Ajax's Ambitious Rebuild: Cruyff on New Signings and PSV Test
Ajax’s transfer window was chaotic, expensive in energy if not in fees, and unmistakably ambitious. Sporting director Jordi Cruyff, speaking to ESPN NL, painted it as something else too: a statement that the Amsterdam club still carries a name that moves the biggest players in the game.
Marc-André ter Stegen. Sofyan Amrabat. Julian Brandt. These are not the usual reclamation projects or academy graduates promoted on the cheap. They are established internationals, choosing a club trying to drag itself back to the top rather than one already sitting there.
“When you mention the name Ajax, you can see from their eyes that they are very interested,” Cruyff said. For him, the badge still does half the talking. The rest is about convincing senior players that this is a place where they can win now, not just help a famous club heal its wounds.
“We have to get back to the top. Senior players want to compete and perform at their peak right now.”
Brandt, secrecy and a Friday night surprise
Of all the deals, one clearly hit Cruyff on a more personal level. The move for Julian Brandt, he admitted, was his favourite moment of the summer.
Not because of the headlines. Because of the way it was done.
Ajax kept the entire operation under wraps, shutting down the usual drip-feed of rumours and leaks. No slow build-up, no transfer saga. Just silence, then a jolt.
The club announced the German playmaker’s arrival on a Friday evening, catching almost everyone cold.
“For once, we as a club showed that we determine when information comes out,” Cruyff said, with more than a hint of satisfaction. He then reached for a line from his father, Johan: “If you don’t shoot, you will never score. Sometimes you just have to try.”
That quote summed up his approach across the window. Calculated risk. Aggressive without being reckless, at least in his eyes.
Free agents, loans and a different kind of risk
From the outside, critics have circled around one theme: wages. Bring in high-profile names, even on free transfers or loans, and the salary bill can swell quickly. The question has followed Ajax all summer – is this sustainable?
Cruyff pushed back hard.
“This is not risky at all,” he insisted. For him, the real danger lies elsewhere. “The biggest risk is paying expensive transfer fees from club to club. Eight of eleven new players arrived for free or on loan.”
That statistic is his shield. No transfer fee means no amortisation dragging down the accounts for years. If a signing fails, you are not trying to shift a €30 million asset with no market. You can reset more easily.
He also stressed that the club’s outgoing business has more than held its own. Sales revenue, he said, comfortably exceeded what Ajax spent, softening the blow of missing out on Champions League money and keeping the balance sheet in respectable shape.
The message was clear: Ajax might be gambling on experience, but not on the club’s financial future.
The reality of being a springboard
One area where Cruyff showed no illusion was talent retention. Ajax still produces and attracts gifted youngsters, but the gravitational pull of Europe’s richest clubs remains brutal.
Mika Godts’ move to Paris Saint-Germain underlined that point. Ajax wanted to keep him. PSG wanted to take him. The outcome felt inevitable.
Cruyff didn’t hide from what that means.
He accepted that the Eredivisie, and Ajax within it, sits inside a wider ecosystem. For many young players, Amsterdam is a launchpad, not a final destination. The club can polish, showcase, and then sell – but it cannot always say no when the superclubs come calling.
The key, in his view, is to turn that reality into a strength: sell well, reinvest smartly, and make sure the door is always open for top-level talent at different stages of their careers, not just at the start.
All eyes on De Topper
Now comes the real test. The spreadsheets are closed. The presentations are over. Ajax’s radically reshaped squad will be judged where it matters: on the pitch, starting with De Topper against PSV.
PSV arrive with something Ajax do not yet have: continuity. A settled core, a clear structure, and the confidence that comes with stability. Cruyff knows it.
He still refuses to lower the bar.
Ajax, he said, must compete for every trophy on offer. No excuses, no talk of “transition seasons” as a shield. “We have taken a big step in the right direction,” he concluded. “Our job now is to prove it tangibly on the pitch.”
The name still makes eyes light up. The signings back up the talk. The question now is simple: will this rebuilt Ajax play like a giant again when PSV walk into De Topper?
