Graham Potter ‘rejects chance to become next Ajax boss’ after ex-Chelsea and Brighton manager held talks with the struggling Dutch giants

Graham Potter has reportedly turned down the chance to become Ajax’s new head coach.

The former Brighton and Chelsea manager, 48, had been in talks with the Amsterdam club over a return to management and was a top candidate.

Potter has been out of a job since he was sacked by Chelsea last April following a troubled seven-month spell at Stamford Bridge.

However, Sky Sports News are reporting he isn’t interested in taking on the Ajax job at the end of the season when interim boss John van ‘t Schip steps down.

Ajax’s nightmare season sunk to new depths when they were thrashed 6-0 by arch-rivals Feyenoord on Sunday – their heaviest-ever Eredivisie defeat. 

The club are in turmoil and sit a lowly sixth in the table, with Van ‘t Schip taking interim charge of the team when Maurice Steijn was fired in late October following a poor start to the season.

Sunday’s humiliation left them 33 points behind Eredivisie leaders PSV Eindhoven and with the Conference League offering the only hope of European football next season.

The defeat came days after Ajax suspended their new CEO Alex Kroes after ‘indications he engaged in insider trading.’ 

Kroes was appointed by the Dutch side last summer but was only able to begin his duties in Amsterdam last month due to contract complications with previous club AZ Alkmaar.

Ajax released a statement on Tuesday morning saying it had learned Kroes purchased over 17,000 shares a week before he was slated to be appointed in early August last year, adding that it ‘indicates he likely engaged in insider trading’. 

Ajax – who have already been dealing with a spate of woeful results, fan protests and two sackings, said it intends to terminate his contract permanently – insisting his position is now ‘untenable’. 

Ajax have already been suffering a nightmare season that has seen them sack Steijn as manager following a disastrous set of results in October that left them in the Eredivisie relegation zone with just five points – their worst run since 1954. 

There has been fan fury and protests too with a game against Feyenoord abandoned in September after flares and fireworks were thrown onto the pitch with the side 3-0 down. Just hours later, chief Pier Eringa stepped down after six months in the role.

Just days before, director of football Sven Mislintat was axed after just 129 days in the job following some poor signings last summer.

Ajax were also dumped out of the Dutch Cup by minnows USV Hercules – an amateur side with students in their team – in one of the most incredible results in the country’s footballing history.