Why coach Suzanne Bakker must leave Ajax after this season

It is a painful header duel for Ajax defender Kay-Lee de Sanders in the first minutes of the home match against FC Utrecht on November 5. Club doctors no longer take risks in the event of head injuries, so coach Suzanne Bakker is immediately told: keep in mind that De Sanders has to leave the field quickly.

Bakker gestures to Isa Kardinaal, a great talent at Ajax: warming up. And so the eighteen-year-old defender is preparing for a substitute role. Not ten minutes, not twenty minutes, but just as long until the final score appears on the scoreboard. She walks silently to the dressing room. “I feel like shit,” someone later hears her say.

In all the hustle and bustle, Bakker forgot to explain to Cardinal why she had to warm up for almost an entire match. There is a lot going on in that period, the sporting interests are great. Bakker takes her aside later that week, say two insiders.

You can see it as a misstep by a coach who is not yet very experienced, but the example is not an isolated one, say people close to the selection. NRC. In the almost two years that Bakker (37) has led Ajax’s first women’s team, her empathy has often fallen short. An important reason why her contract was not recently extended, despite her success in Europe. Another reason: she is straightforward and antagonizes staff members.

In terms of football, Bakker is fine. She works long hours, is a perfectionist and demands a lot from herself, her staff and the players. Ajax became national champions last season, is now second in the Eredivisie and was the first Dutch club ever to qualify for the group stage of the Women’s Champions League. Ajax lost 3-1 to Paris Saint-Germain on Wednesday evening. A win over AS Roma next Tuesday in the Johan Cruijff Arena means qualification for the quarter-finals.

Bakker is a young version of success coach Sarina Wiegman, according to people around her. As England coach, Wiegman is good at delegating, but when she led the Dutch women’s team, she kept a firm grip on the reins. This was not always easy for her assistant Arjan Veurink and players, including striker Vivianne Miedema, were also bothered by her urge to control.

Bakker seems to encounter the same things. Although she has been working at Ajax for five years – in 2022 she switched from the talent team to the first team – the Amsterdam club is only her second employer in the Eredivisie. Her first club is Excelsior Barendrecht, where she was recruited as assistant to the women’s team by Ajax manager Daphne Koster. Before that, she was head coach at top-class Wartburgia.

Huge opportunity

Another thing that Bakker upsets people with is the events surrounding the Eredivisie Cup last year. Ajax has just become champion, the cup is considered a dessert. Within a training club, such competitions are an excellent opportunity to give young players with potential a chance. People like Koster find the development and advancement of talent no less important than winning prizes. She calls it ‘acting towards the future’.

Chantal de Ridder, assistant coach with Ajax’s talent team, is also considered promising. Last year she was in the final phase of her UEFA A training, the second highest trainer’s diploma. A requirement is that you coach a first-team match in order to put your newly acquired knowledge into practice. De Ridder wonders whether a match for the Eredivisie Cup is eligible for this, as the national title has already been won.

Bakker doesn’t think that’s a good idea. It doesn’t work that way in top sports, does it? Sven Kramer wasn’t coached by a talented skating coach during a qualifying competition, was he? As a coach, she relies on her core supporters, not on players who still have to prove themselves. You can also destroy young talent, she believes, by presenting them with too great challenges.

What Bakker did not foresee is that Sherida Spitse – who played with De Ridder at the 2009 European Championship – will stand up for her old teammate. She discusses the matter with Koster. He calls Bakker out on it, but does not overrule her.

The collaboration between Spitse and Bakker is businesslike. Like some other players, Spitse is bothered by the fact that Bakker does not always have a plan B ready for certain match situations. But she is careful not to sit in the coach’s chair, especially now that she has coaching aspirations herself. She told ESPN after last weekend’s match against Excelsior that she was not aware of the decision not to renew Bakker’s contract. “It was decided from the top.” She leaves open whether she was surprised by it.

When it became known that Bakker’s contract would not be extended, she received many messages from players. Some – especially the youngest – say they feel safe with her and indicate that they worry whether a successor (m/f) can offer them the same. Bakker fits in reasonably well with the group, although Spitse is not the only one who has difficulty with her angularity. Because Bakker may be honest and straight are, as emphasized in her environment, but her will is also law. Not everyone can deal with this equally well.

Public opinion counts

Insiders say that things are not going well between Bakker and three staff members. They have the feeling that Bakker does not appreciate them, while Bakker reasons: I empower you by using your qualities and not relying on lesser qualities. Accept the role I am assigning to you.

For example, she has difficulty with the intuitive way in which her goalkeeper coach works. He may have prepared two goalkeepers for the top – Lize Kop and Regina van Eijk – but Bakker is unable to make clear agreements with him about the content of the week. That irritates. He, in turn, wonders why she focuses so much on his shortcomings. He achieves the required goals, right?

Her technique trainer has the feeling that his constructive criticism is not well received by Bakker. Where he used to be involved in everything, he is now kept more at a distance. Bakker believes he is not supposed to go near the dressing room or ride the bus on match days. This is only reserved for the competition staff and medical staff.

And contact is also difficult with the young, enthusiastic performance coach – who improves the performance of players by training strength, speed, coordination and endurance. He joins the women’s team halfway through the season and comes up with all kinds of ideas to improve things. Ideas that Bakker is not always interested in. For a newcomer, he asks a lot of questions.

For manager Koster, Bakker’s communication skills are becoming an increasing problem. What is important to her is how a coach gets the best out of her players and staff. If Bakker does not deliver on that point, experienced or talented employees could leave. “Public opinion is often judged on the basis of performance,” she said of Bakker’s departure in a statement on the Ajax website. “And those performances are satisfactory. Even very beautiful from a European perspective. It is up to me not to spend all my time in the now, but also to look beyond. To what is asked of the players, staff and the Ajax environment. Then you ultimately come to a decision that, in our opinion, is the best choice.”

Bakker was surprised by Koster’s decision. Although Koster discussed a number of points for improvement with her over time, she saw this as a learning process, not as mistakes that could potentially have serious consequences, such as not renewing a contract.

According to a confidante, Koster’s decision taught her that she should think more carefully about her role as a coach and the expectations of her staff members. What do I need to be successful, what should I stay away from? And: ask your staff members if they can accept the role you want to assign to them. She sees her job at Ajax as a process that is abruptly interrupted. She thinks it’s a shame, but accepts Koster’s decision. There is already cautious interest at home and abroad.

About this article: NRC spoke to several people about Suzanne Bakker’s departure, on condition of anonymity. No one at Ajax wanted to respond to the content of this article.

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