Jan van Halst has extensively reflected on his time as commissioner and interim general manager at Ajax. In the television program Rondo he looks back on the sporting and administrative crisis at the club. “From the moment Van der Sar stopped, it was a big rollercoaster and it hasn’t stopped.”
“It was a very intense and intense period,” Van Halst begins. “It is a period in which Ajax has touched the bottom. I thought it would be a very nice challenge to take on a position on the supervisory board. After four days, Edwin van der Sar quit. Then the rollercoaster started and it is no more stopped.”
Van Halst is having a bad transfer summer
Van Halst started at Ajax as part of the Supervisory Board. One of the functions of the Supervisory Board is to keep an eye on the technical director. It can now be said with some certainty that the purchases of the then TD of Ajax – Sven Mislintat – were not the best purchases, to say the least. “If you are involved, you should also take it seriously. You are a supervisor in the Supervisory Board. The management has been appointed to further implement the plan.”
Van Halst soon realized that things were not going well at Ajax. “After a few weeks I already realized that there was friction between Maurice Steijn and Mislintat. I struggled a lot with that. When are you going to be on top of it? For example, I drove to the training camp because I already felt in the preparation that it was not possible. things went well between Steijn and Mislintat. At that time we had no one in all the main positions. There was no general director, no head of scouting and no head of youth development. And I only just came to watch as commissioner between Steijn and Mislintat. I already felt that it was not a good way of working together.”
“The results were poor and Mislintat had no support”
Steijn was fired from Ajax in October and Mislintat was also said goodbye to just before that. “The results were so bad. If you still have a little support within Ajax, things might turn out well, but that became less and less. The low point was the home match against Feyenoord. The next day we decided to part ways.”
After the lost Classic, riots broke out inside and outside the Arena. “That was the low point for everyone. For the entire club. We had to prepare Mislintat’s dismissal while we were in a crisis room with the mayor and the police. That moment hurt.”
