Chapter 73 The most shameful day

After two weeks of national team match days, the Dutch Eredivisie has resumed.

PSV Eindhoven, which has many international players, was tied with Willem II at home 2:2 in this round, but Feyenoord, which has been in excellent form recently, swept the newly promoted Rosendal 5:1 at home and continued to defend its position as the league leader.

Ajax welcomed NEC Nijmegen at home.

This team, which was once very close to Ye Qiu before the season, chose Neeskens, a former star with Ajax background, to take over Nijmegen when Ye Qiu decided to stay in the Ajax first team. This game was also jokingly called by the local media as a battle for Neeskens and Ye Qiu to prove themselves.

As a result, the two sides drew 0:0 at the Arena Stadium.

Although Ajax had all the advantages in the game, it still couldn't find a way to break through Nijmegen's goal. Swedish center forward Ibrahimovic once again squandered a lot of opportunities, and being tied by the opponent at home was already a loss.

After this game, the points gap between Ajax and the current league leader Feyenoord quickly widened to 5 points. Many media have even predicted that the league champion of the new season will belong to Feyenoord.

This weekend, the fourth round of the Dutch Eredivisie.

This time Ajax's performance has improved. Ye Qiu's team is still playing at the Arena Stadium, and the opponent has changed to the newly promoted Groningen. As a result, not long after the game started, Robben assisted Huntelaar to break the goal of his old club and opened the scoring for Ajax.

After that, Ajax took the lead 3:0 in the first half with goals from Van der Vaart and Sneijder.

But in the second half, Lucio and Maicon made mistakes in cooperation, allowing Groningen to counterattack and sneak attack. In the end, Ajax defeated Groningen 3:1 at the Arena Stadium.

In the same round of matches, PSV Eindhoven defeated Fortuna Sittard 3:0 away, and Feyenoord defeated Waalwijk 3:1 at home. The three traditional Dutch giants all defeated their opponents.

On September 14, Ajax defeated Bratislava, a team in the Slovak First Division, 2:0 away in the UEFA Cup, but after returning to the Eredivisie, Ajax lost to Alkmaar 1:2 away.

First, after the opening, Lucio was intercepted while dribbling forward, and the opponent counterattacked into the penalty area. Grimm rushed out rashly when Kivu had retreated to defend, and knocked down the opponent's player. The referee showed a yellow card without hesitation and awarded a penalty kick.

After falling behind by one goal, Ajax continued to play tenaciously and equalized the score in the 56th minute. This time, Van der Vaart assisted Ibrahimovic very comfortably, and the latter easily scored the ball in front of the goal.

But in the 72nd minute, Ajax's old problem was exposed again. After Alkmaar's midfielder intercepted the ball and passed it directly behind him, Lucio and Maicon failed to return to their positions in time, and the opponent finally counterattacked and surpassed the score again.

After that, no matter how Ajax attacked, they failed to score again.

1:2 away defeat, Ajax had 2 wins, 1 draw and 2 losses in the first 5 league rounds, ranking 6th in the Eredivisie standings.

But Feyenoord and Eindhoven have successively defeated their opponents, among which Feyenoord has won 5 consecutive victories. Van Marwijk's team is getting better and better, and has even become the strongest contender for the Eredivisie championship. Eindhoven's recent performance has gradually recovered, and now the ranking has returned to the top three.

8 points behind Feyenoord, many people also think that Ajax's competition for the league championship is basically hopeless.

In this pessimistic atmosphere, Ajax still took a day off after the fifth round of the league. When Ye Qiu returned to De Tokmost on Monday, he was notified that the board of directors had held an emergency meeting and specifically asked him to attend.

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Since Ajax went public, the size of the board of directors has expanded rapidly.

Many wealthy people from all walks of life have entered the board of directors by holding Ajax shares. They regard entering the Ajax board of directors as a respected honor, allowing them to raise their proud heads in front of other businessmen, but the premise is that Ajax is still the strongest team in the Netherlands.

However, since 1998, Ajax seems to be getting further and further away from this title.

Especially in this season, a Chinese who has never had professional coaching experience was appointed as the head coach. As soon as this young Ye Qiu came up, he sold all the stars in their prime years, which undoubtedly surprised everyone.

As Leo Beenhakker said, Ye Qiu's approach was in line with his transformation of the team, but it was not in line with the big men on the board of directors, because an Ajax without stars was not what they wanted. If the results were good, they would not have any opinions, because they could still be arrogant in front of others, but once the results were bad and they were ridiculed by others, Ye Qiu would become the outlet for their anger.

Because of this, Leo Beenhakker firmly rejected Ajax's invitation and did not take over the position of head coach from Waters. In his opinion, this was very wise.

