Ajax’s methods have produced some of the biggest names in the World game.
Dennis Bergkamp, Clarence Seedorf, Edgar Davids, Patrick Kluivert, Frank and Ronald de Boer… the list goes on and on.
But it is the greatest of them all, Johan Cruyff, whose legend still lives on in the guise of one of his impressionable disciples at Barcelona, Pep Guardiola, who continues to weave his managerial magic at Manchester City.
Tony Davis was granted a personal insight into the workings of the renowned Ajax Academy during the build up to Euro 96 when The Netherlands were billed as one of the favourites.
They were all about ‘total football’, epitomised by Cruyff and personally transported across Europe to Spain and Barcelona, where Guardiola was to take all his teachings to heart and go on to further spread the word.
Recalls Davis: “With the Euros coming up, Total Sport (The popular 90s sports magazine) were looking at different nations and how they prepared themselves to play football.
“They were really interested in how the Dutch prepared and played football. Ajax played this high diamond formation and there were all these stories and kind of mythology around how the Dutch, and especially Ajax played football.
“They were allowing players to become cultured. We trained players to become fixed in a certain position and to do a job. It’s only Gazza and players like that, that we thought – this guy’s got so much talent, we’ve got to let him do what he wants. But even then, that was only with certain managers.”
Tony Davis
“They had this incredible academy, the type which every premiership club has now, but back then this was like a focused academy with a school, learning centres and fitness gyms – all from a really early age.
“The assignment was all was about the academy itself. It wasn’t about the first team. It was just about the Ajax Academy.”
They were very forward thinking, with all the age groups playing the same shape.
“I just felt very privileged to go on the inside and have a look at everything they were doing,” he said. “They were just for getting on with it. It looked like a youth club of sorts – just like a regular sports centre.
“I think it’s the whole system they have there; maybe the structure of management, trainers, individual player trainers, goalkeeping trainers, all that kind of stuff that we now take for granted, that they’ve were doing for many years before, from the days of Cruyff and players like that.
“They were allowing players to become cultured, whereas we trained players to become fixed in a certain position and to do a job. It’s only Gazza and players like that, that we thought – this guy’s got so much talent, we’ve got to let him do what he wants. But even then, that was only with certain managers.
“But over there, they let people develop individual flair and stuff like that.”
Davis has clear memories of his time spent close at hand to the day to day workings of what was principally a school of football.
“In one picture, the kids are doing maths or something like that, and they look out the window, and there’s Patrick Kluivert training with two coaches marking him,” recalled Davis. “And these kids are just mesmerised, like… Where’s he gonna go? What’s he gonna do? To them, that was more of an education than what they were learning in the classroom. That was the first time I ever saw kids sitting down to study and doing academic in any football environment.
“All the kids would get a kitbag with several kits and training kits, and all their expenses paid. And then when you became an apprentice, you got an apprentice wage. So you were looked after.
“Even at the under 9s and under 10s, you could see the parents were big, Ajax fans already. So it was like a gift to get your son into the Ajax Academy.
“Training was almost seen as a punishment here back then, just to get fit. Whereas over there; the training, the academy, the education, the whole setup, was more important than becoming a superstar or first team player. It was focused on being part of something rather than just becoming an individual.
“Apart from it being a privilege to see inside the academy, in a way, I was in awe of the kids living every child’s dream. All those details matter to you as a kid.L; You’ve got the Ajax bag, and the Ajax kit, you’ve probably got the latest boots given to you by a local sports shop. Everything is supplied – you’ve got the best gear in the country. And you’re getting to wear it like all the senior players at the club, that you’ve grown up watching.
“There’s a bit of magic there. You go into the academy and you give it go, and they look after you. The kids were getting an education at the same time as playing football.
“It was a Dutch philosophy, they just thought a little bit ahead of everyone back then.”
Davis also witnessed first hand an acceptance among the youngsters if they didn’t make the grade.
“It’s their dream,” he said. “But they’re not going to be destroyed if they don’t make it. Their life wasn’t going to end if they didn’t make it to the first team. The academy instilled a certain maturity in these kids, to grow and to learn.
“There was a lot of care from the managers and the trainers. They were tough on them whilst they were playing but they spent a lot of time talking stuff through with them. It was a different approach and a different philosophy.
“The family always felt involved. There’s one sweet picture of these two brothers hugging their older brother, and they’re like ‘that’s my big brother playing with Ajax.’ There was a nicer culture around it all.
“I love the photographs of the groups of kids, because you can just see so much joy in their faces, they’re just enjoying life. A whole mix of kids from all different backgrounds; the estate kids, the immigrant kids. And they all got on, they’re all a team. And they all were mates and stuff like that.
“It was a nice thing. All the parents got on. It was a lot of work for those kids. But it was a real joy and that was reflected in the way they played.”
Davis attributes a lot of the modern way of playing, the formations and the high press, back to Cruyff and Ajax.
“When we played European teams in the 70s, and part of the 80s we were all very cynical, and we weren’t massive fans of them. We were always feeling that we’ve been cheated rather than looking at what system they’re playing.
“The Dutch team in 74 played probably some of the best football I’ve ever seen. That was the best team to never win the World Cup at the time.
“So that football, that beautiful football, doesn’t always necessarily win championships, but it’s a system where players can express themselves more and I think Man City and Liverpool and teams like that have benefited from playing that way.
“I’m a 70s kid, so as well as players like Pele and Jairzinho and others like that I’ve also got imprinted in my brain not just Cruyff but Johnny Rep, Johan Neeskens, all these others that played for Ajax.”
And the story goes on. “Different fans today will have players that have come out of the Ajax Academy at some point,” says Davis.
He was clearly impressed with his time behind the scenes, but also further witnessed first hand the ethos of Ajax at a 1996 Champions League quarter final when young academy product Kiki Musampa scored the winner against Borussia Dortmund.
Other academy youngsters were ball boys.
“They were given a job to do,” said Davis. “In the tunnel you could see them all looking at the senior pros and just dreaming: ‘What if?'”.
If you enjoyed that, you may also like Tony’s pictures of 90s football fans. Tony Davis is more commonly known for his iconic rave photographs, but also has an extensive archive of football culture photographs from the 1990s.
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