25 September, Amsterdam, Netherlands.

The seventh round of the Eredivisie is being played inside Ajax's Amsterdam Stadium, with Ajax hosting Zwolle.

There is a clear gap between the two teams, with Ajax currently third in the Eredivisie, behind Feyenoord and PSV Eindhoven, while Zwolle are bottom of the table and 18th in the Eredivisie.

At home, Ajax manager Pete Boss lined up in a four-three-three formation, with Younis, Zhang Yuning and Neres attacking trident in front, and Schönn in midfield, Klaassen and Ziyech in front.

Such a midfield lineup can be described as full of attacking power, and it has assembled the strongest attacking lineup of Ajax at the moment.

Chinese teenager Zhang Yuning's excellent performance in the Eredivisie this season, coupled with consecutive goals in World Cup qualifying, allowed him to temporarily stabilize his place in the first team at Ajax, however, after returning from the Asian Qinwang, he was a substitute in three consecutive games, and then started an hour in the Dutch Cup against Willem II, the team won 5-0, Zhang Yuning failed to score.

In this game against Zwolle, he was once again in the starting line-up.

Not known to the players and fans, in the VIP box of the Amsterdam Stadium, Gao Han, accompanied by Sergio Garcia and Xiao Mu, also watched the game live, accompanied by Van der Sar and other Ajax core executives, as well as Gao Han and Zhang Yuning's agent Jorge Mendes, and Ajax legend Van Gaal.

Among them, Van Gaal was specially invited by Gao Han.

"We are still very satisfied with Zhang Yuning's growth and progress, but in the end we are still relatively young and lack of experience in self-adjustment, so we traveled a long way to Asia and played in the World Cup qualifiers, and the state of coming back has been affected a little, but the current adjustment is good. ”

Van der Sar took the initiative to explain to Gao Han the current problems encountered by Zhang Yuning in the team.

Even though he is now promoted to the top of Ajax, Van der Sar still has great respect for Gao Han, his former mentor.

"How's the training?" asked Gao Han with concern.

"The attitude is very good, the body is recovering well, I believe I can adjust quickly. Van der Sar smiled slightly, "In addition, the team has also started to tailor the training plan for him, mainly the last shot and the adjustment before the shot, which we think will better improve his competitiveness." ”

Gao Han nodded, this treatment is only available to players who are focused on cultivating in the team, such as the former Ibrahimovic, Van der Vaart, Sneijder and other new star players, and from the fact that Ajax can focus on cultivation, it is not difficult to see that Ajax attaches great importance to Zhang Yuning.

This is not only Gao Han's strong recommendation, but also Mendes's operation, and of course, Zhang Yuning's own strength is indispensable.

Many people have a misunderstanding about Ajax, thinking that the Eredivisie giants are known for their youth training, which can be said to be true, but it is also not true, what Ajax is best at is carving semi-finished products.

If you take a closer look at Ajax's past youth output, it is not difficult to find that their favorite thing to do is to sourcing young semi-finished products from the Netherlands or around the world, these young players with potential already have the foundation to become professional footballers, and Ajax is responsible for upgrading them in the final stage and then selling them at a high price.

Ibrahimovic, Huntelaar, Suarez...... That's how many stars have walked out of Ajax.

The whole training process is an industrial chain, and the players are just a processed product in the chain, which is very cruel, and there may even be an impersonal relationship of survival of the fittest, but this is the way Ajax survives in European football, and there is no room for mercy.

As early as the beginning, when Gao Han suggested that Zhang Yuning join Ajax, he had already explained all the stakes clearly, and he also made the final choice to join Ajax and accept this challenge.

For him, if he loses, the big deal is to return to his original shape, and even with Ajax's gold plating, his market will be bullish, but if he wins, it will be a skyrocket.

…………

…………

Today's Ajax is long gone.

A group of players led by Ibrahimovic, Van der Vaart, and Sneijder represented the last glory of Ajax, and there were both foreign players like Ibrahimovic at that time, as well as outstanding local rookies like Van der Vaart and Sneijder, which created the strength of Ajax at that time.

But then Ajax sank year by year, although it also gave birth to players like Suarez and Huntelaar, but both in terms of results and momentum, they are inferior to Feyenoord and PSV Eindhoven, coupled with the turmoil in the club's management, the team's results are also greatly affected.

Until around 2010, the return of a group of legendary stars led by Cruyff, De Boer and Van der Sar reshaped Ajax and ushered in four consecutive championships, but at this time Ajax could only play prestige in Dutch football.

This season, Ajax vigorously promoted the reform of rejuvenation, and among the eleven players on the field in this game, nine were post-90s, and five players were post-95, which is indeed a very young team.

In this young team, Zhang Yuning, who is 97 years old, is undoubtedly the youngest.

However, Ajax did not start the game well, and in the first four minutes, Zwolle scored a goal from left winger Thomas and midfielder Bramma to score the first away goal.

Fortunately, four minutes later, Klaassen took advantage of a corner kick opportunity to assist 96-year-old Colombian central defender Davinson Sanchez to score a goal to successfully equalize the score, and Sanchez scored a brace in the 38th minute, assisted by Ziyech, to overtake the score.