So, now he was sitting on the side of the first chairman Van Praag at the oval conference table in the conference room. When he saw Ye Qiu walk into the conference room, he felt sorry for the young man. He did a good job, but encountered some problems that could not be solved temporarily, but he had to bear much more pressure and criticism than he should.

This is the tragedy of Ajax, which is in turmoil!

As soon as Ye Qiu came in, the originally noisy conference room suddenly became quiet. Everyone looked at him. Several directors were angry, and some were sneered and disdainful. Of course, some were indifferent.

Van Praag is the chairman of the club, but his prestige in Ajax is no longer as prosperous as it was during the Van Gaal period.

At that time, he and Van Gaal were both powerful and tough characters. One was in competition and the other was in management. The two complemented each other, which created the glorious revival of Ajax. But now, he is no longer the Van Praag of the past. At least, since Ajax went public, his power has been diluted a lot.

This is natural. If you covet the money in other people's pockets, you naturally have to share your power!

"Ye Qiu, you are here!" Van Praag was a little afraid to look at Ye Qiu, he felt guilty.

He once promised to give Ye Qiu a stable and stable coaching environment, but now, the league has only been played for 5 rounds, and the team's performance is not too bad, but he had to be forced by this group of directors to hold this so-called emergency meeting and call Ye Qiu over to accept their criticism.

He overestimated his influence in the club and was overly optimistic about Ye Qiu's coaching environment and pressure.

Ye Qiu could feel Van Praag's guilt. He knew in his heart that Van Praag absolutely supported and trusted him, but there were some things that even Van Praag, as the chairman of the club, might not be able to change.

"Hello, Mr. Head Coach!"

After Van Praag greeted Ye Qiu, a middle-aged man in his forties stood up.

"I am a member of the club's board of directors and a legal advisor. I am a lawyer. My name is Korner!" When introducing himself, the director held his head high. He was proud of his profession.

Ye Qiu nodded and listened without saying anything.

"We are very dissatisfied with the team's recent performance. I and all the board members think that you should give an explanation for the team's performance in recent games. You know, when Waters led the team last year, our results were better than now, and you are worse than Waters, who was called an incompetent waste by the media!"

The lawyer's words caused a burst of laughter among the directors, and several people even responded.

Leo Benhakker frowned after hearing this. This is a typical case of quoting out of context.

Waters's early results were good, but Ye Qiu's results in the first five rounds were not as good as Waters's. However, this does not mean that Ye Qiu's team is not as good as Waters' Ajax. The conclusion that Ye Qiu is not as good as Waters's is a typical conclusion made by people who do not understand football, or they understand football but do it on purpose.

"I don't have much to explain. I don't think my team is worse than Waters. We have problems to solve. That's all. I believe Ajax will adjust quickly because I have found a way to solve the problem."

"Really?" The lawyer shook his head and laughed. "You mean we should continue to give you time and trust?"

Several people laughed suddenly. One of them even shouted, "Ajax is a giant in Dutch football, and you are just a rookie who has just debuted. Why should Ajax give you time?"

After hearing this, Ye Qiu was also angry in his heart and stood up directly. "You can use your right to choose and fire me. This is your power, isn't it?"

"Since you have already determined that I am not good enough, why bother asking me hypocritically? Just hold a press conference, fire me, and then use your professional level to find a head coach who is better than me, more famous than me, and can lead Ajax to win the championship. Isn't this a simple thing?"

For some reason, after being questioned by Ye Qiu, this group of directors were speechless.

They are rich, but they have absolutely no so-called professional ability. They only know how to stir up trouble and find scapegoats, and they will never seriously analyze and think about how to solve the current problems encountered by the team.

In other words, it is easy to fire Ye Qiu now, but do they know who to find as the head coach?

Seeing Ye Qiu angry, Van Praag coughed and stood up, "I still say that, I believe in Ye Qiu, and I also believe that he can resolve the current problems encountered by the team. I believe even more that he can bring hope of revival to the team. Therefore, as the chairman of Ajax, I will never allow anyone to bypass me and fire the head coach I appointed, unless you choose another chairman to implement your wishes!"

Van Praag's words stunned everyone present. He said this to show his greatest trust and support for Ye Qiu.

The directors hesitated. The Van Praag family has an outstanding position in the history of Ajax, and since Van Praag took over Ajax, the team has also loved him. He always leads the team to glory again and again.

Although the team has encountered problems in the past two years, and last season many fans clamored for his dismissal. Behind this, there was the push from the board of directors and the radicalization of the fans. But after the excitement, they responded to Fan Prager still has a lot of trust, which is why the people on the board of directors have never dared to touch Van Prager.

If Ye Qiu is fired and Van Praag is pushed down now, Ajax will inevitably collapse completely, and no one will benefit!

Just when the directors were in trouble, Leo Benhak coughed and stood up.

