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The Dutch League

[Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 1,480
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in Football #1
We have seen a hugely improved German league who may be the most dominant again this season in the champions league. More money is being injected in to Italy and a certain French team is buying big.

My dad was a big fan of Johan Cruyff and always had a soft spot for Ajax. Watched a quite a number of their games. Ajax has got a very good academy but find it difficult to keep players as it seems they don't have the big money of the Premiership.

Will the Netherlands league ever make a challenge again with Ajax or another team as a strong contender for the Champions League. I personally would like to see Ajax competing again but I think they are way behind.

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  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 216
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    #2
    I enjoy watching a bit of the Eredivisie in my spare time. It's good stuff to watch and there's not so much emphasis on defence as in the other European leagues, meaning there's usually a lot of goals to watch and decent attack based games.

    I like to look out for Utrecht's results, won me a few bets last year :D
  • rupert_pupkinrupert_pupkin Posts: 3,975
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    #3
    I used to watch a lot of the eriedivisie in my younger days when it was shown on channel 4 or 5 in the middle of the night. I remember the Ajax team with pienaar, heitinga, van der vaart, sneijder, Ryan babel etc i remember Arouna Kone at Roda JC he was unbelievable. I used to watch a lot of the French league aswell, I enjoyed it all

    I havent seen anything from those leagues for years. Do they even show eriedivisie or ligue 1 highlights anymore? Or is it just that its still on in the middle of the night and I'm in bed?
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 1,480
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    #4
    Know what you mean about defence. Really would like to see another great Ajax team.
  • sodavlacsodavlac Posts: 10,607
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    #5
    At the moment you've got to think it would be difficult. Still, never say never.

    The way things are currently, for a Dutch side to become a consistent challenger for the Champs League I would think they'd need a sugar daddy of their own so that not only would they be able to buy in talent, but arguably more importantly they'd be able to keep the talent the club had produced.

    A one-off appearance in the final or even victory seems like the best chance right now, perhaps similar to 2004 where we had a Porto v Monaco final that not many would have predicted at the start of the tournament with some of the players maybe going under the radar as far as the richer clubs went. As soon as they won or got to the final though, they'd likely be stripped of their better players in this day and age so I doubt there'd be a repeat. After the final already mentioned Porto lost Deco, Paulo Ferreira, Ricardo Carvalho and Pedro Mendes as well as Mourinho of course! The following year Nuno Valente, Costinha, Maniche, Carlos Alberto and Derlei also left for one reason or another which left just 2 players who had started in the final at the club. It might not be that be that dramatic, but unless the finances of Dutch clubs dramatically grow I think we'd see a similar thing happening if one did win it or get to the final in the near future.
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