Dulling of the brilliant orange

It is midnight in Lisbon, April 1972. Thanks to a goalless draw, Ajax have just qualified for their second European Cup Final in a row.

They're five points clear in the league and closing in on another Dutch title, and they will be in the cup final as well. The weekend before the semi-final, Cruyff and his mates have crushed Feyenoord in Rotterdam 5-1. Time for celebrations you would think.

Not really, the Dutch press is complaining about the lack of brilliance in the team's performance in Portugal. It was not the hoped for masterclass.

And so the board of directors at Ajax decide in an emergency meeting to fire coach Stefan Kovacs.

Rinus Michels had ruled with an iron fist and the Romanian has taken an opposite approach. Assistant Grijzenhout and doctor Rolink complain about the lack of discipline and the board agrees that this is no way to run a professional club.

However, the players stick behind their coach and Kovacs makes it to the end of next season.

It is one of several interesting anecdotes in a book about one of the best club teams in European football history. Writer Menno de Galan spoke with insiders, players, journalists and board members, delving into the archives of the Ajax of 1964-1974 to discover what made the club tick in those days.

Was there a genius behind it, a masterplan to lead Ajax to the top of the world? De Galan can't find anything to support such an idea.

It was by fortune that inexperienced Rinus Michels took over from Vic Buckingham in 1964 to save the club from relegation.

Michels had a mere hunch that the talents of Piet Keizer and young Johan Cruyff might make a successful team.

Once kindhearted as a player, Michels became a disciplinarian coach, keeping a distance from the players. While citizens of Western Europe and Holland in particular were into protests, democracy and free will, Michels went the other way.

He ruled the squad like he was working in elementary school. The players hated it, but had to comply. Those who did not agree had to go. At the start of the 1970-71-season Michels decided to do away with his dictatorial reign and started a life as a nice uncle. The players loved it, but results dropped.

Within months, captain Vasovic asked the coach to return to his usual demeanour. So he did, but now the team was no longer afraid of him. They now realised that success could only be achieved by ruthlessness. Michels had known that all along and had let all the overplaying defenders go.

The tough guys remained, making the team a successful mixture of style, grit and determination. He then added stamina into the midfield with running technician Gerrie Mühren joining destroyers Nico Rijnders and Johan Neeskens.

'Total Football' was born. It took Rinus Michels six to seven years to create it. Kovacs aided in its blossoming before Michels fine-tuned it at the 1974 World Cup.

With Johan Cruyff at the heart of success, that surely must made him a popular player in Holland, you would think. Not so. His years at Ajax were a litany of incidents widely plastered all over the papers.

Cruyff never had much education, yet learned on the street and developed an intuitive logic with which he won almost every discussion. He would not, and still will never, give in - to most people's annoyance. As a 17-year old he was telling internationals how to play.

In business he did not have a clue at first but later, in a co-operative with father-in-law Cor Coster, he would turn the Dutch football world around. They were the first to use the press for arguments with the board, mainly about money. Cruyff started to take advantage of his importance for club and country.

When wife Danny opened a stylish shoe shop in Amsterdam, the pair would often take the plane to Milan to buy the newest fashions. This made him miss a World Cup qualifier against Bulgaria, the last chance for a ticket to Mexico '70. It ended in a draw, which meant the world had to wait another four years for the 'Brilliant Orange' to emerge.

He was often rather conveniently injured when it suited him.

Of the forty international games Holland played during the heyday of Cruyff at Ajax (1966-1973), the master would earn only 21 caps.

It wasn't just Cruyff to blame. Few of the Ajax and Feyenoord players, all European Cup winners at the start of the seventies, liked to play for the Dutch team. Discussions about money used to hover over most international games, creating a negative image of the national team.

At the end of 1971, with both club teams at their peak, a friendly against Scotland in Amsterdam saw the Olympic Stadium only a third full.

That same year Rinus Michels left for Barcelona while Cruyff extended his contract for seven years. He now earned twice as much as his team-mates, about £10,000 per annum.

Still, the main source of his income was marketing and commercials. Cruyff had flirted with Barcelona that summer, but now seemed happy to remain in Amsterdam for several years.

The 71-72-season was a resounding success, but the next year it all started to turn sour. Cruyff was often injured and, as they kept winning, his team-mates started to think they could do without him.

Things came to a head before the second leg of a European Cup game against Bayern Munich in March '73. It looked a dead rubber after a 4-0 win in Amsterdam, but it would be the start of the end of Cruyff at Ajax.

He had a slight injury in the weeks before and consulted his own doctor, who stated it was better he did not play against the German champion. Ajax doctor Rolink disagreed and told the board Cruyff should travel with the squad. Cruyff, afraid of complications to his knee injury, refused to come.

Chairman Van Praag told the press he was angry with his star player, but there were no repercussions from the club. For the players it was just one time to many. They were fed up with the shenanigans surrounding their captain.

At the start of the new season the squad traditionally voted for a captain. This year there were two candidates: Cruyff and Piet Keizer. Now it was payback time.

By the smallest of margins Cruyff was ousted as leader and Keizer installed. It was a definite shift of power in the team. Within an hour Cruyff spoke to Cor Coster on the phone to instigate Escape Plan A: making contact with Barcelona again. A ban on foreign players in Spain had been lifted and the Catalans were keen to sign him.

It took a month. Cruyff took off to join Rinus Michels by the Mediterranean Sea. Ajax thought they would manage, but the spark in the team was gone.

Now dollar signs flashed in the eyes of the players. Cruyff had shown there was money to earn abroad. They all wanted a piece of that. Suddenly everyone felt severely underpaid at Ajax. The team slowly disintegrated after a good start in the league.

What had taken Michels seven years to build was destroyed within a few months.

'De Trots van de Wereld - Michels, Cruijff en het Gouden Ajax' by Menno de Galan is published by Uitgeverij Bert Bakker.

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