Oleguer Presas i Renom

[Blind3]

This transfer suddenly seems deader than my love life. A shame. It would've been nice to see a warrior poet in our colors.

If this move is dead, move on to the next. At least it's still several weeks before the season kicks off.

[Rooie]

According to a reliable source the deal will be concluded next monday (at least, the presentation will be next monday). Don't pin me on it, but it's far from being 'dead'.

[Cedric]

And if you read Dutch : http://www.soccernews.nl/news/49603

[Van basten]

Ajax Sign Oleguer

Dutch giants Ajax have agreed a deal with Barcelona defender Oleguer Presas. After the Amsterdam side reached an agreement with the Catalan club, the stopper signed a three-year deal with the Netherlands outfit... Ajax and Barcelona had already reached an agreement about the transfer fee. Ajax pay three million euros to the Catalan side. If the Amsterdam giants qualify for the Champions League in one of the next three years an extra 2.25 million will be paid.

Oleguer will travel to Amsterdam tomorrow, where he will sign a three-year deal worth 750,000 euros per season. The strong defender was surplus to requirements at Camp Nou.

The 28-year-old defender is the fourth new signing for the Dutch giants after the previous transfers of Ismael Aissati, Miralem Sulejmani and Dario Cvitanich.

However, the Amsterdam-based team aren’t finished with the transfer market after signing Oleguer. Indeed, they are looking to strengthen their squad with another defender.

Possible signings are FC Twente defender Robbie Wielaert and former Ajax man Aaron Mokoena, who is currently playing for Blackburn Rovers.

[Kowalczyk]

According to Ajax Netwerk he will be presented to the press on Monday...

K.

[Ayman]

This is an absolute fucking joke...Oleguer is a Barcelona reject, just like Roger was and look how he turned out. Oh by the way, Oleguer is a right back, he is not comfortable as a centre back. Anybody who is pleased with this signing is obviously smoking some cheap cocaine!!!!!

[LucaS]

This is an absolute fucking joke...Oleguer is a Barcelona reject, just like Roger was and look how he turned out.

Of course it is what you want to see. You also could have said that Oleguer is a Barcelona reject, just like Gabri is.

[peter]

Or Ronaldinho.

[Venezuelan Ajacied]

This is an absolute fucking joke...Oleguer is a Barcelona reject, just like Roger was and look how he turned out.

Of course it is what you want to see. You also could have said that Oleguer is a Barcelona reject, just like Gabri is.

Yeah bro their is one key aspect that you have left out...Oleguer was a starter for quite some time in Barcelona just like Gabri. Roger never made it as a starter at Barca....he was a bench warmer and was a bit old when he came to A`dam. Oleguer is in theory in his prime, at least age wise.

[SPL]

He may be a Barca reject but it is better than a Norwich reject.

[Ayman]

SPL said:

[/quote]He may be a Barca reject but it is better than a Norwich reject.

Well....hot shots....since when was Oleguer a centre back? He is a right back

[Cedric]

I wonder where you did get that idea...

[Van basten]

so it's official now, we signed him yesterday

[Kowalczyk]

In response to a few things that were said about Oleguer...

Let me start by saying that I don't know the guy. There's nothing I can say about his qualities. I don't follow Spanish football and I never paid close attention to Oleguer, so I will have to wait and see.

But, having said that, I looked into the facts and it is absolutely not true that he's a right back and nothing else than that. He played in the heart of defense very frequently, mostly as a duo with Puyol. He's a right footed defender, who can play as a right fullback and as a right-footed centre-back.

Also, you can't compare this dude to Roger, who never really made it in the first team. Oleguer has had 164 appearances in official games for Barcelona. He was a starter in the 2004-2005 campaign (mostly as a centre-back!), won the 2005 Liga championship as a fully-fledged starter. In the 2005-2006 season he lost his spot in the centre, but fought back into the team as a right fullback. Once again, he played almost every game.

He even was a starter at the start of the 2007-2008 season, but he lost his spot because he broke his hand and because he had become highly controversial by that time (after his Berria article).

Ajax can only buy Barcelona players if Barcelona want to sell. So, yes, he is a 'Barcelona reject', in a way. He was definitely out of favour. But a Barcelona reject is not necessarily someone who never made it in Barca's first team and who's "not good enough" for Barcelona (let alone Ajax). Once again: I never followed the guy, but I am convinced that a Barcelona bench-warmer with 164 first team appearances behind his name is not a crap football player.

This is a pretty high-profile signing, no matter how you look at it. I really, really can't believe how people are already slagging him off.

K.

[DanK]

This is a pretty high-profile signing, no matter how you look at it. I really, really can't believe how people are already slagging him off.

K.

No matter what happens thats true. I was speaking to my mate back in Oz, who is a fan of Spanish football and when I mentioned we were going to sign him, he was pretty impressed and was surprised we got someone with such a decent pedigree from such a big club (no he wasn't trying to offend an Ajax support, just stating reality).

