Daley Blind Sees Positive Changes at Ajax After Return
Daley Blind has walked back into an Ajax he barely recognises – and he likes what he sees.
Fresh from a commanding 1-4 win over FK Vojvodina in the Conference League qualifying round, the 36-year-old defender spoke with the calm assurance of someone who has seen both the best and the worst of the club. This version, he believes, is finally tilting back toward the right side of that spectrum.
“It was different from how I had left it. That’s true,” Blind told Ziggo Sport, reflecting on his return after a turbulent spell away from Amsterdam.
The scars of recent seasons have been obvious to anyone watching Ajax stumble through chaos on and off the pitch. Blind felt that immediately. But he also felt something else.
From the first day back at De Toekomst and the Johan Cruijff Arena, the tone had changed.
“The moment I walked in, the tone had already been set by the coach,” he said. “There was a new wind blowing, there was a lot of positivity in the group.”
That coach is Míchel, the Spanish manager whose arrival has quietly begun to reset the mood around the club. No grand slogans, no sweeping declarations. Just structure, clarity and a dressing room that, according to one of its most experienced voices, finally feels like a team again.
Blind didn’t dress it up. Ajax have been through “difficult years,” he admitted – and not just for the supporters who watched the club drift from its identity, but for the players living it from the inside. The sense of unity that once defined Ajax had frayed. The confidence that used to radiate from every line of the pitch had drained away.
Now, Blind senses that core returning.
“You hear that from the lads as well,” he said. “That feeling of being a team, of unity, of confidence. Of positivity that goes hand in hand with victories. I think we have been doing well with that over the last two matches as well.”
The performance in Serbia backed up those words. Ajax didn’t just win; they imposed themselves. A 1-4 away victory in Europe, regardless of the opposition, always says something about a team’s mentality. This time it said that Ajax, under Míchel, are starting to carry themselves with the authority that once came so naturally.
The pressure told early, the control never really slipped, and by the end the return leg in Amsterdam felt less like a decider and more like a formality. Vojvodina will come, but Ajax already have one eye on the next hurdle. Shelbourne FC, who beat Nomme Kalju 5-2, are the likely opponents in the third qualifying round.
That is for later. Inside the club, the focus is on something less tangible but far more important: identity.
Blind, who grew up with Ajax’s standards etched into his footballing DNA, knows how fragile momentum can be at the start of a season. The VriendenLoterij Eredivisie campaign is looming, and he made it clear that this new-found energy cannot remain just a preseason feeling.
“And that has to keep growing and really come alive again,” he said, looking ahead to the league kick-off. “I think that is moving in the right direction.”
There was no nostalgia in his voice, no attempt to pretend this is the Ajax of old just yet. But there was conviction. After years of drift, a veteran who has seen every corner of the club believes the wind has finally changed.
Now comes the real test: can Ajax turn this breeze of optimism into a storm that sweeps through their season?
