New Players for Ajax

[orange goblin]

official also for our website.
he is an ajacied and will wear shirt number 3.
three, four more players to go ;)

engelaar or someone NOW in midfield, defour for next year, and a backup for KJH as he will not stay eternally by us.
and also a centre back, as heitinga will leave us too.
there so much work to do, mister van geel, and I already know that you won't fulfill all these needs. maybe not even one more.

[aveslacker]

Also hearing rumors of a possible Engelaar move to Ajax for 9 million, which Twente would then use to buy Amrabat and Affelay. Or something like that.

[Kowalczyk]

I would rather get El Ahmadi than Engelaar, to be honest. Different type, but I really rate him...

K.

[aveslacker]

As I've noted elsewhere, there's a movement of sorts in the Dutch language forums to have Ajax purchase Michael Bradley from Heerenveen.

I think that would be a fantastic idea.

[aveslacker]

I would rather get El Ahmadi than Engelaar, to be honest. Different type, but I really rate him...

K.

I don't know if Twente is willing to part with him, for even 15 million euros. I don't think they'd be too thrilled with losing Engelaar, and El Ahmadi has more upside, I think.

[Jesse]

As I've noted elsewhere, there's a movement of sorts in the Dutch language forums to have Ajax purchase Michael Bradley from Heerenveen.

I think that would be a fantastic idea.

Where did you get this?

[aveslacker]

As I've noted elsewhere, there's a movement of sorts in the Dutch language forums to have Ajax purchase Michael Bradley from Heerenveen.

I think that would be a fantastic idea.

Where did you get this?

There's a few posters in the Aankopen thread who are hot to have Bradley.

For example:

Ik snap echt niet dat Bradley nog niet binnen is. Hoe duidelijker moet het zijn, Martin?! Maduro is weg, Bradley is een verbetering ten opzicht van Maduro, en Heerenveen wilt hem dolgraag voor de zomer verkopen!

[Kowalczyk]

It's very good to hear that Ajax want to land another defender, presumably a central defender. That's what we need and it's a good thing that they acknowledge this.

One thing's for sure: it won't be Khalid Boulahrouz. Martin van Geel: "We contacted him some three months ago and he was absolutely not interested. So that was it."

Fair enough.

I hope Ajax will come up with someone I've never heard of. Those purchases are usually the best...

K.

[aveslacker]

FWIW Bradley is a midfielder, but would be a very good addition to Ajax. Not what they need this year, but he would be a great successor to Davids.

[Kowalczyk]

I always had my doubts about Denny Landzaat (some of my English mates have informed me that he's not been particularly impressive at Wigan), but I do have mixed feelings about the fact that Feyenoord have snapped him up...

That's weird. Why are they signing a good name like Landzaat, whereas we still don't have the midfielder or the central defender we're looking for...?

It seems like no-one's having a hard time finding the players they want, except us!

K.

[Cedric]

I don't think we really need a midfielder : unless Ajax play with four midfielders, he would be on the bench most of the time, as Maduro would have done if he had stayed. Ok, our 3 guys currently in midfield are pretty old, but Landzaat wouldn't have been the guy for the future...
So I don't really like to see Landzaat at Feyenoord, but I'm quite glad he didn't come...

[bluedaddy19]

It's very good to hear that Ajax want to land another defender, presumably a central defender. That's what we need and it's a good thing that they acknowledge this.

One thing's for sure: it won't be Khalid Boulahrouz. Martin van Geel: "We contacted him some three months ago and he was absolutely not interested. So that was it."

Fair enough.

I hope Ajax will come up with someone I've never heard of. Those purchases are usually the best...

K.

i think we could do a good piece of business over in the czech rep./ukraine/russia area... somebody like one (or both) berezutskiy boy from CSKA moscow or hübschman from shakhtar or suchý of slavia prague (i'm sure we all remember him)

they'd each probably cost us in the 4-6 million euro range

[ajaxusa]

Ummm, Ajax Orlando became Ajax America and then pretty much died... I believe Ajax America still exists as a women's soccer club or something, but Ajax Amsterdam pretty much left the building, so I'm afraid all of that has died a death.

