New Players for Ajax

[Tom_]

It's all well and good that we are financially healthy and don't contribute to the ridiculous buying and selling circus, but does anyone know what this fat bank balance of ours is going to be used for that will increase our sporting success in the short or long term?

[Philippe]

De Toekomst (Youth Academy), plus a new supporters' home.

[SPL]

Agree we cannot put loads of 16 year olds on contract but the 3 or 4 best talented 16 year olds should be contracted on their 16th. Of course we cannot pay more than 30000 euros a year until they are 18 so its not going to cost us much. Dilrosun and Mensah were a year younger than the rest playing in our U17's and clearly were the best talents aged 16 . This year in our B1 Che Nunnely ,a forward and not 16 until early next year is rated the best .He should be contracted on his 16th birthday but we wont contract him until July 2016 . Trouble is he will be at Man City or Chelski come next summer.

Back to buying I have no problem with the max wage of 1m euros and we dont need to spend more than 5m on most new players but we are either spending 3m max or getting players on loan and this is what you would expect of Twente,Vitesse and that shower from Rotterdam but we are loaded with money. We are trying to get players on the very cheap and ending up with sub standard ones.

[cdnajaxfan]

There is no point in spending big money when
Every year we draw the teams that we have
Gotten the past 5 years in Champions League.
We are Europa League bound again! That draw
Must be rigged somehow! Look at Porto's group!
Instead if being easy fodder for a good pot 2,3 or
4 team they got an easy one group.
Every year we get a group of death or where
The 2 top spots are guaranteed. Don't mean to
write us off all the time as last year we got screwed
By Milan but how can we compete wit Barca and
PSG?! Well maybe one Year we will get a good draw and
have a good Base if players and buy some and go for a run!

[SPL]

Back in August we fancied Heerenveen's talented 19 year old midfielder Daley Sinkgraven but the talk was he was not ready for us,but needed another season in Friesland and probably we would buy him in January for 5m and leave him there.

Well we can forgot all about that as Liverpool Man u Barca Real Madrid and Bayern are all watching him.One of them will buy him and loan him back for another year.

Sorry but with 100m in the bank I do not think all our future answers are playing in de Toekomst (especially when we don't give our own 16 year olds contracts and watch them go abroad.)Ajax need to spend money on some better players. We have the likes of Duarte,Sana ,Zimling and even Viegever all signed but
they are jouneymen pros and imo not at our level.V d Hoorn could also be included with them.

I am not saying we should have paid 5m for a kid who made 15 appearances for Heerenveen last season but when our midfield is fairly lightweight and there is nobody in our Jong at that position good enough we need to spend some money.

[rjf1]

Success on the field is not the first concern of the board -- hasn't been for years and years. Burns me up, but what can you do.

[Orange14]

Success on the field is not the first concern of the board -- hasn't been for years and years. Burns me up, but what can you do.

Of course not! The first responsibility of any Board is to keep the team/corporate entity solvent. Would you want to see Ajax go into bankruptcy because of poor decision making? Look at the problems Feyenoord have had over the past six years and to some extent PSV who recently had to be bailed out by Eindhoven and are now dependent of CL qualification for a healthy cash flow. As much as we would like to see a more aggressive transfer policy, the club has to keep the financials in mind. It doesn't take much of a slip up to see a team go down the drain very quickly (Portsmouth, Leeds United, and even Madrid who had to sell of their training ground and other assets several years ago because of too much money spent on transfers during the galactico days).

[rjf1]

It doesn't have to be a black or white situation. There are many clubs that manage to strike a better balance between financial responsibility and fielding a strong team. Where there's a will, there's always a way. With us, there is no will that I can see.

[SPL]

I have no problem with the way the Board has been careful with money over the last 4 years.We seem to be the only major European team to operate a max wage.

The UEFA points table regards how many CL teams you are allocated shows in 2 years time Holland will only have 1 team in the CL and then they may have to qualify for the Ko round so Ajax do indeed need to be careful with money as CL money may not be available in say 2or 3 years.

However ,leaving aside we should contact our own 16 year olds, I agree we have set a max 5m euros for transfers but until some of the 17 and 18 year olds finally come through we still need to spend some money.2 or 3 players with a max 5m each is only 15m and thats out of 100m we hold in the bank.

A decent striker and 2 better midfielders to go with Klaassen would make winning the title easier this season and we may even have had a chance of beating PSG and certainly APOEL these last weeks and thus maybe going to the last 16.

Our major money making will still come from the sales of our players and despite his critics Overmars is gradually putting all the talents on much longer contracts.

[aveslacker]

It doesn't have to be a black or white situation. There are many clubs that manage to strike a better balance between financial responsibility and fielding a strong team. Where there's a will, there's always a way. With us, there is no will that I can see.

