Michael Valkanis has opened up about his time at Ajax. The Australian coach experienced the most turbulent months of his coaching career last season, when he was brought to the Johan Cruijff ArenA by John van 't Schip. He has no regrets.

After Van 't Schip had previously worked with Valkanis at Melbourne City FC, PEC Zwolle and the Greek national team, he also made room for his friend and valued colleague in the technical staff of Ajax.

It was a turbulent eight months for Valkanis. “Of course I saw all the problems, but I would do it again,” he says in an interview with ESPN. “When John asked me to come to Ajax, I didn't have to think long.”

Although Ajax got off to a good start under Van 't Schip, things eventually started to go wrong. The turning point was the cup match against Hercules, which was led by Valkanis in the absence of Van 't Schip – the head coach travelled to Australia for his son's wedding.

“A number of players were told before this match that they had to look for a new club during the winter break,” Valkanis says now. “They were told that from above, but in retrospect I would have liked to have known that at the time.”

“Some players came to me after the cup match to talk about their situation, but I would have preferred to have known that before the match. If we had known that, we could have managed the situation differently and prepared the players better.”

Mikautadze

One of the players who had a bad news conversation was Georges Mikautadze. The attacker would eventually leave and spend the second half of the season on loan at FC Metz, where he did find his place.

“We saw his qualities in training, but when we arrived he already felt unwanted at Ajax,” said Valkanis. “He trained well, but did not feel at ease. The competition for his position was also great.”

“I am not surprised that Mikautadze did well at FC Metz and at the European Championship. It often happens that players flourish in a different environment. He is a good boy, who after a difficult start did not recover with us.”

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