Ajax to the future

Ajax rolled back the years with their vintage display against Manchester City in the Champions League, and with a starting XI that boasted seven academy graduates the future looks bright for the four-time European Cup winners.

Frank De Boer's side had an average age of just 24.36 years and boasted little European experience, but tore apart the defending Premier League champions who lurch from one poor showing to another. Mancini might be the domestic cup specialist, winning the Coppa Italia with three clubs as a manager and the FA Cup with City, but his performances in Europe have never lived up to billing.

Despite winning three straight scudettos with Internazionale in 2006, 2007 and 2008, Mancini was sacked by the hard to please Massimo Moratti after failing to impress in Europe and the same infliction seems to hinder Manchester City. They have been slow starters domestically and against the elite of Europe these defensive errors will be punished, as Ajax discovered and who grew in confidence before controlling the game.

Despite the excellent showing, it is unlikely that Ajax will escape Group D, but De Boer and his assistant Dennis Bergkamp will have been delighted with the way their young team out-manoeuvred Manchester City. Manchester City were poor last week and offered little in attack, but against Dortmund and Real, the Dutch champions defence was harshly exposed. Hardly a surprise, when you look at the calibre of defenders who have left the Amsterdam Arean in the last three years; Vermaelen, Vertonghen, Van der Wiel and Anita.

Ajax have retained their offensive-minded players for the last two seasons; Christian Eriksen pulling the strings along with nationalised Dutchman, and captain at just 23, Siem De Jong. The forward interchanged position with Ryan Babel constantly and slammed home the equaliser for Ajax in some style. However, if Ajax continue to flounder in the group stages without progressing to the knock-outs they will be unable to fend of preying clubs who take a shine to their young stars.

The Dutch giants have been unlucky to draw Real Madrid in their group two years running, and wind up in this years 'group of death', but young stars like Eriksen and De Jong are likely to leave for a stronger league in the near future. The Bosman ruling decimated the Louis Van Gaal drilled Champions League winning side of 1994-95 and the growing financial excesses of the Premier League and the big two in Spain will continue to threaten Ajax.

Eriksen has been on the radar of European heavyweights for three years, and despite two failed showings for Denmark on the international stage he is the most attractive prospect in the current set-up. The Dane was actually on trial at Chelsea as a 15-year-old, eventually electing to further his career in the Netherlands but the next young Danish star making headlines for Ajax is 18-year-old, Viktor Fischer.

Fischer burst onto the scene as a result of a hat-trick which eliminated Liverpool from the inaugural NextGen Series, as Ajax made it to the final of the new tournament designed to give under-19s an early taste of continental competition. He finished as top-scorer with nine goals en route to the final, where Ajax were beaten by an Inter Milan side, led by current boss Andrea Stramaccioni, and has started equally well in this years competition, scoring four of the 10 goals that Ajax have smashed home in their first two games.

The teen is more of an out-and-out finisher than his compatriot, Eriksen, and made his first ever appearance for the full team in the 3-3 draw with Hercules last weekend. Manchester United were linked with a £5 million bid for the starlet last summer and if his goal-scoring form continues this season he could find himself negotiating with even more clubs.

A product of the De Toemkest academy, Fischer is yet to make his full debut for the Danish national team, but a record of 20 goals from 30 under-17 games suggest his breakthrough will come soon. De Toemkest literally translates as the future, in Dutch and it is easy to see why it is held in such high regard around the world.

Ajax are enshrined to the 4-3-3 formation and much like La Masia, Toemkest preaches a particular style of football; somewhere between 'Total Football' and tika-taka. General manager, David Endt, reveals the philosophy in place, "We're not developing for other clubs; we're developing for ourselves. This is football how we want to play it."

Statistics have become a integral part football coaching in the last decade and Ajax are ahead of their time with their latest innovation - the miCoach performance centre, adjacent to De Toemkest. Resembling an oversized golf ball, the centre contains pressure plates, high-definition cameras for biomechanical analysis of technique and an artificial pitch to replicate the Amsterdam Arena.

Personality and psychology are also analysed in detail, with head of sports science, Edwin Goedhart, explaining that: "talent is 80%... training is 20%. The rest is what we can add [mental coaching/analysis]. Even if it's only 1% improvement, spread over a team that is 11%."

All students at De Toemkest undertake neuropsychological testing and this is used to quantify why certain players make better in-game decisions than others. Goedhart raises a fascinating point about how these tests could "go a long way to developing more natural Dutch leaders, arguably the one failing of the Ajax system" and to a greater extent the national team.

Ferguson misses the point

Sir Alex Ferguson doesn't misread situations very often. 25 years of perpetual success in Manchester and 12 titles indicate this. But his handling of Rio Ferdinand's Kick It Out boycott perhaps reveal a fallibility of the 70 year old.

This weekend player ratings in the Premier League were pushed to one side as interest focused on whether players would pull on a particular top in warm ups. Ferdinand was the lone United player to go incognito, but he was joined by Jason Roberts and two other Reading players, two from West Ham, and the entire contingent from the Liberty stadium.

Michael Vorm was one of the Swansea players who collectively shunned the t-shirt and he calmly and fairly explained why Swansea chose not to wear them. "Everyone expects the governing bodies to do more... They really have to do something and not just say something on a T-shirt."