Let's not forget that we've won the Eredivisie four times in a row after going a long period where we both failed to win a title and flirted with financial problems. I think the reality of the modern game is such that no team outside of the big four leagues is ever going to be competitive in Europe. Ajax would need a to spend a lot more money over a sustained period of time to do that and could well end up bankrupted from the effort with nothing to show for it.

As long as this financial arrangement persists, Ajax will have to content itself with being a big fish in a small pond. We need to make sure that we keep our talents in De Toekomst so that we can build a team. That team will always be young because eventually players are going to do what Blind, Anita, De Jong, Maduro, etc did and head for more money in other leagues, to be replaced by guys from the academy. That's where Ajax is in the pecking order, and I don't see that changing.

[rjf1]

... I think the reality of the modern game is such that no team outside of the big four leagues is ever going to be competitive in Europe. Ajax would need a to spend a lot more money over a sustained period of time to do that and could well end up bankrupted from the effort with nothing to show for it.

As long as this financial arrangement persists, Ajax will have to content itself with being a big fish in a small pond...

I agree about our chances of being competitive in Europe, and have no wish to see the club bankrupt itself trying. Where my gripe lies, is in that we are no longer the big fish in the small pond -- even the 'small' fish are playing as well, if not better, than what we have been showing. With the performances on display so far (even being outplayed in the games we have won), we could very easily wind up 4th or 5th, if not worse.

And as far as talent coming through goes, it is a stated objective to showcase them in the 1st team and then sell them for as much as they can get -- so, with never enough experienced players to form a competitive team, where then is the talent to be a big fish going to come from?

My gripe with the board is that it doesn't care -- their only goal is to keep turning out product from the academy production line to add even more revenue to the coffers, and to hell with the team on the field. No one is saying that they should break the bank to buy players, but they need to find a better balance between amassing money and supporting a team with the modest ambition of being a big fish in a small pond.

[Tom_]

I'm not too fussed about the lack of buying so long as they're planning to do something with that money that will ultimately help the football club... I would like to know what the board's plan is other than accumulating fat stacks o' cash.

[aveslacker]

... I think the reality of the modern game is such that no team outside of the big four leagues is ever going to be competitive in Europe. Ajax would need a to spend a lot more money over a sustained period of time to do that and could well end up bankrupted from the effort with nothing to show for it.

As long as this financial arrangement persists, Ajax will have to content itself with being a big fish in a small pond...

I agree about our chances of being competitive in Europe, and have no wish to see the club bankrupt itself trying. Where my gripe lies, is in that we are no longer the big fish in the small pond -- even the 'small' fish are playing as well, if not better, than what we have been showing. With the performances on display so far (even being outplayed in the games we have won), we could very easily wind up 4th or 5th, if not worse.

And as far as talent coming through goes, it is a stated objective to showcase them in the 1st team and then sell them for as much as they can get -- so, with never enough experienced players to form a competitive team, where then is the talent to be a big fish going to come from?

My gripe with the board is that it doesn't care -- their only goal is to keep turning out product from the academy production line to add even more revenue to the coffers, and to hell with the team on the field. No one is saying that they should break the bank to buy players, but they need to find a better balance between amassing money and supporting a team with the modest ambition of being a big fish in a small pond.

I agree with you to a point, but let's not forget that we've had this same conversation on these boards at this point in the season every year for the last four years. Even in the glory years, we never won the Eredivisie more than four years in a row. In fact, no team has ever won the eredivisie more than four years in a row. So if we fail to win it this year, it may just be down to the fact that winning five title in a row is a difficult thing to do.

I think I agree in theory that we could do better at keeping some of our guys around longer or spending a little more on players. But in practice, I don't know how that's possible. There is such a gulf in the European game that there is little incentive for all but the biggest clubs to even try. So that leaves focusing on the domestic league and maybe (but not really) Europa. Also, I'm not sure if would even have been possible to keep a guy like Blind around any longer. I thought we did as good a job as possible holding off suitors for Eriksen, but still had to sell in the end. I guess I don't see how this would work in practice.

[Orange14]

The UEFA points table regards how many CL teams you are allocated shows in 2 years time Holland will only have 1 team in the CL and then they may have to qualify for the Ko round so Ajax do indeed need to be careful with money as CL money may not be available in say 2or 3 years.

However ,leaving aside we should contact our own 16 year olds, I agree we have set a max 5m euros for transfers but until some of the 17 and 18 year olds finally come through we still need to spend some money.2 or 3 players with a max 5m each is only 15m and thats out of 100m we hold in the bank.

These are the two key points. If one looks at the financials much of the surplus is a result of CL football over the past four years and the PSV financial difficulty are a result of no CL football. SPL has it just right about contracting the 15 year olds. Now maybe the three youth players who have left over the past year don't amount to much but since Ajax are relying on the academy they cannot afford slip ups here.

