David Endt sees Frank Arnesen as a suitable technical director for Ajax. According to the former team manager of the team from Amsterdam, the Dane has the talent, experience and network that would require to hold such a position. The fact that Arnesen has a past at Feyenoord does not have to matter, according to Endt. “He has the Ajax DNA”, he argues to our own Kalum van Oudheusden.
A good technical person with ultimate responsibility is important to keep a ship like Ajax afloat, thinks Endt. According to him, a ‘dyed in the wool’ candidate is needed for this, who is not running there now. “With all due respect to Gerry Hamstra and Klaas-Jan Huntelaar (the current technical duo, ed.), who had to do it in difficult circumstances. It is not easy and not a profession that you can learn from one day to the next. fingers. Some talent is recommended, but it also needs a huge network. That’s a matter of years,” says Endt.
Arnesen, who played for the team from Amsterdam between 1975 and 1981, would fit the profile, according to Endt. Until recently, the 66-year-old Dane looked after technical matters at Feyenoord, where he was put aside because he could not guarantee that he would remain disease-free. Arnesen had to take a step back just before because of a bacterial infection in his knee. “At Feyenoord, Arnesen has done a fundamentally good job,” says Endt. “Feyenoord is still benefiting from that at the moment. He has worked at major clubs (including Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur, ed.), so that network is there. And he has the Ajax DNA. Also because he knows the club, fits in easily.”
Endt only wonders whether Arnesen is interested in employment in Amsterdam at the moment. “At the moment he’s hitting a golf ball. He’s recovered from his knee problem, so I don’t think it’s his health. If I know him well – and I know him fairly well – it’s not his lack of ambition. But maybe after this last experience he thought it’s time to do nothing at all. But he is a football beast through and through, he always follows football. Ajax can use that,” said Endt.
Kalum van Oudheusden is a full-time video journalist, presenter and program maker at Voetbalzone and makes exclusive interviews and various programs, among other things.