Chapter 2 The Wind Rises
Since Ajax moved their home stadium from the Olympiastadion in Amsterdam to the current Arena Stadium, they have begun to build the training ground Detok Most, which is across a road to the west of the stadium.
Like the entire city of Amsterdam, Detokmost introduced river water from the Amstel River and divided the entire training ground into three Z-shaped areas. The largest area in the north is the training ground for the first team and The training building and a stadium with simple stands are used by the Ajax second team.
The south is divided into left and right areas. On the left are the training grounds for senior age groups A and B. The other youth training echelons are on the right. The two training areas are separated by a river.
Detok Most's two-story training building is located at the junction of the two training grounds.
When Ye Qiu entered the conference room on the second floor of the training building almost on time, he found that the place was already full of people.
The people sitting at the top of the oval conference table were all the club's management. To Ye Qiu's surprise, club chairman Michael Van Praag was also there. This surprised him, and to his left and right The others are the first-team coach, former Ajax star Jan Waters, and the current club's technical director, Leo Benhak.
Leo Benhak has a very high status in today's football world. He has been in charge of Real Madrid twice and Ajax twice, and every time he has been in charge of Ajax, he has won the championship in the first year. The next year, he was left empty-handed. When he coached Ajax for the second time in the 90-91 season, he even switched to Real Madrid midway, which made Ajax fans feel that they were betrayed.
But after Louis van Gaal moved to Barcelona, and under the impact of the Bosman Act, stars such as Kluivert, Litmanen, Overmars and others left the team one after another. Ajax once again fell into turmoil. Michael Van Gaal Under pressure, Prager once again invited Leo Benhak to Ajax as technical director.
Ye Qiu just glanced at the people above him and roughly knew the situation.
This season, Ajax's first team has had three consecutive wins. First, they defeated Heerenveen 3:2 at home, and then defeated Maastricht 6:2 away. Just yesterday, Waters' team He also defeated Leeuwarden 3:0 in an away game. He was very popular in the Eredivisie, so he looked quite high-spirited. When he saw Ye Qiu, he nodded with a smile, obviously. I am showing my favor to the coach who I personally recruited into the club.
After Ye Qiu sat down, the meeting began.
To put it bluntly, this is a discussion about the redistribution of power. Waters is now nominally the head coach of the first team and director of the youth team, but in fact his responsibilities are mainly in the first team, and he has no involvement in the youth team, so he I want to take advantage of the current moment when I am in the limelight to gain some power.
However, Leo Benhak and Westerhof refused to readily delegate power, so the two sides seemed to be in harmony at the meeting, but secretly they were at war with each other. This made Ye Qiu sigh inwardly, in this environment, Ah It would be strange if Jax didn’t sink!
"Today, I went to inspect the training ground for the lower age groups. I found that some of our youth training coaches privately changed the team's youth training program without the permission of the club." Westerhoff suddenly stood up Get up and speak righteously.
When Ye Qiu heard this, he immediately understood that Westerhoff was talking about him, wasn't he?
Looking at the boss who looked at him with contempt, Ye Qiu immediately understood in his heart that they had no way to deal with Waters now, and they were unwilling to let Waters' reputation in the club soar, so they decided to do it on himself. , with a little bit of Waters' majesty, you can say that he was also hired by Waters.
"None of us deny that there are many youth training concepts and advanced training methods that keep pace with the times. However, two months ago, the club spent heavily to hire a number of external youth training coaches, hoping to help improve Detok. The level of Mostert’s youth training, but everyone has seen the results. Two months have passed, and there is no effect at all. On the contrary, Detok Mostert has been messed up and the coaching staff is panicking!”
Westerhof was talking, and Leo Benhak beside him was silent from beginning to end, but this white-haired but energetic Dutch old man gave people an incomprehensible feeling, but it was No wonder, after decades of wandering coaching, Leo Benhak has long been transformed into a man. Today, this kind of thing is nothing to him.
"Please remember that we are Ajax. We have a youth training system of our own that has created countless brilliance and attracted the attention of the whole world. We will never allow some inappropriate practices. Disciplined people disturb the atmosphere of Detok Most!”
Having said this, Westerhoff raised his right hand, "So here, I propose that Ye Qiu, the head coach of the E1 youth team, be fired on the spot for violating Detok Most's regulations as a warning to others!" "
As soon as these words came out, everyone in the entire conference room was in an uproar, including Waters.
