Arne Slot spoke about the situation at Ajax during the closing press conference on Friday afternoon. At the club from Amsterdam, director of football affairs Marc Overmars resigned on Sunday evening due to cross-border behavior towards female colleagues. It was also restless at PSV. Trainer Roger Schmidt decided not to extend his expiring contract and then created a goalkeeper soap by switching goalkeepers twice within three days.
“I was completely surprised when I was watching Studio Voetbal on Sunday evening and the news came by,” said Slot about the situation at Ajax. The news about Overmars was announced on Sunday evening during the broadcast of the football talk show, on which presenter Sjoerd van Ramshorst read the statement from the Amsterdam club live. “I think I heard an Ajax player, I believe it was Steven Berghuis, say: ‘Could it have been hacked, Ajax’s account?’ That’s the first thing you think about, but then it turns out to be true, then that’s a bit of a shock.”
Slot indicates that cross-border behavior has also been discussed within Feyenoord in recent days. “There will undoubtedly be attention paid to it, for the time being and also in recent weeks,” said the trainer. “On 1908 (Feyenoord training complex, ed.) few women work, I believe three or four. The way you talk about it with the technical staff, you also talk to the women about how they experience the working atmosphere. indicate that they experience the working atmosphere as very pleasant, but that does not only apply to the women, it also applies to the men.”
There has also been a lot of commotion at PSV in recent weeks. Trainer Roger Schmidt decided not to extend his contract and subsequently formed the basis of a true goalkeeper soap. He passed Joël Drommel in front of Yvon Mvogo, but was also unhappy about the Swiss. Drommel then returned under the bar in the cup match against NAC Breda and is the first goalkeeper for the time being. “Nothing happens at PSV,” says Slot. “The only thing that happens there is that a trainer with an expiring contract indicates that he is not extending his contract. That happens often in football. I don’t think that is that exciting.”
“At Ajax something is definitely happening at management level,” Slot continues. “But I think the players there showed that they are nevertheless capable of playing very good football. Thomas Letsch was impressed by that, but I don’t think he was the only coach who was impressed.” Ajax didn’t give a damn about Vitesse on Wednesday evening and rolled up the team from Arnhem in its own Johan Cruijff ArenA with 5-0. Afterwards, Letsch openly handed out his compliments to the team of trainer Erik ten Hag.
Feyenoord was put forward as the biggest contender for second place due to the defeats of PSV against Ajax and AZ. According to Slot, that is not a theme within the club. “We don’t talk about that in front of me. It could very well be that they are talking about that in the dressing room sometimes. All we are concerned with is that we want to play our best football at the end of the season. That means that we have to continuously develop. We try to pay attention to that. And then it’s not about the first, second or third place. We’re not talking about that.”