Whether Ferguson objected to Ferdinand not backing the campaign or rather took affront to his disregard of his instructions is unclear. Ferguson was highly critical when informed about Robert's planned abstention on Friday and it would follow that the same stretch of thought applied to his own players.

Ferguson seemed to have missed the point on Friday, describing Robert's as "a stray sheep" and insisting that everyone should back the campaign. His comments suggested that dissent was a mistake, but without individuals who are prepared to challenge the existing hegemony progress will slow in all aspects of society, of which racial prejudices are one facet.

Alex Ferguson is clearly his own man and rules United with an iron fist. His comments over the weekend bely his trade union and socialist background and instead seem like totalitarian rhetoric. Why should any player be forced to wear a largely irreverent T-shirt bearing a slogan which they feel doesn't fairly represent them?

The FA, who are happy to spend £20 million soliciting favour from FIFA in the failed World Cup bid, and de facto UEFA, contribute just £300,000 to the organisation tasked with eradicating all discrimination in the game. It's a paltry sum and the shirts that hogged headlines are not subsidised by the clubs; KIO pay for the shirts to be printed and even pay for them to be sent out around the country.

The plight of the organisation is one of key aspects to come from this ill timed Kick It Out week and in fairness the player boycotts have attracted publicity that the own organisation could only dream off.

For refusing to wear a T-shirt which is symbolic of a culture that has failed to adequately defend his brother, Ferdinand is reportedly looking at a two week fine. Coupled with his £40,000 fine from the FA for a retweet, the United defender could end up paying more in fines than John Terry.

Chelsea have kept their own punishment in house and given that any fine greater than two weeks wages needs to be declared to the PFA (it hasn't) the two time former England skipper has got away extremely lightly.

The boycotts of Kick It Out are not necessarily aimed at that specific organisation. The recent scandal in Serbia, the cop out by Chelsea and the lenient punishments for Terry and Suarez have all contributed to a feeling of discontent amongst black players and managers. Who are we, Sir Alex included, to tell them how to protest?

Why are Bielsa's Bilbao imploding?

Last year threatened to be a breakthrough year for Athletic Bilbao and their left-field coach Marcelo Bielsa. However, the start of the 2012-13 season is a harsh reminder that attacking flair requires some defensive discipline and Bielsa’s project looks burnt out, to the point of destruction.

Bilbao made it to two cup finals last season, but were comprehensively swatted aside in both; losing 3-0 to Atletico Madrid in the Europa League final and by the same score line in Guardiola’s final match managing Barcelona in the Copa del Rey. Their swaggering defeat of Manchester United in Europe drew attention to the Basque region and the UK press took notice of the man dubbed El Loco for the first time after years of attacking football in Latin America.

United were beaten 5-3 on aggregate (and the three flattered United) and Bielsa’s uncompromising emphasis on attacking football saw them beat Schalke 6-4 and edge past Sporting Lisbon 4-3 on aggregate. In Fernando Llorente they had one of the form strikers in Europe and most expected a close final in the all Spanish affair.

Atletico had other ideas, and Falcao in particular ripped through the Bilbao defence to score two sensational first half goals, before Diego hit Bilbao on the counter on 86 minutes to condemn Bielsa to a runner up medal. Guardiola has gone on record confirming that Bielsa’s philosophy was an influence on his own playing style as a manager and despite averaging possession for 59% of the Europa League Final, Bilbao looked short of ideas and were ruthlessly exposed by their opponents.

The trend has continued this season and Bilbao only have one victory to their name in the league this season. A tally of 14 goals conceded, the most in La Liga, and eight scored indicate that Bielsa’s high pressing and possession based style is being exposed by other teams. Barcelona may have a 6-0-0 record in La Liga, but they have had to work for those wins and having Lionel Messi in your team helps.

By contrast Bilbao have had to make do with the loss of two of their best players over the summer. Javi Martinez eventually left to Bayern Munich, for a massive €40 million, in a protracted transfer which lasted all summer and Fernando Llorente has frequently expressed a desire to leave and has only played one league game this season. He walked out of a recent training session and ‘The Lion King’ looks set to leave for Juventus in January.

Bielsa went as far as to ask both players whether the problem was him; implying the solution “if it is me, I’ll go”, but after a breakthrough year in Europe which massively enhanced their own reputations is it likely that they both wanted to use 2012 as a platform to move on from. Llorente was considered so burnt out over the summer that Vicent Del Bosque didn't give the 27-year-old any game-time at EURO 2012, and the forward will want to complete a ‘big’ move before his stock fades.

Further controversy engulfed the Argentinean coach over the summer after Bielsa reported himself to the police for insulting and attacking the site manager overseeing renovations to the clubs training base. Bielsa was unhappy about promises not being kept and his reaction is indicative of the man who is famous for his touch-line displays, squatting and turning in exasperation like Andre Villas Boas on speed.

Bielsa has completely revolutionised the clubs identity, style of play and assembled the finest collection of Basque players for decades. When in full-flow Bielsa sides are a joy to watch, but Bilbao of 2012/13 look bereft of confidence and seem to still be reeling from their double 3-0 reversals at the end of last year. Bielsa is a flawed genius and another such genius, Bela Guttmann, lived by the moto ‘the third season is fatal’. Bielsa is leading Athletic into his second season and his own idiosyncratic approach may have proved too volatile for the club.