Alex Kroes arrived early at the Toekomst on Friday to be updated by Marijn Beuker about the current state of affairs at Ajax. Beuker, together with Kelvin de Lang, largely took over Kroes’ duties during his suspension, including the role of head coach. Graham Potter is in good shape, although Kroes, who has returned as technical director, does not want to get ahead of things yet.
The Utrecht native was suspended at the beginning of this month, a few weeks after joining the company, because, according to the Ajax supervisory board, he was guilty of insider trading. As a result, Ajax soon found itself without a general manager again, while no one had yet been appointed for the post of technical director. After all, the intention was that Kroes would also take on technical responsibility in addition to the position of general manager. Kroes has been back at Ajax as technical director since Thursday and can therefore again take care of the head coach position and the composition of the selection.
Article continues below video
There is a lot of discussion about who should become the new trainer. Erik ten Hag is according to The Telegraph Kroes’ dream candidate, but it is Potter who was explicitly linked to a job at Ajax this week. “That remains to be seen,” Kroes responded in front of the camera on Thursday evening AT5 when asked whether Potter is coming to Amsterdam. “I just said that to your colleagues: tomorrow at 8 a.m. I will be here with Marijn, then we will talk about the things he has done over the past month. Then I caught up.” Kroes did not want to say whether there is a ‘good’ chance that Potter will become the new trainer of Ajax. “You’re insinuating a lot,” he said, laughing.
From Prague
In any case, Kroes wants to talk about football again at Ajax. The Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM) must make a ruling on whether he actually traded with inside information. In any case, things seem to be going well with Michael van Praag, chairman of the supervisory board. Van Praag has apologized. Kroes doesn’t blame him. “Michael had his information at that time and he acted on it. I think it is a shame that within the association, within the club Ajax, things are said by people with the same club colors that may also seem painful, including this to me. But I don’t take it as malicious. At that time he also had legal information that this was the case. I think that with increasing insight, everyone now has the feeling that it is perhaps less black and white than it seemed at the time,” says Kroes.
➡️ You may also find this article interesting
-