Ajax America is indeed gone and nearly forgotten. I spent a few days there years ago, getting to know the people who ran it, right around the time they re-branded from Orlando to America. So much promise, but it never worked out...

I just don't like it when someone says that Ajax shouldn't sign any Americans, because they're Americans.

Me neither, and I really doubt the people who count the most -- anyone actually associated with the club -- would hold such a provincial attitude. Their experience with John O'Brien (and Heerenveen's experience with Bradley, I suspect) suggests that Americans can be hard-working, competitive, useful and loyal servants of the club. I can't imagine there is any anti-American bias, once the player is deemed good enough.

By the way, if you want to see some "promising young American talent" check out the video on MoravekSoccerSchool.com which was sent to me by his father, head of the school. This is highlights of his 5 years old son, William "The Prodigy" Moravek.

[orange goblin]

Many reports in Italy suggest that the old-international Samuel Osei Kuffour from Ghana (ex Bayern Munchen and As Roma) will be monday in Amsterdam to do the medical tests and sign for us.
Not so bad

[SPL]

Also reports that we want Lindgren back from Groningen .Not sure they are going to let that happen this week!

[Venezuelan Ajacied]

Also reports that we want Lindgren back from Groningen .Not sure they are going to let that happen this week!

We really need to stop the Groningen thing here..enough is enough...why did we get rid of him in the first place...christ

[Venezuelan Ajacied]

Many reports in Italy suggest that the old-international Samuel Osei Kuffour from Ghana (ex Bayern Munchen and As Roma) will be monday in Amsterdam to do the medical tests and sign for us.
Not so bad

Its been a while since i have heard of this guy is he still capable of playing top football ???

[orange goblin]

last year he played in the italian serie A on loan to relegation-survivors Livorno. Not a bad season for him, but also not the top defender he was in Munchen. He returned this summer to As Roma but they didn't have plans on him, having the duo mexes-juan as starters, and also panucci and ferrari as subs. he had a trial at sunderland in september but evidently it has gone badly.
If he is fit he's not not a bad move for the Eredivisie and Ajax, anyway.

[bryan]

From what I've heard he has a very professional attitude, not unlike Stam.

[Blind3]

I'm all for any move that adds mettle, toughness, good positional play, and experience to our back line . If that's Sami Kuffour , I say go for it. An additional plus is that he probably won't cost an arm and a leg.

[Venezuelan Ajacied]

From what I've heard he has a very professional attitude, not unlike Stam.

Not according with the Ghana national team....he would be a plus anyways but it seems to me this would just be another ¨Luque¨ like move. Are good young defenders that hard to come by ?

[gordonvandekamp]

he would be a plus anyways but it seems to me this would just be another ¨Luque¨ like move. Are good young defenders that hard to come by ?

I think he would be a plus, and that's most important now.

He certainly sounds like a very capable defender, which we need desperately, and would meet, or hopefully exceed, our current crop of players in terms of quality. We can use the summer to get young defenders.

[Per]

Also reports that we want Lindgren back from Groningen .Not sure they are going to let that happen this week!

We really need to stop the Groningen thing here..enough is enough...why did we get rid of him in the first place...christ

Agreed. Feels like a couple of seasons ago when we were supposedly getting everyone from AZ after one good season. (ended up getting Lindenbergh only though).

If we're getting a Swede from Groningen I'd give my vote to Berg instead. 11 goals so far his first season away from Sweden and a serious contender to join the National squad for the EC this summer.

/ Per

[LucaS]

We're not looking for a striker

[Kowalczyk]

Not officially confirmed by Ajax.nl, but pretty much everywhere else...

We've completed the signing of Rasmus Lindgren, who was loaned out and sold to, but now bought back from FC Groningen for 2.5 million euros.

We also captured Samuel 'Sami' Kuffour, 31 year-old central defender of AS Roma, although he hardly ever played there (last appearance: April 2007). He spent eleven years at Bayern Munich and was a starter there for a long time. He's supposed to be the 'new Stam'.

So, we have our midfielder and our central defender... Now let's hope they're as brilliant as Ajax appear to think they are. News reports to appear on Ajax USA after the transfers have been confirmed on Ajax.nl.

K.