telegraaf. "Jordi is very much a team player. I have personally spoken to him virtually every day over the past few months, about all sorts of matters."

Geelen says Cruijff regularly consults other Ajax board members. "Jordi also consults a lot with our finance director Shashi Baboeram Panday. And he involves Daniel de Ridder and Siem de Jong, who are developing as technical managers."

He added: "They liaise just as easily with the scouting team and the football side as with the administrative side of the club. Jordi also exchanges views a lot with the coach, other members of the staff, and with the football commissioner."

Cruijff has already brought a fair number of players to Ajax, drawing comparisons in some quarters with Sven Mislintat. The former technical director spent millions on new players in 2023 and many of them failed to deliver in Amsterdam.

Still, Geelen accepted the criticism and questions were understandable at the time, admitting the transfer policy back then was far from optimal. "The Mislintat period was evaluated extensively, including externally. One of the findings was that the football axis within the organisation was not in order. That has been addressed. The entire transfer process was also reviewed and improved."

Looking back on that spell, Geelen said: "During the Mislintat period, I may have had a different responsibility as commercial director, but I still felt responsible. There is little point now in dwelling for too long on that specific period or on other individual directors or coaches who have left," Geelen said.

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