Ultimately, Waters is still too young and inexperienced.
Although he is currently in the limelight and fans and management are optimistic about him, the problem is that he lacks the minimum prestige.
This year is the first time he has coached a professional team, and it is a team like Ajax. Everyone is worried about him, even Chairman Fan who personally promoted him from the 18-year-old youth team to the first team coach. Prager, otherwise, why would he invite Leo Benhak to help?
Under such circumstances, he is anxious to attack the youth team, which will naturally cause resistance.
Westerhof's example of setting a warning to others is actually killing the chicken to scare the monkeys, killing Ye Qiu and destroying Waters' prestige. At the same time, it also shocked the group of youth coaches in the youth training camp and made them all look at it. Be clear about the current situation.
Just when everyone was talking about it, Leo Benhak finally spoke, but he said it to Van Praag.
"Michael, I think reform is a good thing, but it must be within a certain limit. We cannot reform for the sake of reform. We need to know the direction and purpose. The entire youth training system of the club has been around for so many years. There must be good things about him, and these should be retained. !”
If the previous words were still persuasive, then Leo Benhak changed the subject.
"However, it is impossible to ignore discipline. The most important thing Ajax has ever valued is discipline. This trend must be suppressed, otherwise it will be difficult to unite the people back together once they are scattered!"
Leo Benhak's words convinced Van Praag and he nodded.
Even Waters felt bad for Ye Qiu now, because if even Van Praag nodded, he would be completely doomed.
But just before Van Praag spoke, Ye Qiu, who was sitting at the end of the conference room, suddenly stood up and shouted loudly: "You are holding a trial court but do not allow the prisoner to defend himself. Is this fair to me?"
Although there are high and low levels in the club's power structure, in this kind of meeting, anyone has the right to raise their hand to speak. However, generally speaking, coaches with low status are generally more responsible, at least not like Ye Qiu now. so.
But it is also understandable that since we are trying to convict a person, should we listen to his defense?
"What else do you have to say? Did I say something wrong? Did I wrong you?" Westhoff didn't expect that this Chinese who usually didn't talk much would dare to resist, and he was furious.
You know, before coming to Ajax, Westhoff was also considered the number one figure in the Dutch football circle. Otherwise, how could Van Praag poach him to take charge of Detokmos? What about special?
Coupled with the character developed by being a head coach for a long time, he always wants to maintain his authority, and even uses all his power and resources for this. It is not difficult to see from this point that Van Praag is The club's personnel arrangement at the competitive level really made a fatal mistake.
First of all, Waters is a newcomer. He has no first-team coaching experience before. He has a good career, but he is not a big name. His coaching experience is more in managing the Ajax youth team; secondly, Leo Benhak He and Westerhoff are both successful head coaches. Such people often have personalities that make it difficult to be inferior to others.
In this case, let the unprestige Waters manage the big names Leo Benhak and Westerhoff, and the result is not difficult to guess.
"I didn't say you were wrong in arranging the training program, and you didn't wrong me!" Ye Qiu didn't care about Westerhoff's anger. He was going to be fired, so he didn't care whether he was angry or not. This guy deserves to be so angry.
"It's just that you said I didn't abide by discipline, which I don't agree with. If I were kicked out of Ajax by you, wouldn't I be aggrieved? This is related to my personal style of conduct, and of course I have to defend myself. !”
Ye Qiu's words also make some sense.
Many people say that the Germans are stubborn and rigid, but in fact, to a certain extent, the Dutch, especially the Dutch footballers, are not rigid and dogmatic, adhering to the rules of the Michels and Cruyff era decades ago. What's left behind is that it's stuck in its ways and doesn't seek to make progress, even to the point of being stubborn?
What did Michels and Cruyff value most?
Discipline, this is the first commandment of the Ajax club, and it is also the first commandment of most Dutch clubs!
So Ye Qiu said he wanted to defend himself, which was recognized by many people present. Even Chairman Van Praag nodded, "Well, you can tell me, what excuse do you have for Hans's actions?"
The Van Praag family plays an important role in the history of Ajax. Michael Van Praag's father, Jaap Van Praag, was the club president of Ajax in the most glorious 1970s. He later left Ajax. , the club entered turmoil until the 1980s, when Michael van Praag took charge of Ajax again and directly brought about the revival of the Van Gaal period.
