The aftermath...failure or blessing?

The play-offs are finally over, Ajax fizzled out with a lackluster performance yesterday and have been relegated to the UEFA cup despite holding 2nd place in the Eredivsie this year. We all saw it or have read about it at this point, and the game wasn't really much to write about, so I'll keep my comments about the game to a minimum. There were numerous hard fouls by Twente, subsequent missed opportunities on free kicks by Ajax, questionable substitutions by Koster, and in the end a very disappointing but rather predictable end to a very long season. FC Twente is a good team, lets hope they can keep their momentum going through the Champions League and make an impact for the Eredivisie's sake.

This brings up the question of how bad this loss really is for Ajax. Sure, the CL means a ton of money coming your way and the possibility of playing some of Europe's best clubs, but looking at the status of Ajax right now and thinking about how this team is going to look in the fall, is another early exit from the CL really worth it? Is the UEFA cup a better situation for a team with an ego that you can only describe as "fragile" at this point and that will most likely only be worse off in a few months? But then again, as a fan of a proud team with a tradition like Ajax, shouldn't we always want them to strive to win at the highest level of competition? Is thinking about this situation in practical terms like this a way of just giving up and a sign that we have just lost hope? Personally, I would have rather seen an Ajax victory yesterday so I wouldn't even be having these toughts at all. I want them in the CL, and I want them to be able to do what they did back in '02-'03 with a team that really wasn't any better than today's team. I want Eredivisie championships to be the norm, not a just a possibility. My worst fear is that this team is going to go through the same turmoil that Feyenoord has gone through over the past few years. Hopefully van Basten can turn the tide, and a decent showing in the UEFA cup will bring back the confidence that this team needs to get things rolling again.

Fuck de Play-offs