I'm working my way through this slowly! I'm currently up to August 2023 so some way to catch up yet.
These types of saves are great. I think your bank balance highlights the difficulty, as you sell your best players the challenge is to keep improving on the pitch. Unfortunately, I think your second season European adventure (or lack of it) shows this. It was a tougher group than anticipated but as you said one that you should have progressed through, yet Ajax found itself without any European football post Christmas. Still, it gave you chance to focus on the youth and see that there were no more slip ups domestically which was great.
With more sales, especially those two central defenders, I'm very keen to see how you fare in your third season. Can you do well in Europe where Ajax belongs? Can you keep hold of Tadic?