Ajax’s run to last year’s Champions League semifinals is a proof of concept, if not a template, for what Chelsea can hope to accomplish with their young team this season. The Blues should closely note the important role played by Ajax’s senior players.
Ajax’s young homegrown talent garnered most of the recognition for last season’s Champions League campaign, but the Dutch side would not have made it that far without a few Premier League cast-offs and one long-serving Ajax veteran. Along with Matthias de Ligt, Frankie de Jong and a handful of other young Dutchmen, 29-year old Southampton legend Dusan Tadic, 28-year old Manchester United legend (and former Ajax youth) Daley Blind and 32-year old Ajax mainstay Lasse Schone took Ajax to their first Champions League semifinal since 1997 while also winning another Eredivisie title.
Chelsea have a similar squad of young players developed in-house. But alongside everything Tammy Abraham, Fikayo Tomori, Mason Mount and Callum Hudson-Odoi are doing, 31-year old Willian has been the best overall player and 30-year old Cesar Azpilicueta has tied together the defence.
Dusan Tadic had six goals and four assists in the Champions League last year. That tally bettered most of his Premier League campaigns at Southampton. His 28 league goals nearly doubled his previous best season, when he was first in the Eredivisie with Twente.
Daley Blind had career-high goals and assists in the Eredivisie last season, led the team in minutes played across all competitions and played more European minutes than in any previous season in his career.
The main thing that stands out for Lasse Schone is just how consistent his presence and performance was for Ajax in his seven years there. Even with the youth revolution swirling around him, he maintained his place in Erik ten Hag’s side, and for good reason – hardly anything about his performance and output ever wavered.
When many Chelsea fans point to Ajax as an example of what Chelsea should and could be, they talk about de Ligt, de Jong, Donny van de beek and Kasper Dolberg. They should give equal credit and urge Chelsea to heed the role of Dusan Tadic, Daley Blind, Lasse Schone and Klass-Jan Huntelaar.
The Blues would not be where they are at this point in the season without Willian and Cesar Azpilicueta. With the injury issues looking like they may not relent until next summer, it’s more likely than not that they will turn at some point to Olivier Giroud and Pedro. Willy Caballero played in the first Carabao Cup game, and Frank Lampard may opt to keep the 38-year old for the remainder of that tournament and the FA Cup.
Pedro, in particular, is worth an extra note of attention. He did not make the trip to Amsterdam and is out of contract at the end of the season. This led to some speculation that his exclusion from the travelling squad is evidence of a bigger picture exclusion ahead of his eventual departure.
Chelsea and Frank Lampard would be very unwise to shrug Pedro aside so cavalierly. He is the model professional. Like Azpilicueta, in particular, Pedro gives his best effort without complaint to whatever system comes from whatever manager he is playing for. His work rate and exceptional level of talent make him endlessly adaptable: he may not be perfect for any one system, particularly at his age, but he is excellent for any system or game situation that requires him.
By winning last season’s Europa League (five goals and three assists for his most productive European campaign) Pedro has won at least one of every club competition he has played in. He is the Premier League’s most-decorated player, a mantle he inherited from a player a previous iteration of Chelsea were too ignorant / easily swayed to keep: Cesc Fabregas.
Willian and Cesar Azpilicueta have been at Chelsea longer than Pedro. They do not have as many trophies, but they know first-team Chelsea football better than anyone.
Olivier Giroud is the newest arrival of the over-30 crowd, but he knows the Premier League and Champions League as much as anybody (although not winning those leagues, because Arsenal). And he is a World Cup winner.
Ajax showed how much a club can accomplish with a squad full of homegrown youth, but that is only part of the picture. The full story is that Ajax showed how much a well-constructed and balanced squad can accomplish, and how both ends of the age and experience spectrum are necessary for success. That is what Chelsea need to take away from studying the Dutch side beyond the context of this game.
By the end of the season, Pedro, Willian, Giroud and Azpilicueta may be just as important to Chelsea’s advancement in this and other competitions as Huntelaar, Tadic, Blind and Schone were to Ajax last year.