The Rise of Ajax: After hitting rock-bottom, the Dutch club have found an unlikely saviour

It's a cold winter's night in Amsterdam, and I'm walking to the Johan Cruyff Arena for Ajax's biggest match of the season yet.

The last time I wrote about them, I was detailing their downfall, which saw them fall to the very bottom of the Eredivisie and their Europa League group in late October. Since then though, Maurice Steijn has been replaced by Van't Schip, and the club have started to move in the right direction under their former player.

His appointment didn't please the majority of fans given his fairly mediocre managerial CV - mixed spells in Mexico, Australia, with PEC Zwolle and with the Greek national team - but he's quickly started to win them over, leading the side the victory in five out of six Eredivisie matches to take them up to fifth in the league. 

He hasn't done anything massively innovative in terms of tactics but has hugely improved each and every player individually, making a real personal connection with them to provide the confidence and support that they'd desperately lacked under Steijn.

Plenty of doubts still remain as to whether the club should offer him the job on a permanent basis though, because the only two matches that have been against top sides, Europa League clashes with Marseille and Brighton, have ended in defeat. 

As a result of those losses, the side has to beat AEK Athens to keep their European campaign alive by qualifying for the Conference League knockout rounds. If they can do so, Van't Schip will be able to look back at a near-perfect first few months at the helm. But if they can't, it will be a failure that will overshadow all of the success.

Their task is made considerably harder by the fact they have to tackle it without key players Steven Bergwijn (injured) and Steven Berghuis (suspended), and that's perhaps partly why there is a noticeable air of tension among supporters when I first arrive at the stadium.

As kick-off edges closer though, that tension firmly fades away, with the crowd so loud by the time things get underway that I can barely hear the journalist sitting next to me.

Spurred on by the support, the hosts make the dream start with Chuba Akpom heading in a corner to put them 1-0 up within five minutes. Attacking set-pieces has been one of the areas where the team have improved most since the coach came in, and it has paid dividends immediately here. 

Just five minutes after that though, AEK level things up through a set-piece of their own and then begin to ramp up the pressure, going close to taking the lead. The Ajax of earlier this season would have quickly crumbled under such pressure but this side, constantly being given clear instructions by their vocal manager, hold firm, and then re-retake the lead through an excellent goal from Kenneth Taylor. 

It's fitting that Akpom and Taylor are the side's first two scorers in Van't Schip's biggest match yet because they're two of the players who have improved most under him.

Taylor started 2023 as one of the hottest prospects in the Netherlands but lost that label after a big drop in form following a nightmare international debut against France in March in which he was subbed off after 33 minutes. He struggled to bounce back from that, making errors and becoming something of a scapegoat for the club's troubles but has been playing with far more confidence, quality and joy again since Van't Schip took over.

Akpom meanwhile barely played initially after joining from Middlesbrough in the summer, hugely struggling to adjust to life abroad while having to live in a hotel for months. Since getting a new manager, though, he's been on fire and has openly stated that Van't Schip coming in and treating him as a human being first and a player second has been a major factor in the turnaround.

That turnaround continues just over 10 minutes into the second half with the striker sliding a through ball from substitute Arjany Martha past the AEK goalkeeper to get his eighth goal in nine games and make it 3-1, well and truly endearing himself to the Amsterdam faithful.

Perhaps the only man they love more than Akpom tonight is their manager, who makes all the right substitutions to ensure they pick up their biggest and best win of the season without too much trouble - despite the fact that two important players in Devyne Rensch and Brian Brobbey have to go off injured. 

From day one, he made it a priority to instil a bond between them and him, speaking in his first team talk of how it was one of his late wife's last wishes that he take over Ajax - 'their club' - if he got the chance, and that bond has now very much been established.

As a result, it may not be a team that plays the beautiful, vibrant football that the club have become renowned for over the years, but every player in it is playing to the best of their abilities under Van't Schip and are willing to run themselves into the ground for him.

"Well, for Akpom, to let him play," the manager told me in the post-match press conference when I asked him what the key was, from his perspective, in getting the best out of his players.

"By doing that he scored a lot of goals, and so for his confidence, that helped him along."  

"Slowly slowly he's played more minutes and this is now the second time that he's been in the starting lineup.

"He's important with his goals. We're happy that he's part of the group and we want to get more out of him as well."

While the coach is happy that Akpom is part of his group, players and fans alike will feel even happier that the 59-year-old is part of their club.

As I head out into the night, the stadium is a beacon of light in the December darkness, and in Van't Schip, Ajax have a beacon of their own.