What the hell is going on at Ajax?! Fans destroying their own stadium, off-field chaos and an investigation into dodgy transfer dealings

On-field humiliation against their fiercest rivals proved to be the final straw, but tensions between Ajax's board and the club's supporters have been brewing for months. The cycle of backroom chaos that has engulfed De Godenzonen recently began back in February 2022, when director of football Marc Overmars left his role after sending a "series of inappropriate messages to several female colleagues".

Upon departing, Overmars said: "Last week I was confronted with reports about my behaviour and how this has come across to others. Unfortunately I didn't realise that I was crossing the line with this, but that was made clear to me in recent days. I apologise. Certainly for someone in my position this behaviour is unacceptable. I now see that but it is too late. I see no other option but to leave Ajax."

While supervisory board chairman Leen Meijaard asserted that Overmars continuing in his role would not have been right, he also described him as "the best football director Ajax has had", with then-CEO Edwin van der Sar echoing this sentiments.

Overmars' abrupt departure left the club with a power vacuum to fill, particularly in the recruitment department. This is where a significant amount of their future issues would stem from.

Overmars' departure was quickly followed by the exit of Erik ten Hag, who opted to take over at Manchester United last summer. During his time in Amsterdam, Ten Hag won the Eredivisie title in each of his three full seasons, as well as leading Ajax to the Champions League semi-finals in 2019. He also helped develop a host of young players, including Frenkie de Jong, Matthijs de Ligt and Donny van de Beek - all of whom would be sold on for huge profits to top European sides.

So, while the club would have preferred the highly-successful coach to stay on, he left Ajax in a pretty healthy position. In summer 2022, they were the dominant power domestically and boasted a healthy bank balance to make the squad even better too.

Ten Hag would even go on to further strengthen his former employer's hand by convincing United to pay a combined €160 million (£139m/$170m) for Antony and Lisandro Martinez. Along with the transfer fees received for Sebastien Haller and Ryan Gravenberch that summer, they equipped Ajax with even more financial muscle to complete their rebuild.

With Overmars not replaced, transfer dealings were handled by Klaus-Jan Huntelaar and Gerry Hamstra. The pair went big by Eredivisie standards, paying a league-record fee to Tottenham for Steven Bergwijn while also spending big on Rangers defender Calvin Bassey and RB Leipzig frontman Brian Bobbey.

Tasked with getting a tune out of this new-look squad was Alfred Schreuder and, to cut a long story short, he failed to do so. Eventually, a run of six straight league draws between November and January, alongside a disappointing Champions League group-stage exit, led to his dismissal.

Johnny Heitinga was his replacement, though he did not fare much better, with Ajax eventually finishing a distant third in the Eredivisie, crashing out of the Europa League knockout round play-offs to Union Berlin and losing the KNVB Cup final to Feyenoord on penalties.

Of the big-money summer signings, Brobbey and Bergwijn showed promise without setting the world alight, while Bassey became a figure of ridicule in the media due to his error-strewn displays. It was clear that something fairly drastic was required the following summer.

In Ajax's defence, they realised this before the season was even out, finally recruiting Sven Mislintat as their new director of football in March 2023. On paper, it seemed like a smart appointment.

During his time as Borussia Dortmund's chief scout, the German earned the name 'Diamantenauge' (Diamond Eye) due his uncanny ability to spot gems, with Robert Lewandowski, Ousmane Dembele, Mats Hummels and Jadon Sancho among the players he identified.

However, his reputation nosedived after he was recruited to perform a similar role at Arsenal. During his spell at the Emirates between 2017 and 2019, he was criticised for an overreliance on signing former Dortmund players, with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Sokratis and Henrikh Mkhitaryan all joining the club while Mislintat was there and enjoying variable levels of success. Then again, he did take credit for shortlisting William Saliba in an interview with The Athletic.

