According to Ajax Netwerk it is expected that Ryan will be fit and ready to play on Sunday! That's good news. Didn't expect him to recover that quickly.

We will have to do without Van der Vaart (one game suspension due to accumulated yellow cards), Sneijder, Grygera and Galásek (injured). The latter two are also certain to miss the first Auxerre game on Wednesday.

K.

Be great to see Babel fit and ready. However, with him in de Ridder will probably miss out again. Maybe Koeman can try Babel or de Ridder in the middle and put the other of the two on the wing?

Does he remind anyone else of a young Kluivert? He seems to move in a similar way -- tall, thin, slightly ungainly, quicker than he looks...

Many people compare him with Kluivert, which is not surprising given the latter's history at Ajax. But actually Babel reminds me more of Henry. The same way of walking and particularly his acceleration.

He reminds me of Vanilla Ice, circa 1989, with that silly hairstyle.

Looked good against Romania -- scored a goal, lost a tooth...

Was that his début?

Yep, and now he's the youngest goal scorer in Oranje since WWII.

Also check news report on Ajax USA!

K.

Ryan Babel is quoted on a website that I never heard of before (highlow.nl) saying that he is struggling with his form at the moment due to a back injury that causes him quite a lot of pain. Babel: "The physio told me it's because I've made such a tremendous step forward in a short time: Ajax, the national team... I over-stretched a few muscles that were not used to so much pressure."

Well, if that's true: why is he playing then? He had a spectacular start and he's a great talent, but he's been terrible in recent games. I say: let's play Charisteas on Saturday and rest Babel. Charisteas and Anatasiou won the De Graafschap game for us, so they should be able to win the RBC game for us as well.

K.

I agree. if Babel is not healthy, he should be rested as long as necessary. He is one of the few bright spots during an otherwise pathetic season.Why risk the health of our once and future #9 ? Especially when playing him in his condition is akin to playing with 10 or 10 1/2 players.

I also agree that rewarding Charisteas and Anastasiou is appropriate.

As you'd expect Ajax are currently talking to Ryan Babel about an extended and improved deal... (after Emanuelson and Maduro).

K.

And goalie Vermeer.

Guess that´s a no-brainer, had a very good tournament at the U-20

Perhaps I should have posted this to the Music Geeks' Thread...

Ryan Babel, ladies and gentlemen, has made his début on Dutch radio as a rapper! He performed a guest rapper (on the phone!) during a live radio performance of Dutch underground hiphop artist Yes-R on Juize FM, an 'urban' and hiphop station. And guess what? You can listen to it on their website!

http://stream2.garnierprojects.com/medi ... _babel.wma

:yelclap:

K.

Let the kid concentrate on his footy.

You can be such an whining, bitter old man with those grumpy one-liners... As if a 19 year-old kid can't phone in to a radio station and do some rapping, just for fun... It's not like he's getting pissed and stoned with his hiphop mates on the evening before a game or something. Sheeesh.

K.

I saw Ryan rap at the open day in the summer. My son (8 years) likes Ali B. (the rapper in Holland) a lot and was very surprised by the rap-talents of Ryan. I think it is great he's doing this.

I hope he does better than McCarthy, Gorré and Melchiot with the midas touch.... X'C X'C

HELLO........MR Blind.........hes NOT a winger......hes also right footed,so hes not a left winger.......HELLO hes a striker.......can you hear me.....

Ok now here's a big question WHAT THE HELL IS HE DOING ON THE BENCH WHEN BOUCKHARI IS SHITING UP THE LEFT SIDE ?????? Ryan could not posibly play worse than Nourdin. Come on Blind...

Good point, VA. On a positive note one might guess that Blind figures that the season is long and that he thinks it wise for a young player to get some rest. Especially after having played in the World Youth Championships last summer. And also that Nourdin will transfer this coming winter and that giving him some time on the pitch now might boost the interest of potential buyers.

On a more sinister note you might think that Blind's actually gone bonkers and that he truly thinks that Nourdin is a better player then Ryan.

Who knows. Perhaps Ryan is no longer an option as a winger and he's fixating only on his favorite position of central striker. This would mean that we will be able to enjoy Boukhari for quite a bit longer. At least until Mitea returns.

The big news this weekend (I believe De Telegraaf came up with it first) was that Ajax have rejected a 6 million euro bid for Ryan Babel from "a European top club". In their 'teasers' Café de Sport (a footie talkshow on Talpa TV) announced that they were going to reveal the name of the club and they said it was AC Milan.

Ajax rejected the bid. According to one source they want 10 million; according to Martin van Geel there is no way they will sell Babel at all.

K.

I posted it also in another section...sorry...
but it could be interesting:

In Italy the name of the "big club" seems to be Ac Fiorentina..
In this case Ryan would be third choice after Luca Toni AND Giampaolo Pazzini, italian under 21 international. Please notice that Fiorentina plays with only one striker andr three behind him, so playing time for a third choice is near to 0.
Please notice that this role of being after Toni and Pazzini has wasted the talent (and patience) of Valeri Bojinov, that never accepted the situation and was put and banned in the youth team.
if Babel wants this.....is not a wise boy
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He would get even less playing time than staying here.!! At least we have a reserve team

He is of course no 4 here and if we had 2 wingers only one striker would be played!!!
The boy needs to go on loan to another dutch team today, play the rest of the season as a striker and see who the new coach is next season and whether he will get a game.

I predict he will be playing for an english side by Jan 2007. He has a contract to 2008 and at present the chances of him extending are nil.

supposedly, fiorentina have upped their bid for babel to 10 million euros