Johan Cruyff by Auke Kok

Author:Auke Kok [Kok, Auke]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-06-09T00:00:00+00:00

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Cruyff had stuck his neck out for the others and now, in Zeist, he presented himself as an extension to Rinus Michels in a positive sense. ‘I’m up for it,’ he said, without mincing his words. Although he hated the ‘unnatural’ isolation of a training camp, far from his family, he willingly subjected himself to the tough, almost military-style training programme imposed by the supervisor of the (provisional) squad. Given the pressure of time, it was all or nothing, and Cruyff liked that. Anyone who turned out to be unfit or not up to scratch could clear off right away. ‘Michels shuts everyone up,’ said the captain combatively. ‘Including the officials. The players notice that and it makes an impression.’

Danny needn’t have been fearful of friction between Johan and the many Ajax players in the squad. His former teammates had a poor year behind them and were glad to have been called on for the Dutch team at all. After Cruyff’s departure Ajax had pretty much collapsed. Without his brilliant passing and his (irritating to some) shouting on the pitch, the team had lost its cohesion, and it seemed no one had the authority, the energy and the iron will to assume his role. In the European Cup the team had been eliminated in the second round by CSKA Sofia, a club that a year before, with Johan, they had beaten easily.

Johan showed no desire to avenge what the Ajax players had done to him a year earlier. In fact, a dominant clique of Amsterdammers soon formed around him. With so little time to put together a decent team, there was no room for lengthy consultation. You were in or you were out, and ‘Amsterdam’ was clearly in. The former street kids who had managed to hold their own in the Ajax changing room, dominated as it was by merciless jokes, set the tone. They sought each other out and the others, including the mature Feyenoorders Van Hanegem and Israël, joined them. The rest silently adapted. They had no other option.

The battle plan on the pitch had a lot of Amsterdam in it too. Roughly speaking, Oranje was going to play a risky version of Ajax’s total football, attacking even more. Cruyff was more than content with that, and his influence as captain grew by the day. After a while it was he who called the shots on the days when Michels was in Barcelona, rather than one of the assistant coaches. The self-assured captain hinted at his preferences and Michels took more account of them than he was in the habit of doing at Barcelona. Who was Johan talking with or not talking with? To whom did he pass the ball in training matches and who was forced to chase after it? The former brat from Betondorp commanded little tricks like that with the best of them. He used his captaincy almost like a gang boss: anyone who wasn’t with him was against him. You did well to stay on his good side.

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