Martin Jol quits Ajax FC; Maarten Stekelenburg targets UEFA Europa League
AFC Ajax’s manager, Martin Jol has left AFC Ajax as the 1st team manager. Martin’s decision comes before Ajax’s UEFA Champions League clash away at AC Milan on Wednesday night.
Martin joined the Dutch outfit in May 2009 and under his management, the club finished as runners-up in the Eridivisie, 1 point behind eventual champions FC Twente.
The former Tottenham Hotspur manager revealed that the expectations were too high after last season’s unprecedented success and the team was unable to meet such high demands from the fans this time around.
Ajax are currently in 4th place in their domestic league, 5 points behind 1st placed PSV Eindhoven.
After his departure from the Amsterdam Arena, Jol said, “With pain in my heart I say goodbye to this beautiful club. In the summer of last year we started something together which I would love to have completed. But I came to the
conclusion that the expectations after last season were just too high. We cannot meet those expectations and that hurts me. The amount of criticism the club now suffers daily has led to unrest in the organisation and the players.”
Meanwhile, Ajax’s goalkeeper Maarten Stekelenburg has targeted the UEFA Europa League after his team’s inability to qualify for the knockout round of the Champions League.
Ajax have only managed 1 win and 1 draw in 5 games in the Europe’s premier club competition and are in 3rd position in Group G.
However, the Dutch international admits that his side was unlucky after being paired up with European heavyweights, AC Milan and Real Madrid, in the group. Maarten believes that this season has been a learning experience for the
young side, in which the majority of the players are in their early 20’s.
The keeper said, “When you draw Real Madrid, Milan and Auxerre, you know it will be very difficult. Of course you focus mostly on third place, for the Europa League, and you hope for what everybody thinks would be an upset. It
was possible for a long time. We have to forget the first match because at Madrid we weren't ourselves and deservedly lost. But then Milan came to visit and we took a good point and after that we won against Auxerre, so we were in good shape.”
Stekelenburg will be standing between the posts when Ajax face AC Milan on Wednesday night in San Siro. The Dutch team must perform well and get a positive result out of the match in Milan if they want to keep their hopes alive
of finishing in the 3rd place, ahead of AJ Auxerre.
Auxerre, who have 3 points from 5 games, are bottom of the group and travel to Spain to face Jose Mourinho’s Real Madrid.
Sides finishing in 3rd place of the Champions’ League group stage are parachuted into the knockout round-of-32 of the UEFA Europa League.
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