Ajax Youth & Amateurs

[SPL]

Very bad news , Jip Bartels just 18 and a striker who is under contract did his knee ligaments last year and was out for 9 months .He returned to our A2 back in November but I read today that he has now torn the ligaments in his other knee and could be out for another 9 months.

Very sad news for the boy .

[SPL]

u19's cup quarters today and both A1 and A2 in action . Both games ended in a draw after normal time so it was penalties in both games. A1 lost to AZ A1 but our A2 beat ADO A1 . Maybe our A2 team will have to give the A1's some coaching on penalty kicks!!!

[SPL]

We are looking to sign another Danish talent a young 16 year old striker/no10, called Viktor Fischer.
He has come to Amsterdam and with Lerby as his agent he is likely to sign. He has had bigger clubs after him but like the other 2 Danes here ,he feels this is the best club to develop at.

I know I am anti signing 16 year olds from abroad and do have a go at Arsenal and Chelsea but they buy off the parents and they end up paying no more than £200,000 in training fees. We have paid over 1m euros for both Eriksen and Boilesen and the sum of 1.6m euros is being mentioned for this latest kid. It may not make it right but at least when we buy 16 year olds from abroad we do pay proper transfer fees.These 3 Danes would have joined another foreign team had they not joined us .
We have not just gone and pinched some kid for nothing as all 3 Danes had contracts with their clubs,the same with the young Swiss kid we are going to sign in the summer.

At present Chelsea and Arsenal are looking to rob Fwords youth with as many as 4 x16 year olds being
touted from Fword youth.They are looking to pinch these kids before they sign their first contracts with Fword and can then get them on the cheap and this is what I object to.

[Orange14]

I know I am anti signing 16 year olds from abroad and do have a go at Arsenal and Chelsea but they buy off the parents and they end up paying no more than £200,000 in training fees. We have paid over 1m euros for both Eriksen and Boilesen and the sum of 1.6m euros is being mentioned for this latest kid. It may not make it right but at least when we buy 16 year olds from abroad we do pay proper transfer fees.These 3 Danes would have joined another foreign team had they not joined us .
We have not just gone and pinched some kid for nothing as all 3 Danes had contracts with their clubs,the same with the young Swiss kid we are going to sign in the summer.

It's a fine line to toe. Without a UEFA-wide policy signings that involve a fair compensation for the parent club are probably the only fair way to do this otherwise you see the Arsenal/Chelsea poaching.

[SPL]

I mentioned in a Jong thread the competition from the A1 next season well this is clearly shown up by U18 and U19 youth Ints next week .

Hahn,Ligeon,Denswil, de Kamps,Bouy , Lukoki all A1 are in the U19 plus Koppers who has been promoted to the Jong Ajax since January.

Dijks and de Sa are in the U18 with Ondaan standby .

Klaassen would have been in the U19 and Veltman would probably been standby for U19 if both were fit . That leaves Boere as the only A1 regular not involved with Youth Int but as a striker he is behind Castaignos in the U19 .

Clearly a lot of talent at this age group . The U17 team has by contrast only 2 Ajax kids but 7 from Fword in a group of 18 . Trouble is 2 of Fwords kids are taking the money from England ,Ake at Chelsea and Rekik at Man City so both will likely disappear

[Orange14]

Way cool; my home team DC United is sending their youth squad to play in the Aegon Future Cup that is scheduled for the end of April!!! It's an U-17 tourney and has a international flavor: http://english.ajax.nl/News/Archive/Art ... ounced.htm

[SPL]

Just to finish my weekend report I went through to the Arena on Saturday afternoon , soon spent about 60 euros in the shop and then a short walk and I was in de Toekomst . The A1 were playing Fword A1 and the game was very poor . Fword won with a 90th min goal from acorner. Boilesen looked ok and I liked the left back Dijks ad both wingers de Sa and Ondaan were lively . The central striker ,Kip is about 5 foot tall and the smallest player I have ever seen. In the 2nd half Schoop a big strong lad from the A2 played and looked a lot better .

And at the end I joined all these little lads and got an autograph, Bergkamp,my sons all time favourite player .There must have been 2or 3 thousand watching.

There was a feel of magic about the place as this is the most famous youth academy in the World still
and I have always wanted to spend a Saturday afternoon there. It was hot and sunny and I went back to the city having completed the first half of my dream with the crowning moment to come on Sunday .

[SPL]

I clearly chose the wrong game last week when I watched our A1 lose 1-0 .Midweek they beat NEC 4-1 and today Vitesse 6-1 . 1 more win from 4 games to be champs. Why couldn't they have scored 6 last week .Last Saturday at the Toekomst already seems along time a go.

[Kowalczyk]

Ajax A1 beat PSV at De Toekomst today (4-2). Decisive win: they are the Dutch champions. Congratulations!

It's a good lot, this season's A1.

K.

[SPL]

yes a good result and the title and clearly some talent there.

[SPL]

Another Dutch u 17 joining us Nick de Bondt a left winger from Vitesse.

