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 qualifiers, the 36-year-old defender spoke with the assurance of a man who has seen both the best and the worst of the club. The comparison, in his eyes, is stark.

“Yes, it was different from how I had left it. That’s true,” he told Ziggo Sport after the game.

The Ajax he returned to had been through the wringer: turbulent seasons, frustrated fans, a dressing room searching for itself.

What struck him wasn’t the chaos. It was the change.

From the moment he stepped back inside the club, Blind felt something had shifted. The tone, he said, had already been set by coach Míchel. A new wind. A different energy. Not the forced optimism of pre-season, but something more authentic.

“There was a new wind blowing, there was a lot of positivity in the group,” Blind said, giving clear credit to the Spanish coach. The mood, though, is not being oversold. “And of course that still has to grow as well.”

That line matters. Ajax are not back yet. But Blind, who knows the rhythms of this club better than most, senses the early stages of a reset.

Inside the dressing room, the players feel it too. He spoke of “difficult years” – not just for the fans, who have watched standards slip and tempers flare, but for the squad itself. Confidence drained, identity blurred, the familiar Ajax swagger replaced by something more fragile.

Now, Blind sees the basics returning: the feeling of being a team again, of unity, of belief. “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.”

Two games do not define a season, but they can set a tone. The 1-4 away win over Vojvodina has already turned next week’s return leg in Amsterdam into something close to a formality. The real tests will come later, yet these early European nights are giving Ajax what they have craved: calm, control, and a sense of direction.

The timing is important. The new VriendenLoterij Eredivisie season is around the corner, and Blind sounds ready for it. Not just fit, but engaged, energised by the idea that Ajax might finally be moving out of their recent malaise.

“And that has to keep growing and really come alive again. I think that is moving in the right direction,” he said, looking ahead rather than back.

If they finish the job against Vojvodina, a likely third qualifying round tie against Shelbourne FC awaits, after the Irish side’s 5-2 win over Nomme Kalju of Estonia. On paper, it is a favourable path. For a club that has stumbled too often in recent years, it is also an opportunity: to rebuild rhythm, to restore fear in opponents, to make Europe feel like home again.

Ajax have a new coach, an old leader in Blind, and the first hints of a revived spirit. The question now is simple: can this “new wind” blow hard enough to carry them through an entire season?