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The Englishmen who built Ajax

Themere sight of Ajax in a European final conjures images of Johan Cruyff, Rinus Michels and the philosophy of Total Football.

The Dutch duo rightly take the lion's share of credit for that glorious era yet two Englishmen who helped lay the foundations for the Amsterdam club's meteoric rise in the 1960s have been largely forgotten, particularly on these shores.

Jack Reynolds, a former Manchester City player, and Vic Buckingham, who played over 200 times for Tottenham, had five managerial spells between them at Ajax, across six decades, and the evidence of their work there can still be seen today.

Vic Buckingham, who played over 200 times for Tottenham, also made his name in Amsterdam

Reynolds had gone to Germany in 1914 to manage their national team. The Great War changed his plans and he fled across the border to Holland where, from 1915, he managed Ajax over three periods that traversed 27 years.

When he arrived, Ajax were a minor east Amsterdam club, who had never won a trophy. By the time he finally departed in 1947 they had won eight Dutch national championships and a KNVB Cup, elevating them to national prominence.

More importantly he had instilled in the club a belief in possession based, quick passing, attacking football that was quite different to that being played in his homeland.

Total Football conjures images ofJohan Cruyff, but Reynolds and Buckingham deserve credit

'For me the attack is and remains the best defence,' said Reynolds, who in training focused as much on skills and technique than on fitness and strength an approach that went against the status quo.

In many ways, though, Reynolds was still the typical Englishman. He wore a bowler hat and was known as 'good old Jack' or Sjek Rijnols. He was a strict disciplinarian, he learned Dutch and worked from eight every morning until 10 at night, not just with the first team but with every age group to ensure each player had imprinted upon them the Ajax mindset. It was the birth of club's fabled youth system.

Jany van der Veen, the youth coach who discovered Cruyff, considered him Ajax's greatest ever trainer and the club would later name a stand after him at their previous home, De Meer Stadium. He remained in Amsterdam until his death in 1962, by which point a slew of English managers had followed his path. From 1915 to 1965, no fewer than eight Englishmen managed the club.

In Holland they were much more receptive to Buckingham's radical coaching ideas

One of them was Buckingham, a flamboyant character who wore a trilby and counted Lulu and Sean Connery among his friends. His first stint came in 1959, and he won the Eredivisie in his maiden season.

Like Reynolds, he favoured the passing game and loathed the physical, long ball style that was common in England. 'Long ball football is too risky,' he said. 'If you've got the ball. keep it. Possession is nine tenths of the game.'

Buckingham had enjoyed success with West Bromwich Albion, with whom he almost won the first league and cup double of the 20th century, and later with Sheffield Wednesday, but English players often resisted his ideas.

Strikers, for example, did not understand why he wanted them to hold the ball up or lay it off to a team mate. Equally hard for them to comprehend was why Buckingham asked them to spend so much time on the ball in training.

If Ajax do upset the odds and defeat United, it will be thanks to Reynolds and Buckingham

A different attitude prevailed at Ajax, largely thanks to Reynolds, and Buckingham delighted in working with players who were receptive to his methods. The Londoner believed players shouldn't be shackled to their positions, that any player could do anything and that football should flow 'like ice cream and chocolate.'

If a player found himself out of his position, Buckingham saw no cause for alarm. He simply told his players that a team mate would move in to fill the space they had vacated. Watching Ajax's players master his philosophy delighted him.

'Two of them would go down the left side of the field passing to each other,' he recalled. 'Just boom boom boom, and they'd go 30 yards and two men would have cut out three defenders and created a vast acreage of space.'

So influential was Reynolds, a stand was named after him at Ajax's old De Meer Stadium

Most of all, he believed football was a form of entertainment. Buckingham had played for Tottenham at the same time as Bill Nicholson and Arthur Rowe both of whom would go on to be visionary managers copy van cleef arpels bracelet and he was a disciple of the club's famous 'push and run' style whereby players' bracelet knock off van cleef responsibilities and positions were fluid.

Unlike his peers, Buckingham was not dictatorial. He frequently asked players for their views and took a keen interest in them as people, not just as footballers. He was also eager to expose them to new styles of play and fresh ideas, inviting teams from around Europe to play friendlies against his side.

Buckingham would give Cruyff his debut in 1964, in his second stint at the club, and the pair's van cleef and arpels bracelet fake careers would follow similar paths, with both going on to manage Barcelona. Similarly, the great Michels played under Reynolds. All four would allow themselves a smile should Ajax, still sticking to the virtues of youth and passing football, defeat Manchester United in the Europa League final.

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