Ajax have to stop being a selling club to make a return to their glory days

Frenkie De Jong's departure has proven that Ajax has become a selling club, and has been so for many years now.

The new Barcelona signing has been the driving factor behind Ajax's Champions League season and had been attracting the attention of many clubs lately.

The Dutch midfielder was in the radar of super clubs like Paris Saint-Germain, Manchester City before finally making to decision to sign with Barcelona.

Since the transfer is set to take place in the summer, you all could still enjoy his technical prowess for one last season in an Ajax shirt and hopefully help his team cause an upset or two in the Champions League.

But it is a little bothering to keep seeing Ajax sell their best players to the other superpowers of football.

Here’s a list of the prominent players they’ve sold in the last 10 years or so:

· Thomas Vermaelen - £10.80m

· Luis Suarez - £23.85m

· Jan Vertonghen - £11.80m

· Christian Eriksen - £12.15m

· Toby Alderwerield - £6.30m

· Daley Blind - £15.75m

· Arkadiuz Milik - £28.80m

· Jasper Cillessen - £11.70m

· Davinson Sanchez - £36.00m

· Justin Kluivert - £15.53 m

Ajax is not the same team anymore and clearly haven't been for the past two decades. It is astonishing to see that the club which keeps nourishing wonder talents have a salary cap which falls to around a €40,000 a week.

Cristiano Ronaldo earns around 13 times more than that. It is not very shocking to see that their best players are leaving as they would easily earn way more in other leagues.

They seem to be investing most of their money on youth development, which has proven fruitful as they have produced the best players in the world. But it must be disheartening to see most of these talents leave for better clubs in a matter of few years.

Even though these talents are eventually replaced with another promising talent from their youth academies, they do take a toll on their season performances.

For example, Ajax have not won the Eredivisie since the 2013/14 season, a season where Christian Eriksen and Toby Alderwerield were sold. They still were able to line up suitable replacements but these outgoing transfers have disturbed Ajax's title charge.

And when suitable replacements are not found, a huge downturn in form and season could occur.

AS Monaco is the most suitable example, with the club struggling to stay out of the relegation zone this season.

They won the Ligue 1 in the 16/17 season but with many of their talents leaving for big clubs in the past few seasons, they've not been able to cope up and are struggling to stay in the league.

This Ajax team have meant business this season, they have stood against teams like Bayern Munich. A fruitful run this season could give hope to their players and hopefully could find reason in staying with this club.

Maybe this could be the season where things change for Dutch football and they do have a favourable draw as they are set to play against a Real Madrid team that is not having the best of seasons.

A victory there will be a warning bell to the other clubs that Ajax is still a real contender for the Champions League.

But if things don't go their way, we could soon be seeing talents like Mathias De Ligt leaving the club.

Ajax is set to face the Galacticos on February 13th and Frenkie De Jong could give them a taste of what could be coming next season.