BERGKAMP coaches their under 9s DE BOER coaches their under 17s that's why Ajax keep on producing world class youngsters.

Byline: Gary Ralston

JIMMY CALDERWOOD and his former Aberdeen assistant Jimmy Nicholl have hit the road to sample life at the sharp end of European football.

Part fact-finding mission and part once-in-a-lifetime pilgrimage, the two Jimmys today report from Holland.

IMAGINE a youth system where Dennis Bergkamp coaches the Under-9s and Frank de Boer takes charge of the Under-17s.

It provided six of the Dutch national team at the last European Championship and its graduates include many of the superstars of world football from the last 40 years.

Even now, their names still trip off the tongue - Johan Cruyff, Johnny Rep, Arie Haan, Ruud Krol, Marco van Basten, the de Boers, Bergkamp, Patrick Kluivert, Frank Rijkaard, Edgar Davids, Edwin van der Sar, Rafael van der Vaart, Wesley Sneijder.

Welcome to De Toekomst - The Future - home of the Ajax youth academy and the best breeding ground for young footballers in the world.

Jimmy Nicholl and I dropped in this week for a look at a facility I hadn't visited for a few years and found it more impressive than ever.

They have just laid two new artificial pitches for the kids to practise on, in addition to the 12 already there, and the surfaces are so advanced the ball now runs and bounces 95 per cent as true as on grass, the highestever rating.

The Future, in the shadows of the Amsterdam ArenA, is only 400 yards from the school where most of the kids study.

Just in case parents fear their offspring are missing out their education, teachers are even employed by the club to help with homework before and after morning and evening coaching sessions.

It caters for the very elite and yet there's a wonderful democracy to it all.

Every year Ajax take out an advert in the national press inviting kids to participate in an Open Day of trials.

Inspire

Seriously, if you think your kid has what it takes but is being ignored by SPL clubs you can take him to Amsterdam.

Be prepared, they might only get five minutes before judgment is passed and they're asked to leave the pitch, but at least Ajax will take a look.

It was like an old pals' reunion when we walked through the door and bumped into Danny Blind, who led the club to the Champions League in 1995 and who has performed almost every role with Ajax in the last 23 years.

I played with Danny when he was a kid at Sparta Rotterdam and he's now assistant to head coach Martin Jol.

Then we bumped into ex-Rangers winger Pieter Huistra and my former keeper at Cambuur-Leeuwarden, Fred Grim, who are now in charge of Ajax reserves.

Fred is a character. Ajax came in for him in 1994 and offered him riches beyond his wildest dreams to become the back-up keeper to van der Sar.

We then bought a young keeper from PSV, only for Fred to turn up at the club the next day to tell us he wasn't signing after all as he had made over 500 consecutive appearances for Cambuur and wanted to keep the run going. We almost had to drive him to Amsterdam ourselves!

Danny opened every door for us as we chatted with the club's chief scout, world scout and European scout. Their markets are well established - Scandinavia, South America and Africa, in particular.

These days they are scouting for the best players aged 17-20 because they cannot afford to buy those aged of 21 or 22.

They hope to inspire in these kids a love of the club that makes them want to stay beyond their 21st birthday. If not, they are sold on and the money re-invested.

More relaxed labour laws in Holland allow Ajax to attract teenagers from around the globe and their past reputation helps them at a time when the game's richest clubs are investing serious money in their youth programmes.

Quite frankly, Ajax can't compete with crazy cash being thrown at the feet of 16 and 17 year olds these days but a visit to The Future and a look around the walls at photos of its most famous graduates can still entice the cream of the crop.

For example, the club have just lured a Danish kid who was feted by every major club in Europe, but who chose Ajax on the back of their reputation for nurturing kids, including Soren Lerby, the Laudrups and Frank Arnesen from his own country.

Humble

When I was in Holland we used to shake our heads in wonder at Ajax as they'd lose the likes of van Basten and immediately reach for the shelf and pull down Kluivert as his replacement.

Every head coach who was brought to the club was told to play his team in their famous 4-3-3 formation and most of them did, until recently. Co Adriaanse tried to change things and was hammered but exalone Spurs boss Jol has been allowed to introduce his vision of 4-4-2, in part because flying wingers are a rare breed indeed these days, as we know only too well in Scotland.

Louis van Gaal once loaned me four Ajax kids at Cambuur and I called him after a couple of days to complain.

The conversation went something like this: "Louis, these boys don't have a clue how to play 4-4-2. His reply? They were coached to play for Ajax, not Cambuur. We play 4-3-3. Deal with it."

I always felt it best to stay away from Louis when he had a bee in his bonnet and while the formation may have been rigid their boys have always been given freedom to express themselves within the system.

The love affair between players and club endures and that's why multi-millionaires such as Bergkamp and Frank de Boer are happy to coach the kids. They are not - Brian Roy is boss of the Under-11s and Wim Jonk develops the young strikers.

It says so much for guys such as Bergkamp that they are willing to give something back at such a humble level because, let's face it, if he was Scottish he'd be looking to start his coaching career in charge of Rangers or Celtic.

They are still heroes to the fans and what must it be like as an eight or nine year old to have Dennis Bergkamp teaching you how to play? This is a wonderful, wonderful club, with its kids the creme de la creme.

The coaches all played in the system and know it inside out and are happy to teach the next generation.

I'd love to see a similar set-up in Scotland but, as always, it comes down to money and the millions of euros committed by Ajax each year to youth alone would probably fund several clubs in the SPL put together.

We can but dream. Still, for now, The Future is Oranje.

As told to Gary Ralston

CAPTION(S):

CENTRE OF LEARNING: Toekomst Arena HOLL OF FAME: Clockwise from top left, Wesley Sneijder, Patrick Kluivert, Frank Rijkaard, Johnny Rep, Frank de Boer, Edwin van der Sar, Marco van Basten, Rafael van der Vaart, Johan Cruyff and Dennis Bergkamp