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In an interview with Kale & Kokkie, Alex Kroes, the technical director who has left Ajax, spoke at length about his relationship with Francesco Farioli. Kroes appointed the passionate Italian, but also parted ways with the successful manager after a successful season.
“The Farioli season is now regarded as brilliant,” Kroes reflects in the video. “I say this without any negativity towards Francesco, because I still have a very good relationship with him.”
“I spoke to him at length just this weekend and I’m heading to Porto soon,” explains the former technical director. Farioli has been working at FC Porto since last season and is on course to win the league title in Portugal.
“There’s absolutely no issue there. I also find it irritating at times that certain quarters suggested that he and I were at loggerheads or that it’s my fault he’s no longer at Ajax. Well, f*ck you. That’s really not the case!”
"But a foreign manager is actually treated unfairly all the time in the Netherlands," Kroes makes his point. "Throughout the season, there was a lot of criticism of his style of play."
"That came from within and from outside, all sorts of quarters. I noticed he wasn’t immune to it either. It was a wrong assumption on my part, but I thought: a foreign coaching staff doesn’t realise what’s going on around them."
Farioli left Ajax after a year, not because he wasn’t happy there – on the contrary, Kroes agrees. He feared that, given Ajax’s financial situation, he would have to pull off a ‘Houdini act’ to match the success of his first season.
"He said: 'I’m afraid you’ll have to sack me in October or November,'" said Kroes. "I’ve managed to get the most out of the team this year, but my key players might be leaving. Think of Brian Brobbey and Kenneth Taylor."
For Farioli, it was ‘a matter of simple arithmetic’. “He thought: this isn’t going to work out for me. I won’t be able to repeat what I’ve achieved this season for another year.” Kroes delves deeper into the Italian’s departure.
"People make joking remarks about the cook, for example," he says, referring to the professionalisation Farioli wanted to implement. "The truth is also that Francesco thought it would be a piece of cake."
"He’s worked in countries where that was easier, such as Turkey. In practice, given Dutch legislation, replacing someone isn’t that simple. On top of that, we were in the midst of a round of cutbacks, during which fifty people were made redundant."
For Farioli, it all wasn’t happening fast enough. “We appointed someone, but they still had a two-month notice period. ‘Can’t they start sooner?’ Farioli wanted to know. No, that’s not possible. The difficult thing is that, for him, it was somehow inexplicable.”