Is it time for Ajax Cape Town to leave the nest and fly solo?
Their relationship with parent club Ajax Amsterdam has hit the rocks again.
Ari Efstathiou’s decision to suspend technical director Hans Vonk indefinitely after a reported fight with a youth team coach, has not gone down well with the Dutch.
Coach Andries Ulderink moved his decision to leave at the end of the season to immediately and jumped ship last Friday.
SUSPENDED: Director Hans Vonk
And over in Holland, Ajax chiefs Edwin van der Sar and Marc Overmars are biding their time.
I wonder where the parties stand in this debacle going
forward.
Ajax was founded 21 years on the understanding that the Cape satellite would expand the
progressive philosophy of the European giants.
The Dutch would pass on the expertise and ethos that brought them four Champions League titles and the football stars that gave the world Total Football.
In return, the South Africans would mine the best talent in the region and keep Ajax well-stocked with the cream of the crop.
That deal was sealed with Benni McCarthy.
But other than Steven Pienaar, Daylon Claasen and Eyong Enoh in the 2000s and Thulani Serero in the last decade, there have been few talents who have made it, even though Ajax players are still sought after in the PSL.
If this is the bottom line of the relationship between Cape Town and Amsterdam, the line has flatlined.
Since the Efstathious took control of the club in a 2013 split with the Comitises, there has been little progress to those European standards.
BRAVE DECISION: CEO Ari Efstathiou.
There were some happy moments along the way, when Roger de Sa led the team to MTN8 glory in 2015 after missing out on the Nedbank Cup just a couple of months earlier.
But then came the disastrous relegation in 2017.
And the Dutch seemed to have taken a more hands-on approach at Ikamva.
One can only wonder what they are thinking now with those Dutch agents being defied in the Cape, having given the Urban Warriors the chance to get out of their NFD hell by leading them to the top of the log.
I wonder just how well Ajax Cape Town would do without the Dutch brand behind them.
The best thing for them is for the Ajaxes to make up and get on with the business of football.
But if Ikamva still wants to be relevant without the Dutch, they have to get back to the PSL and start producing the players.