New Players for Ajax

[ajaxcolombia]

Urby says he's open to an Ajax return. Good or bad news? As long as he's used mostly as a left winger wouldn't be that bad to have him. Don't know if he offers much as a left back compared to blind or boilesen.

[souras84]

Urby's football career has been very strange, with him not having found his true position anywhere. Just as he started playing well, he left Ajax. Anyway, he wouldn't be bad if he returned with a low contract in an attempt to revive his career.

What about the other Groningen wingers, Cherry and Kostic? The playmaker Ziyech?

[SPL]

Since we have been away we have now signed on a years loan ,with the option to buy, the Polish striker Arkadiusz Milik. Born in February 1994 so only 20 and may be one of the oldest forwards next season! Hes older than Fischer Zivkovic and Kishna

[Dave the mac]

Don't really see the need to bring in former players like Urby and Van der Vaart. I like em' just fine but Ajax is more youth oriented although there should be a good mix. Was hoping that Paulsen might stick around though....

Am very excited about the new strikers Zivkovic and Milik. Zivkovic should start from day one, no sense in holding him back! I saw something during the 'blackout' where deBoer said Bojan may be back next season, I would be okay with that too. With Fisher, when back from injury, and Kishna, Ajax would have some real quality options up front.

[King Litti]

Hope Zivkovic can finally be the number 9 we have been looking for. Siggy just wasn't good enough and Bojan seems to be stuck in the promising youth category even though he is already 23. Though I prefer us buying young talent over washed up guys (we don't need another Kuffour, Atouba, Tainio, Urzaiz) we need a solid playmaker that can handle his business domestically and in the CL. Inside the Eredivisie I suppose Tadic and Clasie would be good options, but since Clasie is a fan favorite and a long term F word man, it is hard to picture him in our jersey. Also if Moisander leaves we need a experienced center back. As promising as they are, I'm not sure can Veltman and Deswil handle what ever the CL will through at us.

[rjf1]

I think that with a year's experience under his belt, Veltman will do all right. Denswil, OTOH, really needs to work on positioning and reading (anticipating the direction of play). He looked way out of his depth as far as that goes on any number of occasions. Hopefully, they can work with him over the summer to bring him up to standard. We still need a Poulsen type player who can steady the ship when things get frantic, no matter what else happens.

[souras84]

And so we have signed Nick Viergever... A good option, but still making me worry about Denswil and Van der Hoorn.

[Orange14]

And so we have signed Nick Viergever... A good option, but still making me worry about Denswil and Van der Hoorn.

Perhaps they are still not convinced about Denswil as a first team player. I also think Viergever can play left fullback which means that Blind will not have to cover for Bolisen if he gets hurt again.

[Tom_]

So does this mean Moisander's officially gone? Or it's just assumed that he will go?

[Orange14]

@Tom - the latter; he's expressed a desire to move to the next level. However, I think the only team thus far that has expressed interest is Fulham and they are not playing in the EPL any longer.

[SPL]

Also talk of Everton coming in for Moisander. I assume he has decided to move on hence todays signing.

Don't know that much about Viergever but he can play CD and LB so would cover for Boilesen and Denswil.We do need experience and he has played 200 league games.PSV were looking at him and its nice we have bought someone in before selling. In fact Zivkovic and Milik have also been bought first with no one actually being sold.

We still need to buy a winger and an attacking midfielder.

[Tom_]

I'm not sure, in addition to what SPL mentioned I would say we need to either buy or promote a second winger and maybe a defensive midfielder (or do we have backup for Blind?). Not that I can suggest transfer targets but I can't see us spending on AMF with Klaassen, Serero, Anderson, Fischer and maybe even Siem still in the squad next year.

[Dave the mac]

I saw a bit of Poland/Lithuania today and our new forward Milik. I liked the 20-25 min that I saw. He even scored a nice goal. He's mobile and big: almost 2 meters! Ajax has been lacking a tall presence up front (and in defense) for sometime.
I believe he's on loan with an option to buy, which I think is smart...you never know how a player will fit in.

Also nice to see Viergever from AZ purchased. A versatile player but at 1.8 m seems undersized to play CB. Maybe back up Boilesen and Blind at DM. I'd really like to see Mitchell Dijks back from Heerenveen where he spent last season on loan, he had a very good season playing at LB and CB. Big and fast!
Other than that a replacement for Van Rhijn would be nice.... Schone at CM not RW along with some young players coming up and it's looking like a nice squad!

But really nice to see Ajax being pro-active in getting new guys and not waiting until some of our better players leave and not having options.

[SPL]

Good to hear about Milik scoring for Poland. I too am pleased that we are buying replacement players before selling. I think we are still in the market for a right winger.

Also I wonder what we might do with goalies. Vermeer should go ,V d Hart wants to be either our No 2 or maybe get loaned out and Go Ahead Eagles fancy a loan. To confuse matters Cillessen is ahead of Krul and Vorm and if he performs well in the WC maybe we will get abid for him .

[SPL]

18 year old Croatian winger Robert Muric of Dinamo Zagreb is about to sign for us for free.There has been a dispute over whether his contract is up or not but today suggests he is in Amsterdam to sign for just a training fee. It is reported that Spurs and Man U amongst others were interested so if we sign him he is clearly a talent.