"I also support Ye Qiu's re-election. As the club's technical director, I think he is the most suitable head coach for Ajax at present, and I also agreed with him when he was asked to take over the first team. If anyone feels that he is not suitable , to let him resign when he has only been in charge of the team for more than two months, from the perspective of accountability, I also have to be responsible, and I will take the initiative to resign!"

Ye Qiu looked at Leo Benhak in disbelief. He could understand and expected Van Praag's support for him, but Leo Benhak's support was beyond his expectations. Unexpectedly, doesn't this old fox never take sides?

But at this time, tensions were rising in the conference room, and Ye Qiu had no time to care about Leo Benhak's thoughts.

To fry or not to fry?

For directors, this is just a matter of words.

Ye Qiu also dislikes the feeling of having his fate controlled by others, but now he has no fame, status, or strength, so he can only choose to compromise, so he can only endure it.

"We... didn't say we were going to dismiss him, right?" Korner said with an embarrassed smile.

"Yes, we didn't tell you either!"

Some of the directors began to take a stand.

Since Ye Qiu was not dismissed from get out of class, the matter still had to be discussed.

Fan Praag patted Ye Qiu's shoulder, indicating that he had to hold back, and pulled him down.

It can be said that Ye Qiu spent a lot of effort to build this Ajax team. He did not want to give up all the efforts of the past few months in vain, so he sat down.

"Although we don't doubt your coaching ability, we still hope to give you and the team some motivation. After all, we are Ajax, so we have set a goal for the team this season, the Eredivisie championship! "

Fan Praag was stunned after hearing this, and was about to object, because he had promised to give Ye Qiu three years.

"Mr. Chairman!" Koerner is a lawyer after all. He can observe what is happening and argue with strong arguments. This is what he is best at. "I believe that all Ajax fans hope that the team will be a team with goals and fighting spirit. Eredivisie The championship is not an unattainable dream for us, and even if Ye Qiu fails to win the Eredivisie championship, we can still discuss it, right? "

discuss?

This is a nice way of saying that if the board of directors has set conditions and still cannot win the championship, they will have no choice but to resign after the season.

Seeing that Van Praag still wanted to defend himself, Ye Qiu pulled Van Praag and stood up, "I promise!"

Korner was stunned after hearing this, and the directors were also in an uproar, especially those who were neutral.

The team is currently 8 points behind Feyenoord in the Eredivisie standings. Although the season has just begun, it is very difficult to get back. And before Ajax, there is another team that is stronger than the last one. PSV are stronger this season.

Under such circumstances, Ye Qiu still dares to accept such a challenge?

Looking at Korna, Ye Qiu smiled coldly. He saw through Korna's mind, "You are a lawyer, you want me to be submissive, you want me to be obedient, you want me to beg for mercy, right?"

Korner's mouth twitched, this was indeed his trick and calculation.

"I have made an agreement here to win the Eredivisie championship this season. Otherwise, I will write a letter of resignation. You don't need to pay any termination fee for me at all. This is your purpose, right?"

In the contract that Eliza obtained for Ye Qiu, if Ajax terminates Ye Qiu's contract within three years, it will continue to pay Ye Qiu's salary, and at the same time, it will not prevent Ye Qiu from coaching. Other teams.

This fee is not small in calculation. Korner obviously wants to force Ye Qiu, because if Ye Qiu takes the initiative to resign, Ajax will not need to pay any more fees.

But for Ye Qiu, he can tolerate other people's cynicism, he can also tolerate other people's humiliation and disdain, but if he wants him to beg for mercy and kneel down to beg for mercy, I'm sorry, he can't do it, especially in the face of this group of commanding people. To the guy he was disgusted with.

"Are you okay?" Ye Qiu glanced sharply at the group of Ajax directors who had been corrupted by money, and smiled coldly. Now he looked down on this group of people, "Don't bother me if you have nothing to do! "

After saying that, he turned and left the conference room.

This group of directors just stared with their mouths agape at the Chinese who they originally planned to play with, but now he walked out of the meeting room confidently like the old man, feeling angry and ashamed in their hearts.

"I'm leaving too!" Leo Benhak stood up and followed Ye Qiu out of the conference room.

Van Praag sat at the top and looked at the group of people in front of him. He suddenly felt very strange.

He agreed to the decision to list Ajax. The team at that time really had no choice. The Bosman Act almost made Ajax bankrupt. If they did not go public, the team would go bankrupt sooner or later. .

But after the listing, this group of directors was introduced, which made him, the chairman, doubt whether the decision to go public was right or wrong?

"I believe it!" As Van Praag looked around, no director dared to look at the chairman, including Korner.

"Ajax fans will definitely remember the most shameful day in the club's history!"

After saying that, Van Praag also walked out of the meeting room, leaving all the directors stunned.

Some people understood Van Praag's words, but some did not.