Former Ajax Players

Bericht door **Kowalczyk** » vr jun 30, 2006 11:42 am

Remarkable!

NOS Teletekst reports that our good mate Joey Didulica has signed a contract at AZ.

Very nice to see Joey back in Holland (just a shame it ain't at Ajax).

K.

Henk de Gier · Bericht door **Henk de Gier** » vr jun 30, 2006 12:14 pm

He's a crap keeper Ko, glad that he's not back at Ajax.

Bericht door **peter** » vr jun 30, 2006 12:17 pm

Well he wasn't that good. One terrific match against Valencia, in which he had all the luck of the world. He was just an average goalie to me. No special skills and very insecure when it came to cornerkicks and high balls.

Blind3 · Bericht door **Blind3** » vr jun 30, 2006 4:57 pm

Didn't he also figure in the 0:2 at Lyon . IIRC, Ajax got a goal early and late, with lots of Lyon in between.

I agree with Ko. Great guy. Wish him the best . Except v. Ajax.

The aftermath of a 2002 De Toekomst Ajax 2 match v. De Graafschap 2 , with Joe D. buying our group several rounds of sambuca and , along with JO'B , hanging out with us is forever etched in my brain. A priceless Rendevous in Amsterdam evening.

AsgAarD_xxx · Bericht door **AsgAarD_xxx** » vr jun 30, 2006 10:26 pm

Peter schreef:Well he wasn't that good. One terrific match against Valencia, in which he had all the luck of the world. He was just an average goalie to me. No special skills and very insecure when it came to cornerkicks and high balls.

Wasn't it a game against Roma? Huh... or maybe it was Valencia? I don't remember...

As for the second part of your post - I think that Ajax always had the problems with goalkeepers. Feel free to correct me, but in my opinion only Stanley Menzo and Edwin van der Sar were good. Yes, only good... Ajax (and dutch football as well) didn't have a real star in a goal. Someone like Peter Schmeichel or even G. Buffon... Someone which could be a team leader. Didulica is not a great one, but I may say exactly the same about Grim, Lobont, Vonk, Stekelenburg and Gentenaar...

DanK · Bericht door **DanK** » za jul 01, 2006 2:57 am

Probably biased, but I thought Didulica was pretty good (not brilliant, but not too shabby either). Better than Lobont, at the time better than any other keeper we had.

I think its a good purchase for AZ.

FlaFlu · Bericht door **FlaFlu** » za jul 01, 2006 5:14 am

AsgAarD_xxx schreef:
Peter schreef:Well he wasn't that good. One terrific match against Valencia, in which he had all the luck of the world. He was just an average goalie to me. No special skills and very insecure when it came to cornerkicks and high balls.
Wasn't it a game against Roma? Huh... or maybe it was Valencia? I don't remember...

As for the second part of your post - I think that Ajax always had the problems with goalkeepers. Feel free to correct me, but in my opinion only Stanley Menzo and Edwin van der Sar were good. Yes, only good... Ajax (and dutch football as well) didn't have a real star in a goal. Someone like Peter Schmeichel or even G. Buffon... Someone which could be a team leader. Didulica is not a great one, but I may say exactly the same about Grim, Lobont, Vonk, Stekelenburg and Gentenaar...

Stanley Menzo was (as we say in Dutch) een verschrikking most of the time. And you can bet your life that that isn't too positive. ;)

Van der Sar was more than only good though. I don't think Holland have had many better goalkeepers and Van der Sar is a truly great goalkeeper, in my opinion.

Bericht door **Kowalczyk** » za jul 01, 2006 10:12 am

Stanley Menzo was a great guy and very popular with the fans, but - let's face it - a shit goalkeeper.

(By the way: Stanley Menzo will coach FC Volendam next season!)

Edwin van der Sar between 1993 and 1998 was the best goalkeeper in the world by a mile (yes - better than Peter Schmeichel, although he got more attention because he played in England). Best goalkeeper ever to come out of Holland.

K.

DanK · Bericht door **DanK** » za jul 01, 2006 10:41 am

Kowalczyk schreef:...Edwin van der Sar between 1993 and 1998 was the best goalkeeper in the world by a mile (yes - better than Peter Schmeichel, although he got more attention because he played in England). Best goalkeeper ever to come out of Holland.K.

No arguements from me with that one. One of the best keepers I have seen. Still top 5 keeper the world over imo.

Great player (esp with the ball at his feet).

SPL · Bericht door **SPL** » za jul 01, 2006 12:37 pm

Edwin is still one of the very best. He lost his way playing for Fulham but the only goalie in our country better than him is Cech of Chelsea, who of course has the benefit of a brilliant defence unlike Edwin at the scum.

AsgAarD_xxx · Bericht door **AsgAarD_xxx** » za jul 01, 2006 2:12 pm

No doubts that van der Sar is the best dutch goalkeeper, but I still think that we shouldn't call him the best of the world (even in the 90's). He saved all the shots that he *had* to stop, but conceded majority of shots which were not for saving... The great goalkeeper is when he stops the strikers in "100% occasions'... So in my opinion Schmeichel was better than van der Sar.

As for Menzo - his first period in Ajax wasn't so bad ;) . But when he came back to Amsterdam for the 2nd period, he was real crap...

aveslacker · Bericht door **aveslacker** » za jul 01, 2006 7:22 pm

What about van Breukelen? He was a pretty damn good goalie as well. I always rated him right up there with van der Sar.

