De Boer fights to hang on to Ajax talent

Published on Saturday 21 March 2009 19:02

FRANK DE BOER'S official remit at Ajax is to oversee the club's youth sector. But as he shuffled uncomfortably in his seat at the Amsterdam Arena on Wednesday night, the 39-year-old found himself unable to let the frailties of the senior side wash over him.

De Boer, also assistant to Dutch national coach Bert van Marwijk, reacted to the half-time whistle during the UEFA Cup tie against Marseille as if it were a starting pistol.

Bounding from his position, he headed straight for the Ajax dressing room and the ear of coach Marco van Basten. "I just wanted to make a small technical point, nothing too major," de Boer explains.

It did not have the desired effect. Judging from their alarming flaws, it would have taken more than any number of pointers from the man who put the cerebral into sweeping over a glorious career to prevent Ajax succumbing in extra-time of their last-16 tie.

The elimination of Holland's last representatives in European football, and the absence of any team from the country in the quarter-finals of both continental competitions, starkly illustrates the growing chasm between the two faces of Dutch football. As Scotland are likely to discover in their World Cup qualifier in Amsterdam on Saturday evening, at international level they remain one of the game's gliterati, certs not just for any finals but possible winners. On the club scene, however, the idea of a Scottish team reaching a UEFA Cup final seems no more extreme than a Dutch side doing so. Involvement in the latter stages of the Champions League, meanwhile, is a complete non-starter.

Former national captain de Boer can offer no solution as to how the club long recognised as the global leader in producing talent can derive the deserved playing value from their scouting and development network. It is nothing new for established Ajax players to be plundered by the behemoths of Spain, England and Italy. It explains the career path of Frank de Boer and his elder brother by 10 minutes Ronald, and such greats as Johan Cryuff, Johnny Rep, Arie Haan, Van Basten, Frank Rijkaard, Edgar Davids and Dennis Bergkamp, among others. But now the Amsterdam club struggle to retain even their best youth players, who it would be prohibitively expensive to tie up on professional deals.

"These are difficult times," concedes de Boer. The problems feed down. Currently a distant third in the Dutch league, as a public company who have not enjoyed title success in five years, Ajax are now more wary of investing the sums of old in their youth development programmes. With good reason. "It isn't only at first-team level that has become really difficult to build and grow a team without losing players to bigger clubs. I see this not even just at 19s but even at 17s level," says de Boer.

Arsenal are known to scout Dutch 15-year-olds, as other English teams get into the act. Real Madrid are said to be formulating plans to copy the Ajax youth model wholesale. Again, with good reason. "I think we still have very good talent but with not the time to develop them together, people don't always see these players at their best in the Dutch game," de Boer says. "I think we have a system that can give these players the proper direction to their careers and that is how we must look to encourage them to stay and come through at Ajax."

A football education in the Dutch capital still provides the means to graduate with honours. No fewer than seven of the squad to face Scotland came through the Ajax youth system. Of a group comprising Wesley Sneijder, Rafael van der Vaart, John Heitinga, Khalid Boulahrouz, Nigel de Jong, Maarten Stekelenburg and Gregory van der Wiel, only the final two are still with the club. Rarely do established internationalists play for Ajax in their mid-20s, though, as de Boer did.

Barcelona then spirited him and his brother away, before a short spell in Galatasaray gave way to five months at Rangers in the first half of 2004. Considering the pummelling the Ibrox men took from Celtic in the league that year, he remembers his Glasgow experience with remarkable fondness. Indeed, he says that Ronald, at Ibrox from 2000 to 2004, still has a "blue heart"; the forward integral in the club's 2003 treble.

"It gave me such an enjoyable feeling playing for the club," Frank says. "I had a great connection with the fans and loved the passion 50,000 of them produced in every home game. It was a big club in every way. It was one of four clubs I played with alongside my brother, and as he is also a best friend, it helped make it a special experience. I would like to have stayed longer but I came there wanting to regain my fitness before the Euro 2004 finals and wasn't offered a contract to return."

Mention of de Boer, Holland and the Euro 2004 play-offs in the one sentence is enough to have any Scotland follower curling themselves up into a ball. The defender netted in the 6-0 slaughter of Berti Vogts's side in the Amsterdam Arena in November 2003. In diplomatic fashion, de Boer said it was more a case of how much a motivated Dutch team, smarting from a 1-0 first leg defeat, got it right rather than how extraordinarily wrong the Scots were in every respect. De Boer does not pretend other than he expects Holland to win on Saturday and again when Macedonia visit the following midweek to all but guarantee his country their berth in the South African finals. De Boer is content to make whatever contribution he can to ensuring that outcome.

"Everybody always said to me I should be a coach, but three or four years ago I never saw myself going into it," he says. "But when I retired after playing in Qatar, I realised I needed football to be part of my daily life, as it had been for 25 years. Ajax is my main concern, and Bert bringing me into the national team set-up is a chance for me to learn about coaching at that level. But he wouldn't have asked me to be become involved unless he thought I had something to offer and had opinions that he respected. I am happy to do whatever I can and just want to spend as much time as possible building my coaching knowledge. That takes years and I am in no desperate hurry to go out on my own."

That is how de Boer's generation was brought up at Ajax.