Valentijn Driessen proposes a new manager for Ajax: ‘Why not?’
Valentijn Driessen believes Ajax should seriously consider appointing Arne Slot as Míchel Sánchez's successor. The De Telegraaf journalist sees no improvement at Ajax under the Spanish coach and thinks the currently unemployed Slot can get the team playing football again.
On the Kick-off podcast, Driessen floated Slot's name after Ajax's embarrassing 2-1 defeat to Hajduk Split in the Conference League. "I'd look at Arne Slot. Why not? This is a dead end. To get these lads playing football, you need someone who can reach them."
Driessen believes Slot has precisely the qualities Ajax lack. "Slot is a very good communicator, but he's also very good tactically and in terms of training methods. That's what he's known for," said the journalist, who has serious doubts about how Míchel gets his message across to the players.
On the same podcast, Jeroen Kapteijns criticised the Ajax coach's communication skills and warned that working with an interpreter creates problems. "You can't listen to Míchel's English; it's an absolute disaster," said the reporter. "Football is in the details, but you have to be able to identify and explain them. If you don't have a good command of the language, it's very difficult to get into those details."
Driessen fears players could eventually stop taking their coach seriously. "Players will very quickly take advantage of that and laugh about it. Then you go into the dressing room and people are laughing, and you think: here he comes again. The moment you start laughing at someone, you've long since stopped listening to what he has to say," said the journalist.
After the defeat, Driessen said Ajax once again looked completely disjointed. "It really looked like nothing at all. There was absolutely no team and everyone was doing their own thing. They were eleven separate islands."
Liverpool dismissed Slot in May, and he has been without a club since. He turned down the Netherlands national team head coach's job last summer. The 47-year-old said in August that he would rather work with players on the training pitch every day than take a job as a national team head coach. A return to club football therefore appears to be his preference, although it is not known whether Ajax would be an option for Slot.
As for the Spanish staff who came to Amsterdam with Míchel, Driessen would not rule out Ajax parting ways with them. "If that's in the club's interests, you should do it," he said, before questioning Jordi Cruyff's decisions. "It's now mid-October and you can't see any improvement. You should have seen it long ago. This coach isn't showing any improvement either."
