FORMER CHELSEA BOSS GRAHAM POTTER TURNS DOWN AJAX JOB
Former Chelsea and Brighton boss Graham Potter has turned down the opportunity to become Ajax’s next head coach, Sky Sports reported early Monday morning.
Potter’s decision to turn down the Dutch giants has begun speculation that the Englishman could be holding out for a head coaching gig at Manchester United. The managerial job at United is far from “safe” with rumours surrounding current United boss Erik ten Hag’s future after this season growing every week.
The United Stand’s Sam Cohen reported earlier on Sunday that Potter’s move to Amsterdam appeared imminent as both sides recently held meetings. Cohen reported that the most recent meeting included representatives from sports agency Wasserman, Ajax FC and another group of undisclosed individuals as links to Potter resurfaced.
According to reports, Potter isn’t interested in joining Ajax at this time, considering the turmoil within the Dutch club at the moment. The club has seen unprecedented instability for the first time in decades and hasn’t found a replacement for former boss Erik ten Hag since his move to Manchester in 2022.
The 36-time Dutch champions are enduring another turbulent season and currently sit 6th in the Eredivisie, just a day after they suffered a 6-0 thrashing to rivals Feyenoord. Ajax are now 15 points off the top three with five matches and could be out of the Champions League next season. Instead, the Amsterdam-based club are set to have to go through a Conference League play-off in order to qualify for European football.
The club has also had its problems upstairs and was forced to suspend CEO Alex Kroes last week, just two weeks after he took over the executive job from former Manchester United legend Edwin van der Sar.
Kroes was accused of insider trading as the club learned that the former AZ Alkmaar Director of International Football Strategy had purchased 17,000 shares of Ajax a week before his intended appointment as the club’s CEO was announced on August 2nd, 2023. He took over the Chief Executive Officer job at Ajax on March 15th due to his contractual situation with former employers AZ Alkmaar.
According to multiple reports, the club suspended Kroes with the intention of terminating his contract although a club statement said the club’s Supervisory Board will still make the final decision regarding the dismissal.
As for the head coaching dilemma, Ajax have been without a permanent manager since the club sacked manager Maurice Steijn in October and have been shopping for a replacement over the past five months. John van ’t Schip has been the interim charge since and is set to remain as the club’s head coach until the end of the season.
Ajax did not, reportedly, have contact with any other potential managerial candidates and had prioritized Potter, making the 48-year-old head coach their no.1 target. The club will now have to look elsewhere to get their permanent head coach for the 2024/25 season, although retaining van ‘t Schip on a permanent role isn’t out of the question.
Potter has been without a job since April 2023 when he was sacked by Chelsea after seven months in charge and has already turned down three head coaching chances, including the Ajax job. The Solihull-born manager turned down the opportunity to coach French club Lyon last September and again turned down the Swedish FA when they offered him the Swedish national team head coaching job in November.
The Irish Independent reported on Monday that although Potter is currently unemployed, he is ‘ready’ to get back into management and is simply waiting for ‘the right job.’
-Maher Abucheri
Twitter: @pabloikonyero
Photo: James Boyes. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.