[Dave the mac]

Very pleased, and surprised, to see Ajax signed Muric. Pleased because he apparently is quite a talent. Surprised because so many other clubs, and big clubs, were interested in him too. There yet may still be some legal issues to sort out with the transfer but it's very exciting and a bit of a coup.

[souras84]

Do you think he'll play first team football soon?

[Dave the mac]

Unsure when Muric will be able to play. Apparently he will be able to start training with Ajax this next week but until things are cleared up with Zagreb he can't play. It's been quite a ordeal for him, from what I can gather, and he's not played a competitive match for a year nor trained with Zagreb for some time also, which no doubt has hindered his development.
Zagreb is upset with Ajax...they want more money for one of their young stars. Sounds familiar....

[ajaxcolombia]

We look a little lightweight in some positions from what I saw today against Benfica. but to me we have three clear pressing needs: a winger, a forward and a box-to-box midfielder. Good number 9's are almost impossible to come by. Johannsson from AZ is probably the only decent one left, maybe Castaignos, but no rumors of interest in him. Wingers should be a little easier. I don't like Schone to continue playing right winger, it would be better if he could go back to midfield (maybe klaassen could play false 9). No rumors that I know of for winger. Basacikoglu from Heerenveen would be a nice option and can play both wings, just saying would give a little more width to the team. And finally, what I really think would really help would be a box to box midfielder to strengthen our midfield. Serero is good distributing the ball and occasionally puts a good through ball but mostly just passes backwards and is kind of lightweight. It would be nice to have a really balanced midfield, with blind staying and having a player alongside him who can both help him defensively and push forward, so that we don't suffer as when klaassen drifts out of a game.

[Tom_]

Yeah, I doubt we'll be looking at any #9s with Milik and Zivkovic having already been added.

I agree with your other points, to me it looks like we're pretty much in the same boat as last year. No real wingers and no midfielders who use the ball well. Too early to say of course, but Kishna looks like a player from the Viktor Fischer "dribble the ball straight into your opponent" mould. Schöne doesn't have the physical attributes of a winger and I'd rather see him in a 4-man midfield.

Doesn't make much sense complaining when we've won four titles in a row, but I'm not looking forward to a repeat of the football we played last season, so I hope that if the squad doesn't change de Boer will at least consider a different approach. Easy to say from the comfort of my armchair.

With the media hailing van Gaal as a football genius these days, I wonder if we would've been better off if Ajax had chosen him over Cruijff a few years ago. van Gaal is a pragmatist and at least he'd get the best out of our limited squad. To me, the Cruijff / de Boer insistence on the Ajax system is nice in principle, because it's supposed to result in attractive football.... well, not last year!

[aveslacker]

Yeah, I doubt we'll be looking at any #9s with Milik and Zivkovic having already been added.

I agree with your other points, to me it looks like we're pretty much in the same boat as last year. No real wingers and no midfielders who use the ball well. Too early to say of course, but Kishna looks like a player from the Viktor Fischer "dribble the ball straight into your opponent" mould. Schöne doesn't have the physical attributes of a winger and I'd rather see him in a 4-man midfield.

Doesn't make much sense complaining when we've won four titles in a row, but I'm not looking forward to a repeat of the football we played last season, so I hope that if the squad doesn't change de Boer will at least consider a different approach. Easy to say from the comfort of my armchair.

With the media hailing van Gaal as a football genius these days, I wonder if we would've been better off if Ajax had chosen him over Cruijff a few years ago. van Gaal is a pragmatist and at least he'd get the best out of our limited squad. To me, the Cruijff / de Boer insistence on the Ajax system is nice in principle, because it's supposed to result in attractive football.... well, not last year!

I don't know, we've done nothing but win titles since Cruijff came back, and Van Gaal's Oranje hardly played attractive soccer in Brazil.

[ajaxcolombia]

Mokotjo from pec zwolle seems to be ajax's clearest transfer interest, probably as replacement for blind. Despite playing a fantastic match in the cup final against us, he didn't exactly light up the eredivise last season. He's well behind blind, celso ortiz and Felipe Gutierrez, in my opinion the three best defensive midfielders in the eredivise (not sure if clasie qualifies as a defensive midfielder). However he has an above average passing accuracy which is why de boer might like him (honestly, no more pitty-patty football).

[ajaxcolombia]

Ajax pursuing Eto'o apparently. Really weird news I read on goal.com. he'll probably ask for a bigger salary than ajax is willing to pay, and why, if we had such money, would we spend it on him?

[King Litti]

Read about this as well. He apparently turned down some premier league teams cause they couldn't match his wage demands. How could we pay that kind of money?

Maybe the fact that we play champions league ball could lure him in at a lower salary. He would also move as a free transfer so this could be a sweet deal. Maybe he is not as good as he was few years ago, but I think he would still give some grey hairs to the defenders in the Eredivisie if he would join us. interesting, but this could be just a rumor.

[Manneken Pis]

Liverpool now want Eto, which means we're out of the picture I assume.
It would have been a very strange transfer anyway in my view..