[SPL]

There is an Aegon Youth Cup this weekend for U 17's at de Toekomst and our B1 team have just won their semi v B Munich . From what the experts on Ajaxnetwerk are saying no one is outstanding.
There have been 3x U16's ie a year younger than the rest, playing regularly this season.Kishna the best of the lot has a bad cartlidge problem and may be out for months ,he has been injured for nearly 3months already. Because of longterm injuries 2 other U16's playing regular at this level are centre backs Nordhoff and Papamelodias.

The current tournement has seen some B2 ie U16's in action but one who stands out for me due to his age is Terry Lartey Sanniez a defender who has played regularly at U16 level this season. He is 14 years old ie born August 1996 so in this tournement he is 2 years under age but was sent off yesterday !

[Orange14]

There is an Aegon Youth Cup this weekend for U 17's at de Toekomst and our B1 team have just won their semi v B Munich .

Good that they progressed. I don't know if the final will be shown for free but you might check here as it does indicate it will be: http://www.eredivisie.nl/ (Final is slated for 14.55 today against Anderlecht) I watched their match versus Ajax Cape Town on Saturday and there were some good players on display as the team easily won 3-0. Of course it is difficult to properly assess this age group since some mature early and then never get much better. Still there were moments of brilliance such as the first goal from the right winger that was reminiscent of van Basten's goal against the Soviets in the 1988 Euro.

[SPL]

Just watched the second half of the final Anderlecht won 1-0 ,goal in the first half. Ajax did all the pressing in the second half and created chances but to no avail.Our defence did not have to do anything in the second half.

Watching the game in the sunshine took me back 3 weeks ago when I spent a sunny afternoon in de Toekomst.

[Kowalczyk]

Interesting little interview in The Guardian: Jamie Lawrence, an English kid who left England as a 16 year-old and is now in the Ajax youth system...

Read it here!

Makes you proud. Quite flattering.

K.

[acab]

Interesting little interview in The Guardian: Jamie Lawrence, an English kid who left England as a 16 year-old and is now in the Ajax youth system...

Read it here!

Makes you proud. Quite flattering.

K.

Hah, an english in Ajax! I think, he's the first. May be there were some in the early 20s, i don't know

[Kowalczyk]

I think one Englishman played in Ajax-1: Ray Clarke in 1978-1979. He was very popular with the fans and did fantastically well (44 matches, 38 goals in all competitions), but Ajax's notoriously grumpy chairman Ton Harmsen was not impressed and wanted to sell Clarke (Ajax were in dire straits at the time). There was fan protest ("Ray must stay" banners everywhere) and I think Clarke himself wanted to stay, but he was sold to Club Bruges.

As far as I know he was the only ever Englishman to play in Ajax's first team. I looked him up on Wikipedia and it appears that he is now working as a scout for Middlesbrough.

English coaches at Ajax; that's a different story. Ajax had many.

Harold Rose (1925-1926)
Stanley Castle (1926-1928)
Robert Smith (1947-1948)
Walter Crook (1948-1950)
Robert Thomson (1950-1953)
Vic Buckingham (1959-1961 and 1964-1965)
Keith Spurgeon (1961-1962)
Jack Rowley (1963-1964)
And of course: Jack Reynolds (1915-1925, 1928-1940, 1945-1947 and a few months in 1950; more than 25 seasons in total).

K.

[Flipster81]

Anyone remember the famous or infamous Sonny 'Luke' Pike lauded as the best british talent ever? Was a member of our academy for a while.

[SPL]

Lawrence finishes with the youth this season and has been in our A2 team but injured this season.
I would not think he is staying with us but still a nice article. I did know we had someone born in England in the A2's but thought he probably had lived here for years with his parents.

[SE6Ajacied]

Wow, cheers for posting that, didn't know we had an English guy at Ajax (and presumably a Londoner as well) .

I didn't realise either that anyone English had ever played for Ajax. I thought Frank Stapleton (Irish I know!) was the only one from over here (ie England/Scotland/Wales and 2 x Ireland).

[SE6Ajacied]

Not sure how new this is but there is a TV Gelderland special on the Terbourg Tournement featuring Ajax coached by Frank de Boer. Haven't watched all of it yet but scanned through it and Ajax are on at the end. I think the games are a couple of years old but think the programme is new.

http://www.terborgtoernooi.nl/voetbalto ... lderland-1

[Blind3]

Ajax Netwerk is running a story about the loan of Sergio Padt to Go Ahead Eagles.

[acab]

Does some TV show Copa Amsterdam???

[SPL]

Been away for a few days and just catching up with news . Ajax A1 won the Copa Amsterdam at the weekend.

Final youth to get a contract is Ricardo Kip , contract to June 2012 . He is an attacking midfielder but has only really been a sub for the A1

[SPL]

The A1 are playing the Terborg tournement this weekend , hopefully they actually then stop playing for a summer break!!
Bernard Jari a 19 year old Czech midfielder, who has already trialed with us earlier in the seaon, is playing as a trialist.

Not sure we really need any more midfielders at that level !