AJAX ’ S NEW BOSSES SEEK STABILITY
AJAX Cape Town say their major challenge in the short term is to bring stability to a club that has resembled a revolving door for both coaches and players in the last few years.
The club has signed 26 players in the previous two seasons, but just 10 of those remain on the club’s books, the other 16 having already left for pastures new.
That constant chopping and changing of playing personnel has provided little in the way of continuity and contributed to successive finishes outside the top eight.
They also had four coaches last season and were in real danger of finishing in the relegation places before a late surge under Muhsin Ertugral took them to safety.
Ari Efstathiou, who along with his brothers Nick and Alexi, now own 49% of the club after a buyout of the Comitis brothers, says the days of a massive turnover in playing and coaching staff is over.
“Our immediate objective is to bring stability to the club, in the boardroom, among management, within the PSL team and the entire club staff. We have inherited a very unstable structure and we want to clean that up quickly,” Efstathiou said.
“We have spoken with the players and all the staff and told them nobody is leaving, there will just be a slight change at management level. We cannot announce this yet because we need to discuss it with Ajax Amsterdam and they have been on holiday this week.”
Efstathiou did confirm that for now Alexi would be in charge of operations, while he would act as club spokesman.
Ertugral has been handed a three-year contract, but Efstathiou suggests they are realistic about how quickly success might come.
“We have a winning mentality, we want to be a top-four club in South Africa. But we are realistic about where we find ourselves. You cannot just switch on a plug and say to Muhsin, ‘ you must be successful from tomorrow’.
“We haven’t given him a mandate but ultimately we want to win. If he can be here for the next 10 years that would be great for our stability as a club. We have not won the league title and Muhsin has not won the league, so there is a lot of ambition to be successful.”
Meanwhile, the club has also confirmed the signing of former striker Nathan Paulse, who has already had two previous spells with them. He left SuperSport United at the end of last season.