Key Arsenal coach who worked with Gareth Bale and Wayne Rooney seen as man to save Ajax
Louis van Gaal’s pursuit to end Ajax’s crisis could end up on Arsenal’s bench.
The new advisor of the faltering Amsterdam giants is said to be a fan of Mikel Arteta’s right-hand man Albert Stuivenberg.
The Gunners assistant manager has become a recognisable face during the teams transition into title challengers, and he previously worked with Van Gaal at Manchester United where he coached Wayne Rooney.
Van Gaal, who left the Netherlands national team after the 2022 World Cup, has returned to Ajax’s supervisory board in recent weeks, only to be met with a club in freefall.
With just one win and four defeats from seven games, 36-time Eredivisie champions Ajax are in the relegation zone and tumbling towards a first-ever top flight exit.
The hugely unpopular Maurice Steijn was relieved of his duties after a 4-3 defeat to Utrecht, and now the search is on to finally find a long-term replacement for Erik ten Hag.
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Milos Gouka of Dutch outlet AD.nl has said that Ajax need a coach ‘who knows how to play attacking football’ and that Stuivenberg is someone ‘who could bring football back to Ajax’.
Due to their close relationship at Old Trafford, Gouka added: “Van Gaal knows what kind of meat [Stuivenberg] has in store. In terms of profile, I think that would be a good one for Ajax.”
Known affectionately by Arsenal fans as ‘AirPods Albert’ as he’s always wired up on the bench, the 53-year-old Rotterdam native has been working in coaching for three decades after an early retirement from football.
Working as a head coach with the Dutch national youth teams, Stuivenberg joined United from 2014-2016, before a brief stint at Belgian side Genk.
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From there he joined Wales in 2018 and coached Gareth Bale, and then job-shared with the Gunners until making them his sole focus in 2021, and it’s perhaps no coincidence that they returned to the top soon after.
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