Throughout the first half, Ajax suppressed Zwolle and frequently created chances, but it was a pity that whether it was Zhang Yuning in the front, or Younis and Neres, they failed to score in the end and frequently missed opportunities.

This made Gao Han in the box a little disappointed, but he also knew in his heart that Zhang Yuning was still young and lacked the ability to self-regulate in multi-front combat, which was also what Buenaventura had to deal with next.

"How's it going?" Van der Sar asked with a smile.

Gao Han nodded, "Very good, Klaassen, Ziyech, Sanchez, Schoen, all very good, the Neres in the front court has great potential, and it will definitely be another treasure if you cultivate it well." ”

Speaking of this, Gao Han turned his head and looked at Mendes, who was sitting next to Van der Sar, but secretly cocked his ears to eavesdrop, and said with a smile: "If my guess is correct, the two players Sanchez and Neres should have been introduced by Jorge, right?"

Van der Sar and Mendes were stunned for a moment, then looked at each other and smiled.

"I'll just say, he's very cunning, where can I hide from him?" Mendes laughed.

'When Ghazi moved to Lille in the summer, Jorge introduced us to Neres and we had a hard time signing him from Sao Paulo and we were all optimistic about him. Van der Sar nodded.

As the agency's business has grown bigger and bigger, Mendes has also begun to build his own scouting network, coupled with the rich experience accumulated over the years, so that he now rarely excavates and sourcs young players through the cold eye, usually within the company.

This is also a sign of the maturity of the brokerage company, and Gao Han is also very welcome to this.

From just a few words, Gao Han can also understand that in the cooperation between Mendes and Ajax this summer, Sanchez, Neres and Zhang Yuning are estimated to be tied together, which is also a norm in European football.

Thinking of this, Gao Han's eyes narrowed, his fiery eyes moved, and he swept over Neres and Zhang Yuning, who walked off the court.

"Judging from the performance in the first half, Neres is a very smart player, which is also the characteristic of many Brazilian players recently, the world economy is globalising, professional football is also globalising, and the Brazilian youth training is also improving in the wave of globalization, and many new generation players are no longer free to handle the ball, but more reasonable. ”

The crowd nodded their heads again and again, and this is indeed a trend.

Jesus, for example, who plays for Chinatown, has been doing well this season, but he doesn't belong to the traditional samba player traits, but is a bit European.

Neres is a bit like Jesús and about the same age, but overall, Jesús is better.

"He's smart enough, he's very calm, he rarely puts himself in a very uncomfortable, difficult environment to handle the ball, and he knows how to cooperate with his teammates, but his physical fitness is a little poor, I think he should be properly strengthened, and his scoring ability should also be properly improved, and in less than three years, he will be successful. ”

Mendes and Van der Sar glanced at each other, both seeing surprise in each other's eyes.

Obviously, this is the first time Gao Han has watched Nerres' game, but as a result, it only took half time for him to think about Nerres's strengths and weaknesses so thoroughly, and even gave a development plan for the next three years.

Combined with the results of Ajax's careful research and investigation in the past few months, it is found that it is very close to what Gao Han said, and the only slight difference is physical fitness, and Ajax believes that there is no need to strengthen it.

But this is not a mistake by the high cold, but a tradition that has always been done at Ajax, who do not pay much attention to physical development.

It was also at this moment that Van der Sar really felt why Gao Han had the name of Bole in European football.

"What about Zhang Yuning?" Mendez asked with concern.

He also knows Gao Han very well, and knows that the purpose of his trip is Zhang Yuning, so he naturally knows how to borrow flowers to offer Buddha.

"At this age, a lot of things have been fixed, I think Ajax's training direction is right, Zhang Yuning should turn to the direction of tactical fulcrum and scorer, improve the strength of the last kick, and adjust after stopping the ball, especially the back, I still remember ......"

Gao Han talked about the game against Iran at home, Zhang Yuning once stopped the ball on the left side of the front of the penalty area and turned around, and hit the goal directly with his right foot, which was very exciting, and almost scored, which left a deep impression on Gao Han.

Ordinary fans must think that this kind of shot is normal, and it can be played occasionally by Meng Yimeng, but Gao Han knows very well that this shot represents Zhang Yuning's future development trend.

Since you can't further improve your basic skills and other aspects, you have to work hard to find a path that suits your own development, even if you become a role player, as long as you can tap your own potential, it is also a very good choice.

In this regard, Ajax has proven their ability to tap young players.

After listening to Gao Han's introduction, Van der Sar immediately asked Gao Han for a video of Zhang Yuning's game in the World Cup qualifiers, saying that he wanted to study and study it for the technical department and formulate a better and more targeted intensive training plan for Zhang Yuning.

Van Gaal, who was sitting on the sidelines, did not participate in what was being discussed.

He has been at home since he left the manager's position, but he has never left football.

But for the current Ajax, as a legend of the past, he did not intervene in anything, not even comment, because the current helmsman believes in Cruyff.

And everyone knows that he and Cruyff are notoriously bitter enemies.

If he hadn't received Gao Han's invitation tonight, he wouldn't even set foot in Amsterdam Stadium.

(End of chapter)