[SPL]

Have to say the only change in Cruyff's revoulution that I want to see is indeed contracting our own youth at 16.If we are concentrating on youth losing 3 in one summer is careless. If next summer more 16 year olds leave I think Cruyff and Co will come in for heavy criticism.

On the CL ,even Wenger says Arsenal cannot win it and indeed there are only 4 teams in his opinion who can win,Barca,Real,Bayern and Chelsea.If Arsenal feel they cannot compete we have nil chance.

On buying players I cannot help but say we could have bought better players in the last 2 or3 years had we spent the max 5m . Virgil v Dijk is a far better defender than V d Hoorn ,Maher better than Duarte.And surely having known since the WC Blind was going to leave we could have bought a decent replacement for him.You may come up with better examples but those 2 plus a decent DM would have meant us spending less than 10m which is not a lot.

We have indeed won 4 titles in a row but we need to keep winning that title .

[paladinby]

I don't want to off-top too much but Arsenal has enough money to win CL except they need a proper coach instead of an old whiner who lost the touch with reality and some squad cleansing. The CL is not NHL with it's playoff system when team has to win bo7 series to advance. You can even win CL without winning any game but final on pennos.

Back to the topic - some of our transfers look as sabotage. We don't have to buy a number 4 defender or loan some benchwarmers who make no difference. If Feye can scout a player like Pelle then why can't we? The best players we had in recent years are Suarez and Ibrahimovic didn't come from our academy which is sad but true.

[afcajax73]

I don't want to off-top too much but Arsenal has enough money to win CL except they need a proper coach instead of an old whiner who lost the touch with reality and some squad cleansing. The CL is not NHL with it's playoff system when team has to win bo7 series to advance. You can even win CL without winning any game but final on pennos.

Back to the topic - some of our transfers look as sabotage. We don't have to buy a number 4 defender or loan some benchwarmers who make no difference. If Feye can scout a player like Pelle then why can't we? The best players we had in recent years are Suarez and Ibrahimovic didn't come from our academy which is sad but true.

if your going back as far as ibrahimovic then we have had some real top quality players from our academy.. im sure i dont need to name them.

[SPL]

We have been linked with Daley Sinkgraven,the Heerenveen midfielder,and talk we may try and buy him in January but Man u want him and will leave him on loan in Heerenveen.It will be interesting to see him against us.

Ajax may get criticised for not buying young MF but Klaassen and Andersen are developing, and v d Beek and Nouri will hopefully be in our squad next season,although not likely to start.DM we have Riedewald and Bazoer.I see Serero playing DM at present with Riedewald getting more playing time in that position as the season goes by.

My big moan is that with the above all young we need a good quality experience MF.Viegever is just a decent back up defender,Zimling not good enough and Duarte also not good enough although I don't think Serero is any better than him.

I do think we have some real talent in MF coming through .

[Orange14]

Looks like we might beat out some of the big Euro Clubs for Martin Odegaard, a 15 year old Norwegian attacking midfielder who already plays in the first division and has been capped by the NT. He can sign a contract in mid-December when he turns 16.

[King Litti]

Looks like we might beat out some of the big Euro Clubs for Martin Odegaard

I've heard about this kid, but haven't heard he has been linked to a move to Amsterdam. Cool! Really hope he will choose us over money. I think we have a chance as we are a team that is renown for developing youth and are not shy of giving them a chance early on. Great talent, no doubt.

[Orange14]

^^He's just agreed to a visit with the club and look at the training facilities for the youth. I'm sure he will be impressed. The major question is how soon he sees himself getting first team football in a higher league. As we all know the Ajax system is great for young players to develop and I hope that some of them tell him this. We'll see what happens come December.

[SPL]

I would like to see this kid join us as it would be a great boost ,a potential world class talent deciding to join us over the rich teams.My only reservation is I would not want it to harm the progress of our own 2 talented attacking midfielders Nouri and v d Beek.

It would be nice to see all 3 come through into our first team.

[ofey]

Edwin says we have no money for him but who knows?

If he does come it will be insane.

[SPL]

FDB today says he wants Milik signed up and also wants Daley Sinkgraven . Obviously we have an option on Milik and we should take that next month and sign him long term. Don't know enough about Sinkgraven at 19 is he whats needed with 17 year old talents V d Beek and Nouri training with the first team next month.

Still think we need a quality experienced no 6,DM.Serero works hard and is better at DM but is short of quality.
Andersen for all his football talent and brain is still physcially lightweight and easily pushed off the ball so maybe Sinkgraven will play with Andersen and leave Klaassen playing behind them in a more defensive role!

One old experienced defensive player mentioned is Heitinga ,who has been dropped from Hertha Berlin ,but he appears washed up as a player although only 31.

[Rooie]

Just in; Ajax signed Andre Onana, an 18-year old goalkeeper from Barcelona a 3-year deal, starting july 2015. Was the goalkeeper of Barca U19 who did really well again our U19.