In that same conversation he said: "To be quite clear: I don’t feel ashamed of any of those transfers, on the contrary, I will always defend these guys. Not because they were my players but because they were Arsenal players and capable ones."

After leaving Arsenal he performed well at Stuttgart, helping the club secure an immediate return to the Bundesliga in his role as sporting director, and was linked with Liverpool at one point before Ajax snapped him up.

Mislintat wasted little time this summer. As is often the case at Ajax, there were further departures, with Jurrien Timber, Mohammed Kudus and Edson Alvarez all being flipped for sizeable profits to Premier League clubs.

There were plenty of incomings too - 12 to be exact. The majority were young players unproven at the very top level but with the potential to be sold on for significant profits further down the line. Josip Sutalo, 23, cost the most from Dinamo Zagreb, closely followed by Georges Mikautadze from Metz and Carlos Borges from Manchester City - 22 and 19 respectively. Ajax also snapped up PFA Championship Players' Player of the Year Chuba Akpom following his 28-goal season for Middlesbrough, while Croatian Borna Sosa arrived from Mislinatat's former club Stuttgart (more on that later).

By the time the transfer window had closed, Ajax had spent over €100m (£87m/$106m) on new players, a quite remarkable amount by Eredivisie standards. Several of the transfers also involved the controversial agent Vlado Lemic, who was implicated in a tax-fraud case involving the renegotiation of Luka Modric's Real Madrid contract in 2018.

The season started off positively enough in the form of a 4-1 victory over Heracles Almelo, but seven days later, Ajax stuttered to a disappointing 2-2 draw away at lowly Excelsior.

Spirits were then raised as they made it through a Europa League qualification tie against Ludogorets, but this was quickly forgotten thanks to a goalless draw at Fortuna Sittard, a sickening 3-1 loss to Twente and a 3-3 Europa League draw with Marseille. This meant that heading into that crunch Feyenoord derby, Ajax were without a win in four games.

Alongside these on-pitch struggles, an off-field battle was raging between Mislintat and new head coach Maurice Steijn, poached in the summer from Sparta Rotterdam. The first signs of trouble appeared in the aftermath of the Fortuna Sittard draw. When quizzed by reporters on how much input he'd had on the club's spate of summer signings, Steijn responded: "We as staff put forward our ideas, but [Mislintat] has made different choices."

And while the Ajax coach spoke positively about the addition of Sutalo, whom he even handed the captain's armband to on his debut in the absence of Bergwijn, he showed his displeasure at some of Mislintat's other signings in the Feyenoord game.

Steijn left seven of the 12 new arrivals on the bench for De Klassieker, while defender Anton Gaaei - a summer recruit from Viborg - was hauled off after little over 30 minutes. And, if that had not sent a clear enough message to the director of football, Sosa was replaced by youngster Anass Salah-Eddine instead of August arrival Gaston Avila at half-time.

In Steijn's defence, it's little surprise that he wanted to make a point to Mislintat against Feyenoord. Just a day earlier, Mislintat had stunned club employees by storming into various offices and openly discussing the potential sacking of the coach if the team lost on Sunday.

It was a particularly shocking move, as Mislintat was, in the words of supervisory board chairman Pier Eringa, supposed to be "operating in the shadows" for the time being.

Ajax were given little choice but to sideline their director of football following the shocking allegations first published by NOSlast Wednesday. That report alleged that the club's deadline-day purchase of Sosa represented a serious conflict of interests on Mislintat's part.

Sosa is represented by an agency, AKA Global, which is owned by Arthur Beck and Kerim Cerit. Beck and Cerit have shares in Mislintat's commercial data systems company, Matchmetrics GmbH, meaning the deal appeared to contravene Ajax's own corporate governance practices.

In a statement, the club said: "Ajax is not aware of any shareholding that AKA Global GmbH has in Matchmetrics. We have of course discussed this with Sven. He has provided a detailed explanation of this.

