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Ajax sold the bulk of its Champions League-ready squad over the summer and never looked back. It can’t afford to.

“There are fans who feel the club is starting to feel more like a trading company than a soccer team,” one Ajax supporter said. Credit...Maurice Van Steen/Agence France-Presse, via Anp/Afp Via Getty Images

THE HAGUE, the Netherlands — As a rule, Arco Gnocchi regards himself as too old to buy a replica jersey with his favorite Ajax player’s name emblazoned across the back. Such displays of hero worship, he feels, are not entirely becoming of a person ticking through their early 40s.