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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Sport
Barry Glendenning

Ajax and a potential title choke of apocalyptic proportions

Ajax’s Anton Gaaei does the right thing and covers his face after the costly draw.
Ajax’s Anton Gaaei (centre) does the right thing and covers his face after the costly draw. Photograph: Robin van Lonkhuijsen/EPA

A-YIKES!

Denied a nail-biting denouement by the Best League In The World™, where the champions and relegated sides were all but mathematically confirmed about 15 matches ago, more than a few Premier League observers have spent the past couple of weeks glancing towards the Netherlands while exhibiting hitherto unprecedented symptoms of a malaise Football Daily is diagnosing as Eredivisie Envy. For so long the neglected cousin of Europe’s Big Five, the Dutch top flight is largely left to its own devices while its English, Spanish, German, Italian and French relatives chew the fat at European football’s Big Boy table, only diverting their attention towards the low countries when it comes to hoovering up emerging talent. On Wednesday, however, the pancake-flat land of tulips, wooden footwear and uncomfortably forthright conversation stole continental headlines as European heavyweights Ajax completed their latest pratfall en route to what could be one of the most apocalyptic chokes in football history.

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