Frank de Boer, who has taken over as temporary manager from Martin Jol, has told newspapers he wants the fun to return to football, writes the AD.

‘From where I’m standing the players at Ajax don’t look as if they are enjoying the game. They look whipped. That can’t happen to a top club. When I see NEC play one touch football without any opposition whatsoever from Ajax, I think to myself: this can’t be happening. The players are to blame but we’ll have to find a solution together’, according to De Boer during an interview for Sportjournaal, just before his belated take off to Milan for tonight’s Champions league game.
Stick around
De Boer also said he has always wanted to become manager. ‘This is not how I thought it would happen but I am where I want to be. It’s a bit of a shortcut. I would like to stick around of course but that is for the club to say. I’m ready.’
Tense
In an interview for Ajax TV De Boer said he was quite tense at the prospect of playing Milan on Wednesday: ‘This is the start of an important time at Ajax. A lot will depend on the next three weeks.’
When Ajax director Rik van den Boog broke the news to the players that Jol was no longer manager he told them to ‘look in the mirror’. ‘I said exactly the same when Marco van Basten left eighteen months ago. But these are young lads and sometimes you need to tell them more than once.’
Debut
The players did not say very much. ‘They didn’t need to. It’s no use pointing the finger or brooding about it. We have to move forward. We’re playing a match tonight. It’s going to be an interesting first trial for De Boer.’
To goalkeeper Maarten Stekelenburg De Boer is a logical choice although the player was surprised at Jol’s departure. ‘It was all rather sudden, especially since we had a training session that morning’, he said.