I also feel that no player should be slagged off before he has kicked a ball for his new club. Even if a player is totally crap at his old club (which doesn't seem to be the case here), doesn't mean this will also be the case at his new one.

It's a whole new situation. Different level, different team, different opposition, different manager etc.

[ZoefdeHaas]

Ofcourse he's not the greatest ever, but Ole is a decent player especially in the Eredivisie. He can handle the likes of N'Kufo, Makaay etc. Maybe against Villa, Van nistelrooy and such is harder, but hey this guy can be good.

I really like how he has this "intellectual" side of him, really want to speak with him. (I speak SPanish, hire me marco!:P)

[SE6Ajacied]

Just to add to what's been said. I was reading through an old (Jan '08 I think) copy of 'Champions' magazine today and it had a bit about this guy, and his politics etc. Apparently he refused on principal a call up to the 2006 Spain World Cup squad - obviously that tells you even more about how crap he is as a player

[The Purple Cow]

If he's played 164 games in the finest league in the world, I think we can rest assured that he's good enough for the Eredivisie!

If he can play against the likes of David Villa, Ruud van Nistelrooi, Aguero and Frenando Torres, I'm confident he can hold his own against anything Feyenoord can throw at him...

[Blind3]

I was excited enough about this signing that, as my earlier post suggests, I was frantic when the signing was thisclose and then no mention for a couple days.

We were just a few points , a goal here and there, from a league title last season. The addition of a player like Oleguer, a defender, with his aforementioned pedigree, is just who we need and just where we need him.

To those who feel he's not someone who can help our club, please tell me which defender, one who has played at a top league level like Oleguer, is available. I really think we got a talented pro, one in his prime. And ,we signed him for a reasonable amount of money.

Last, I like that we have signed an intelligent, principled player.

[SE6Ajacied]

.Oleguer was a starter for quite some time in Barcelona just like Gabri.

Well I don't follow Barca but can confirm that Gabri was a starter yes. Setanta Sports have a thing called "Barca TV" on sometimes, usually in the middle of the night, and I was watching a years old (99/2000 I think) Barca European game. A much younger, with hair version of Gabri was playing, looked good, and was certainly committed to the cause as he got himself sent off if I remeber right....

[SPL]

would agree with Purple Cow. He is certainly going to be good enough for our team.

[aveslacker]

would agree with Purple Cow. He is certainly going to be good enough for our team.

The other thing is that we should think of the signing in terms of alternatives. Do we have any better alternatives wandering around the ArenA? I can't think of any. Sure, it is possible that we could find a better defender out there, but those types of players a) don't grow on trees and b) generally aren't cheap.

As it is, he's better than the ghost of Jonny Heitinga and I'm pleased with the signing.

[jamieem]

I think he's suffering from having had (along with a lot of other Barcelona players) a poor 07/08 season. Wasn't helped by the fact that he didn't get many opportunities and the coach didn't show a lot of confidence in him, but he didn't play up to his standards.

He's obviously not the Stam 'brick wall' type of defender we obviously need, but he does add a great deal of epxerience and streetwise la liga denfensive qualities to what is a seriously undermanned defence. For these reasons, plus the realtively low fee, there's not a great deal to complain about in this transfer - definitely deserves to be given a chance.

We do need another defender though... wonder how much money is still left if we can find the right man?

[Kowalczyk]

We do need another defender though... wonder how much money is still left if we can find the right man?

Ajax are talking to Twente today, about the possible transfer of Robbie Wielaert. According to the reports Twente rejected Ajax's opening bid of 1.5 million euros.

Wielaert would be a good man, I reckon: solid, reliable defender, great work ethic and (very important) he talks a lot, coaches his fellow defenders. He can organize a defense. The lack of such a character was perhaps Ajax's key problem in defense last season: Stekelenburg is a bit of a zombie and none of the other defenders did any coaching. Vermaelen, Ogararu, Silva, Vertonghen, Urby... they're shy and tend to focus on their own game. Wielaert can tell younger players what to do and where to stand.

For a number of years now, I've been strongly in favour of signing a Dutch, relatively experienced man-marker from the Eredivisie. I'm talking about the category of Rob Penders (NAC), Jan-Paul Saeijs (Roda JC), Edson Braafheid (Twente).

These guys are not superstars, but that's exactly what makes them useful: they're solid, reliable, they do their job, win the ball back and pass it to a team-mate who's a better football player than them. They're somewhere between 25 and 30, they're tall, they're physical, they're cheap and I don't see why they would be less useful than Jurgen Colin or Jan Vertonghen in central defense.

I didn't really think of Rob Wielaert, but he fits perfecty into that category. We have footballers as fullbacks and we have at least one footballer in the heart of defense. What we need now is someone who knows that he's defender first, and footballer second.

K.

[ZoefdeHaas]

So a Vertonghen/Urby-Vermaelen-Oleguer/Wielaert-Ogararu/Oleguer defense huh...

Unless VDHeijden, or Slijngard break in. Maybe Wormgoor