Michael Reiziger has been brought in as the interim manager at Ajax, as the club recently sacked manager Marcel Keizer. There were wholesale changes at Ajax after the club decided to act on the disappointing campaign, and it led to the departure of Keizer along with his assistant coaches – including Dennis Bergkamp. The club are only five points behind leaders PSV Eindhoven, but there is a major catastrophe unfolding at Ajax right from the team setup. The differences in opinion between the bosses in charge and the club’s board have led to a swift departure.

Keizer came to the club in the summer as the replacement for Peter Bosz, who had become the new manager at Borussia Dortmund only to leave the role earlier in the month. Keizer was able to lead Ajax to a decent performance in the domestic table, but there was disappointment in the Dutch Cup, where the team was knocked out by FC Twente on penalties. Furthermore, Ajax also had a major disappointment in the Europa League and the Champions League – after being knocked out of both competitions in the preliminary rounds. Since the Dutch football has declined of late, performance in European competition is of paramount importance in order to keep the club in the limelight and also to attract the high-profile youngsters.

“The club management does not have enough confidence that the ambitions of Ajax will be realised with them. The disappointing sporting results are also the reason for this decision. With Dennis Bergkamp, there is also a difference of opinion about the technical policy to be implemented,” read a statement from the club. “We had a bad summer and a messy start to the season. From a sporting point of view, European elimination was the low point. In particular [sporting director] Marc Overmars and I have frequently spoken the months afterwards about the permanent volatility of the first team,” said general manager Edwin van Der Sar.