Thursday Hoddle of Coffee, Soccer News and Notes, May 11, 2017

If your a Spurs fan, you probably already like the Dutch giants Ajax. They are known for the same sort of daring, attacking style that we love. More importantly, Jan Vertonghen, Toby Alderweireld, and Christian Eriksen are all Ajax products. We owe the Dutch giants a lot, in other words.

Assuming today’s Europa League ties go as expected, we may soon have another reason to pull for Ajax: They will be the only club standing between Manchester United and next season’s Champions League.

There are a couple reasons to root against United. Actually there are three:

• They are Manchester United.
• If they make the Champions League, they’ll be in pot two, meaning they are one more obstacle in our path to pot two and drastically reduced odds of landing in a group of death.
• Though it may not matter given their financial clout, United may not be able to make all their preferred signings this summer if they cannot offer Champions League football.

Of course, Celta Vigo could do us a favor and knock the Red Devils out. But they are going to Old Trafford down 1-0 and having shipped an away goal to United... it’s hard to see them knocking United out.

Links

The Guardian profiles the manager putting Ajax back on the map.

TFT on the Ajax Renaissance

Two years ago Paderborn were in the Bundesliga. Now, they are in danger of sliding into Germany’s fourth division.

FFT on why Thomas Tuchel may soon be leaving Dortmund