Johan

Meaningless? The whole club was burning during his first season. I'd call it personality instead of authority. No other coach could have achived that. Many more experienced ones totally failed at always turbulent Ajax (first championship since 2004), and 2011was extreme, even for Ajax. After that he did loose his best players each year, starting with Suarez real soon. So i think you can't deny how he build a new team each year. Not that i mind what people think of De Boer and what he's going to do now. PSV certainly this year had a better team. Almost anyone agrees. So keeping up till the last day is really good i think. Although i disagreed with some tactical choices.

Vincent Janssen from AZ. Could be. He may be too expensive for what Ajax and PSV can/want to pay. Everton might be the right category for him to go. Personally i doubt if he will do as well next season at another club and maybe even abroad. But that's because i'm never convinced after one good season and have seen too many examples that did not persist. In case of Ajax players it's a bit different because i followed most of them through their youth teams as well.

Frank de Boer used to work very well with Vernon Anita, Siem de Jong, Chirstian Eriksen, Aldeweireld, Vertonghen and Blind. Last season captain Davy Klaassen was his favorite player and maybe Veltman and goalkeeper Cillessen. There are some great young talents as well, but i think he has got too much of an Ajax heart to take them away already (too early in their career, both for the player, but certainly for Ajax). If there's one player form the Eredivisie he would like to take with him it would probably be FC Twente's Hakim Ziyech. But i doubt if he would like to go to Everton.

Hard to say. He was loyal to the Ajax system because that's holy in Amsterdam, and (coming to the club at the age at 14) he believes Ajax should play that way. That's 4-3-3, and he even experimented with 3-4-3 with one central defender extra to the midfield at ball possession, but i'm sure he won't do that in the PL. Even at Ajax with the current squad that experiment was no succes (like it used to be with more quality). Typically for De Boer was his puzzling with the midfield. He both tried one defending midfielder with two more creative ones as playing with a "10" (as we say at Ajax) behind the strikers, and two more controlling midfielders. In previous years he always played that first option: with a midfield pointing backwards (2 attacking players with one defending behind it). The search for the right defending midfielder (with the changing teams) was always the turnpoint in succes in those seasons. Very difficult position in the way he wanted to play. I think you can say he's a lot about ball possession, and only the last season he tried more direct play as a plan B. But that's because Ajax had to deal with a lot of defending playing opponents. Ajax of course also plays with wingers. A lot of supporters were disappointed that De Boer choose many times for wingers on "their wrong side" (left footed on the right side). Not like Ajax used to play. He's very much influenced by Barca in that (and Cruijff as an advisor in his first year). So.. it's interesting if he'll leave that philosophy behind when working for another club. I do believe he does have a huge personal contribution in how he organizes his defenders. Even mediocre ones. He already did as a player. @ chalkpie I think i answered your question too. And of course the name stands for another genius named Johan.

Your welcome. I think you can compare them at some level. Both are influenced by Cruijff and Van Gaal btw, but are totally the opposite of Van Gaal's temper with (mistrust of) the press. Maybe Koeman is more businesslike and has more distance from his players, and De Boer is closer in a sense that he alway want to participate (like Cruijff). As a trainer he's also very strict on details (like Van Gaal). I think Koeman is more an observer and also about discipline. Through the years both Koeman and De Boer learned to be a bit more focussed on the result than their teacher Cruijff was, who only wanted to play the best and most entertaining football, and the results were more like an outcome of the good playing (just like Ajax fans want). De Boer is good in "building" a team, en making it play well organized. He's proven that many years now. Starting difficult with always loosing his best players, and before half season having a good organized team. De Boer is also a good peoples manager, and great with young players. He did have some trouble with some players who acted like they were the star though. He had trouble accepting prima donna behavior, and all those players eventually did not make it (no privileges for anyone). Of course Ajax has many "coming talents" It would be interesting to see how he cope's with players with an attitude in a bigger competition. The good thing is: he managed to create a real good calm mood in all his teams after eliminating the bad apples (is this good English or Van Gaal English ?). Almost never an incident in the press.

My pleasure, and yes i'm an Ajax fan.

Why? Just because of the big names? You clearly have no idea how they performed at Ajax. Stam showed very little tactical intelligence at Jong (Young) Ajax. Constantly selecting players with no future at Ajax (chance of reaching the 1st team) instead of the real talented ones. Bergkamp is known for being silent. Sure he will have influence on individuals (just like Stam has for defenders), but their value for Ajax has been nothing compared to Frank de Boer. I'd like to describe De Boer as very authentic in huge contrast with all the crazy behaving actors out there. No nonsense, honest, modest, calm and realistic in interviews but very driven and demanding (a true winner) and very normal. There are stories from people who were surprised by seeing him helping his wife out with her (furniture) store in his rare spare time. It must be a funny surpise to see Frank de Boer delivering some stuff at your house. Although most non Ajax supporters hate Ajax (jealousy i guess), almost no-one dislikes De Boer. Despite or maybe because his indepedent acting. Never saying crazy things in the press, never playing a role. Wearing his frown if not satisfied but not complaining, and despite his sloppy word choice contentwise alway saying the right thing (socially intelligent). In a very difficult time at Ajax (if you know the club, you know how difficult it can be working there), with the whole club fighting and a lot of negative press, he managed to keep his team out of it all, kept calm and won 4 titles in a row. While many people thought PSV had the better team. Every year building a new team, without complaint and making it work with not the best material (because Ajax did not want to spend big money anymore). That's a big achievement. Negative point is that many Ajax fans thought the team played too boring (and i agree). But Ajax is known for the very critical and spoiled fans: winning is not enough. If he'll come to Everton, he will bring Orlando Trustfull with him.