Erik ten Hag, who was also in the picture to replace Francesco Farioli at Ajax last summer, held several talks with the Amsterdam club after John Heitinga was fired last Thursday.
According to Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad, however, Ten Hag has rejected the move, as he does not see sufficient short-term success, given that numerous positions at Ajax are now uncertain.
After Wolverhampton Wanderers, Ajax are now the second club Ten Hag has rejected since being fired at Bayer Leverkusen, where his tenure was cut short after four games in charge.
Along with Heitinga, technical director Alex Kroes announced that he'd put his position up for availability. The executive, with whom Ten Hag held several talks this year, took responsibility for the recent unrest and disappointing results.
The 54-year-old Dutchman previously worked at Ajax between 2018 and 2022. a time in which they won three Eredivisie titles, the KNVB Beker twice, and reached the semi-finals of the 2018/19 UEFA Champions League.
Marc Overmars also rejects return
Besides Ten Hag, former Director of Football Marc Overmars has also refused to return to Ajax as their technical director.
Overmars worked at the Amsterdam club between 2012 and 2022 before being fired following a string of internal complaints about the executive's indecent behaviour. According to the victims, who were all female Ajax employees, Overmars sent them unwanted and unprompted explicit and nude pictures.
"I have a soft spot for Ajax and Amsterdam, but for me it's a closed chapter," Overmars, who's currently the technical director at Royal Antwerp, told De Telegraaf.
"That's because I really enjoy my work at Antwerp, and I still have a year and a half left on my contract there. I want to see that commitment through. Our aim was to make the club financially healthy. The stadium is ready, and now we need to rebuild the team."
Overmars revealed that he has been approached more than once for the Ajax job.
"That has already happened once, and now it's happening again, involving several people. Who? Well, they are people in important positions, but I'm not going to say who, because then it will become an internal political game again. For me, it's over."