Ajax suffered an ‘unprecedented humiliation’ on Wednesday night as they crashed out of the Dutch domestic cup 6-0 to AZ.
The Amsterdam giants went down within three minutes and were skewered by a hat-trick from Ireland striker Troy Parrott in the last 16 of the KNVB Cup.
It leaves their trophy hopes in tatters for a fourth season running as they are 16 points behind Eredivisie leaders PSV and third-bottom of the Champions League table.
Captained by former Everton flop Davy Klaassen, Ajax were 3-0 down by half-time and had a man sent off in the second half before suffering their heaviest defeat in the KNVB Cup in more than a century.
Dutch newspaper AD branded it an ‘unprecedented humiliation’ and described Ajax as being ‘led to the slaughter’.
The club have now pledged to refund their supporters who made the journey to Alkmaar.
Ajax suffered an ‘unprecedented humiliation’ as they lost 6-0 to AZ in the KNVB Cup last 16
Irish striker Troy Parrott scored a hat-trick to give Ajax their biggest cup loss in over 100 years
Ajax, who reached the Champions League semi-finals as recently as 2019, have been a shadow of themselves in recent seasons.
The constant churn of selling their top talents has caught up with them and they have been unable to replace their star names adequately.
Since 2022, they have let go of Ryan Gravenberch, Lisandro Martinez, Antony, Noussair Mazraoui, Andre Onana, Jurrien Timber, Calvin Bassey, Edson Alvarez, Mohammed Kudus, Jordan Henderson, Jorrel Hato, Brian Brobbey and Bertrand Traore to Premier League clubs alone.
They are currently managed by interim boss Fred Grim, who is their eighth gaffer since Erik ten Hag left in 2022.
Ajax were pretty competitive last season under Francesco Farioli, missing out on the league title by a point, but that came after they bottled the run-in, picking up just four points in the final five games.
In the season before that they finished fifth – their lowest placement since 1999-2000. Their last trophy was the league title in 2021-22.
After the defeat by AZ, Grim said: ‘We are ashamed of this result.
‘We believe we should cover the costs for the away fans. And we will do so.’
Player Youri Regeer said: ‘It wasn’t Ajax-worthy today. As a club and as a group of players, we have to compensate for the tickets. That’s the only thing we can do.’