"Sven has stated that an investment round took place in 2020 in which various parties invested in Matchmetrics. When making the agreements regarding the investment, it was immediately agreed that this loan would be converted to a three percent shareholding at a later time, according to Sven."

In light of the investigation into the Sosa deal, his conflict with Steijn and the discontent among the fanbase, it was little surprise when Ajax released a statement confirming that Mislintat would be departing the football club on Sunday evening.

However, in typically confused fashion, it was far from a clean exit. The club initially stated that the director of football was leaving by mutual consent, but they later revised their statement.

"Ajax has ended the collaboration with director of football Sven Mislintat with immediate effect. The lack of broad support within the organisation is the reason behind this decision," the newer press release read. "The club's management emphasises that ending the collaboration is unrelated to the forensic accountant investigation announced last Wednesday."

Interim CEO Jan van Halst added: "Several attempts to restore board support have not led to the desired outcome. This leads to unrest in and around the club, also due to the disappointing results. Sven has put in tremendous effort for Ajax in recent months, for which we are grateful. It is now in Ajax's best interest to move on with joined forces and find its way back to sporting success."

With Ajax sat 14th in the table and at their lowest point in recent memory, one man above all others has been touted to be parachuted in and save the day: Louis van Gaal. Rafael van der Vaart said as much after the Feyenoord game.

"Louis is, of course, the ideal man for Ajax. His hands are itchy," Van der Vaart said while working as a pundit. "This club needs clarity. If anyone likes clarity, it’s Louis. I would not be surprised if within the next few days they seriously consider reaching out to him. You could give him that, because he really wants the best for Ajax."

Recently, Van Gaal ruled out a return to club coaching as he continues treatment for prostate cancer, telling NOS: "My health comes first."

However, although Van Gaal would not be willing to replace Steijn, he may be tempted to help the club out in an advisory capacity. After all, few people on the planet know Ajax better than the Iron Tulip, and with the club clearly lacking strong leadership on and off the pitch - Van der Sar's replacement, Alex Kroes, is not even scheduled to take over until March - he is unlikely to experience the kind of fractious power struggles that have characterised his legendary career.

Before Ajax can focus on replacing Mislintat, they need to formulate a plan to cool their furious fanbase. Turning results around will go a long way to achieving this.

With the director of football gone, Steijn - who reportedly retains the support of the board for now - has one less issue to deal with, but he is yet to convince that he can get a tune of of the squad, many of whom it appears he did not even want to sign.

If results do not improve, expect to see him turfed out. It may seem brutal, but by Dutch standards, Ajax have a mammoth wage bill and it's not unreasonable to expect them to win the title every season.

In the even shorter-term, the abandoned De Klassieker will need to be finished too. After Sunday's game, Feyenoord boss Arne Slot neatly summed up the tricky issues at play in the rearrangement.

"You can play on with a crowd, I don't think that's the most realistic option," the Feyenoord coach told ESPN. "That leaves two options: to play on without a crowd or for it to be a win for us. Playing on without a crowd is just as good that if we stop, in both cases it is league foul play."

Slot added: "Ajax played last Thursday, we played last Tuesday. Not only were they struggling mentally, but also physically their rest phase was now going to start. If we then have to start catching up somewhere now - if not very soon but also for a long time - it is league distortion anyway. It already is because this has happened, and now the question is what the KNVB is going to do to minimise it."

A precedent for this type of situation was set last season when several Groningen games that were abandoned due to crowd trouble were completed behind closed doors from the minute play was stopped. The KNVB have scheduled the match to restart in an empty stadium on Wednesday, but Ajax are threatening legal action given they are meant to be playing FC Volendam on the same day. They claim the Feyenoord match should not restart until November.

Regardless of how the game is eventually concluded, this has been a depressing few days for one of the best-known clubs in world football. It's genuinely difficult to see where they go from here, but they need to formulate a plan to regain their place at the summit of Dutch football.