DUBAI // Ajman’s Iraqi defender Ahmad Ibrahim has blamed the club’s foreign players, including himself, and the turnover of coaches for the team’s woes this season, and said they deserve to be relegated.
With only three matches left Ajman are destined for Division One with their hopes of survival in the Arabian Gulf League for a fifth consecutive season all but over following Saturday’s 2-2 comeback draw at home to Al Shabab.
Ajman are second bottom in the table, nine points off 10th-place Al Dhafra, and will need an extraordinary sequence of results to avoid the drop.
They need to win all their remaining matches and hope Dhafra lose their three to survive the drop but even then their chances of survival are slim as goal difference would then decide who goes down.
The two teams are level on head-to-head matches this season, with both matches finishing 1-1. Dhafra, though, have a goal difference of minus three while Ajman’s is minus 30.
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Ajman have won only two of their 23 league matches and Ibrahim, who has missed the past three games through injury, expects the club to be playing second-tier football next term.
“We deserve to be back in the amateur league,” the Iraq international said. “Yes, we have played well in matches, like we did in the last game against Al Shabab, but unfortunately the team does not know how to win matches, especially at home.
“We have not won a single league match at home this season and we have played 11 until now. So, I feel it is a lost cause for us now, but I also believe we will be back in the top division soon and we will come back stronger.”
Ibrahim blamed the disappointing season on the club’s management, who he said erred in not renewing their long-time coach Abdulwahab Abdulqadir’s contract.
The league’s Coach of the Year in 2012/13 after guiding Ajman to the League Cup trophy, the Iraqi was relieved of his duties in May last year following a disappointing campaign.
The club were bottom of the league at the beginning of 2014 with just nine points from their first 16 matches. Ibrahim arrived in January 2013, to replace misfiring Kuwait striker Yousuf Nasser, along with the Ivorian winger Bakari Kone.
The two newcomers, along with Simon Feindouno and Boris Kabi, helped Ajman amass 19 points from their final 10 matches of the 2013/14 season to finish 10th.
Despite the upturn in results, the club replaced Abdulqadir with the Tunisian Fathi Al Jabal. The new manager then changed the squad, bringing back Driss Fettouhi and adding Algerian Karim Ziani, with Feindouno and Kone sacrificed.
Kone was back in the team before the close of the summer transfer window with Ziani injured, but the Ivorian was replaced by Rafael Crivellaro in January this year.
The change to the foreign contingent was replicated in the coach’s dugout, too, with the Portuguese Manuel Cajuda replacing Al Jabal.
According to Ibrahim, the constant changes have done more harm than good.
“We did not bring in too many local players, but the real problem was the level of the foreign players and the changes that occurred in the coaching staff after the departure of Abdulwahab Abdulqadir,” Ibrahim said.
“I am not being biased towards Abdulwahab, but the results talk in his favour.
“He was one of the sons of the club, had achieved great success with the team, and knew every nook and cranny of Ajman, knew every big and small detail about the players and the team.
“His departure left a big gap and we are seeing the effects of that this season.
“This does not mean that Al Jabal and Cajuda are not good enough, but circumstances did not help them.
“It would be unfair to blame them because the foreign players, and I am one of them, we were not at the same level as we were in the past seasons.”
arizvi@thenational.ae
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