Football Season Guide

Ajax U21 had yet another pretty miserable season last year, their third in a row in which they were firmly etched to the bottom of the standings and deliver no more than half a dozen decent and memorable performances all year. They also went through three different coaches over the course of the campaign due to upheaval at the first team but now the task ahead seems to be to find a more coherent image and start resembling the serious side that they are expected to be as one of the major forces in the country. Carlos Garcia has been given the reigns as a U21 manager, a discipline of Oscar Garcia, who was a manager of the team for a bit last season. He is thus likely to play attacking football, with focus on patient possession, and will demand control from his men even in games against top sides. The squad seems stripped of the few reliable and quality players in the ranks as Lucas Jetten, Kayden Wolf and Don O'Neill have found new teams and are not around any more. Players like Abdellah Ouzzane, Emre Unuvar and Rayane Bounida are full of talent and promise though and there is still a lot of great potential in this squad. Another one who seems for a big jump this season is Mohamed Abdalla, who got just a few appearances last season but is already featuring for the first team this season. The jury is still out on the new blood coming in from the U16 and U18 squads but Garcia will rely on the new players to bring a bit of freshness and generally lift the mood of a squad that has not had much to rejoice about for a fair while.