DanK · Bericht door **DanK** » zo jul 02, 2006 4:31 am

aveslacker schreef:What about van Breukelen? He was a pretty damn good goalie as well. I always rated him right up there with van der Sar.

If my memory serves me well, I remember van Breukelen being a decent keeper but it was more about attitude than true brilliance.

Not bad, but not great...entertaining though :D

Ayman · Bericht door **Ayman** » zo jul 02, 2006 1:27 pm

I thought Van der Sar had alot of critics in the mid 90's, I rate him highly, even better then Schmiechel, but I have to admit, when I became an Ajacied and Oranje fan in 1996, Van der Sar didnt seem assured 100% between the posts, Im refering to the France 2-1 Holland friendly in 1997, there are a few more, I cant seem to remember now.

Bericht door **Kowalczyk** » do jul 06, 2006 10:04 pm

Dutch general interest weekly Nieuwe Revu had a major cover story on Donny Huysen the other week. Huysen (1973) was a major Ajax talent. 'The new Cruyff', according to some. He never made it: after only one appearance for Ajax-1 (August 1993) he moved on to play for AZ, Haarlem and Go Ahead Eagles.

His football career wasn't what people expected, but after that it went seriously wrong. On 31 May of this year he was sentenced to five years imprisonment for cocaine dealing. Apparently he had some major buyers in the U.K. Fifty kilograms of coke were found by English police in a container in Felixstowe - and Donny Huysen was f*cked.

Huysen was also a (minor) player in the large syndicate of people like Cor van Hout and Willem Holleeder, and the Amsterdam Hell's Angels. Some of these people were responsible for the famous kidnapping of Freddy Heineken back in the day. In recent years many of the big shots involved in this syndicate have been shot dead in Amsterdam. We've had a whole series of criminal executions here and the police are playing the game in a smart way now: they were always unable to find sufficient evidence against several 'white collar' criminals, but some of them are now scared to death and totally paranoid, thinking that they will be next. This has made it easier for the police to get these guys to talk.

Ironically, these people regularly did business on the main stand of De Meer and (later) the Amsterdam ArenA. Some of them had good connections and it was easy for them to get some Ajax tickets... (and they were also spotted at FC Haarlem's Business Club). Goes to show: sometimes the real criminals are not behind the goals, but in the most expensive seats on the main stand...

Donny Huysen... I've seen him play, but he's now a jailbird and it sounds like he's seriously screwed up his life.

K.

AsgAarD_xxx · Bericht door **AsgAarD_xxx** » do jul 06, 2006 10:15 pm

Very sad story... Thank you Ko for writing it. I hope we won't have more things like that... Not in Ajax...

AsgAarD_xxx · Bericht door **AsgAarD_xxx** » wo jul 12, 2006 1:01 pm

According to the last news our former player - Cedric van der Gun - will play in Utrecht next season. He came there from Borussia Dortmund for free transfer.

Per · Bericht door **Per** » wo jul 12, 2006 2:49 pm

According to Swedish and Italian press, pendig a highly likely relegation to Serie B for Juventus, Zlatan is ready for Inter.

OPH, crack the champage ;)

Over Pasanens Head · Bericht door **Over Pasanens Head** » wo jul 12, 2006 9:19 pm

Per schreef:According to Swedish and Italian press, pendig a highly likely relegation to Serie B for Juventus, Zlatan is ready for Inter.

OPH, crack the champage ;)

What a great mixture Zlatan and Materazzi playing together - would be really interesting to see the training games between these two. Not too sure about champagne as it feels more like I should open a bottle of Newcastle Brown Ale

BTW Maxwell signed a 4 year deal with Inter today.

FlaFlu · Bericht door **FlaFlu** » do jul 13, 2006 6:29 am

Actually Maxwell had already signed in January. Today was his presentation as an Inter player to the press and general public.

Blind3 · Bericht door **Blind3** » vr jul 14, 2006 6:23 pm

Glad Maxwell went to a club that plays attacking football. That said, I just hope signings like this and ,possibly , Zlatan wouldn't sentence Ajax to play Inter year after year. We seem to draw them as it is without scheduling matches in the name of seeing former heroes.

Bericht door **ajaxusa** » ma jul 17, 2006 4:44 pm

This is pretty juicy stuff:

If he was not on the phone hounding referees, Moggi would spend his time playing Championship Manager, the real-life version.

From another phone tap, the general manager was heard telling Zlatan Ibrahimovic to play badly, and convinced Ajax to sell him.

When that failed to work, the Swede was told to create trouble by kicking Rafael van der Vaart and John Heitinga during training, causing so much friction at the club that the Amsterdam outfit finally sent him packing to Turin.

(From THE FALL FROM HEAVEN by Wang Meng Meng in The Electric New Paper, Singapore)

Any truth to it, do you suppose?

AsgAarD_xxx · Bericht door **AsgAarD_xxx** » ma jul 17, 2006 5:13 pm

It could be the truth. I've read that news also on polish websites and newspapers (not tabloids). So it looks like it's sad but true :sad: .

Bericht door **Kowalczyk** » ma jul 17, 2006 5:25 pm

I read that, too. Could be true, could be complete rubbish.

It's one of those things we'll never know (cos everyone involved will deny it until Zlatan is 75 and publishes his memoirs or something).

K.

Henk de Gier · Bericht door **Henk de Gier** » ma jul 17, 2006 6:51 pm

news on Nordin Wooter, he's out of contract but stays in shape by training with Young Ajax.