New Players for Ajax

[cdnajaxfan]

modirc costs 30 milion, and has intrest from big clubs in europe

I dont think thats a factor....Arsenal and Bayern are after him and they are willing to pay in the 15-20 million range.

I for one think he is still to young for a huge club...Ajax would be a better team for him.

I know it seems hard but hey it can happen.

Arsenal are even chaper than we are. They would NEVER pay that money for anyone.

[cdnajaxfan]

Wouldn't it be funny if ManU bought KJH for 30 mio, beacause Rooney is seriously injured?

Rooney sucks. Period. He would make a better midfielder than a striker. He is a "Bull in a China shop type", no spped and no finesse. He is gone if they buy Huntelaar from us. He will not sit on the bench for Wayne "I`ll score three goals in one game once in a blue moon" Rooney.

[ZoefdeHaas]

Theres always Riquelme, but I think that salary would be the problem.

Theres also Ezquerro and Motta, but Ajax dont seem to be too interested.

Ajax dont seem to be looking too far for players, always seems to be the low countries, and a few east european places, with now some spanish players. after all theres more places with big talent.

money shouldnt be an issue now, as mentioned earlier we got more than enough.

[Philippe]

50 million on our bank account, let's get a move on

[jamcocteau]

as long as the rambling comments on this board don't contain a specific plan with specific names and a thoughtful vision and direction for the club with those specific new personnel, then any discussion of firing HTC immediately can be easily and quickly discarded and ignored.

I don't think they had "a specific plan with specific names and a thoughtful vision and direction " when they sold Sneijder, it was just about the money, and there it would about getting rid of a coach who can not build any succes in european competitions ...

we sure he will put himself together within a fortnight, and save his job

I don't think it was just about the board and money, Sneijder himself was kept fully informed by the board when Real put the bid in and were in constant discussion with him letting him know what was going on. Now we can criticise the board all we want but if Wes really didnt want to move he would still be here. He could have easily turned round and said i have promised myself to Ajax for one more year, bye bye Real. He didnt.

The worst case scenario would have been the board rejecting the bid and holding onto a player who wanted to move and therefore starts to underperform and cause trouble at the club. Now I am not saying Wes as a person would be like that but it has happened before with players.

At least we got a decent amount for Sneijder unlike previous Technical Directors who sold the like Van der Vaart and Zlatan for ridiciously low amounts.

I agree that we need to keep onto our top players to acheive success at home and in Europe but if players are to move on I would rather we got a decent amount for them than selling them at a lower price.

[Philippe]

ok, but as a general and basic rule you don't sell a key asset before you know how to replace it,

Albert Riera Ortega (25), 4 goals in 27 games last season ???

[jamcocteau]

ok, but as a general and basic rule you don't sell a key asset before you know how to replace it,

Albert Riera Ortega (25), 4 goals in 27 games last season ???

Not going to disagree with you there but we still have about 10 days to go to transfer deadline and just hope that board can come up with suitable replacement(s).

Big problem is that we are not going to get a player of Sneijders current quality unless we pay similar money. If Ajax go down that route of paying say Eur25 million for players, then any players we go for in future, the selling club will bump their price up expecting us to pay more. We therefore end up in the same situation that many English clubs and the big 2 in Spain of paying over the odds for ordinary players.

Can only hope that the board use the money wisely and get in good experienced players or young players with potential without being held to ransom by clubs.

[Philippe]

This is a tricky situation for the Ajax magement, but they chose it : there will be very high expectations on the new player(s).

[Manneken Pis]

Not really big news, rather it shows Ajax haven't given up yet.

From Voetbal International (rough translation)...


Ajax wants Riera en and says no thanks to Mendoza

17/8/2007 13:06

Ajax does not want the services of Pruvian Andrés Mendoza. There is however still interest in Amsterdam for Albert Riera of Espanyol.
Mendoza had trials for just under a week, but didn't earn a contract. 'He does not have the qualities we are looking for', said Ajax's technical director Martin van Gaal on the website of the Amsterdam club.

According to regional newspapers the club continues to work in the background to get Albert Riera from Espanyol. Ajax offered approx. 6 million for the left footed midfielder/attacker.

Espanyol does not want to let the 25 year old leave. In addition, Riera still has a contract that runs until 2010 with Barcelona's second club.

[Philippe]

And we have around 40 M€ to spend, right ? Albert Riera's statistics are not very impressive to say the least. Very strange.

[Venezuelan Ajacied]

And we have around 40 M€ to spend, right ? Albert Riera's statistics are not very impressive to say the least. Very strange.

Riera is not a scoring type midfielder, he is more of an assist type....there is one thing that all of us must understand....we just cant start comparing Sneijder`s stats with whatever player's stats....WE ARE NOT GOING TOO FIND ANOTHER SNEIJDER....plain and simple.What we need is a good-solid player that can contribute everyday for our cause. In the squad another player must step up an lead our team. You cant epect a player to come in and just carry the team like Sneijder used to do... its impossible.

[Philippe]

I agree, but with that kind of money we can expect to get two top class players.

[jamcocteau]

And we have around 40 M€ to spend, right ? Albert Riera's statistics are not very impressive to say the least. Very strange.

Do you actually know much about Riera. Or do all your stats go on about how many goals midfielders score and btw his record in UEFA Cup was not bad at all last season, 4 goals in 13 games . Riera could be a very good signing for us, a naturally left sided attacking midfielder at a reasonable price.

Doesnt seems a daft signing to me as it would at last bring some balance to the midfield, having a naturally left footed player playing there who can attack with the ball and get some good passes into the box. This is something which if you have seen any games this season you would notice is actually very much missing.

This would still leave us Eur 34m or maybe even Eur 44m to spend in the next 10 days, not sure which amount as even you have changed the amount by Eur 10m in your last 2 postings. Or would you rather spend the full amount on one player.

[The Purple Cow]

The problem isn't the money we have to spend, it's the weakness of the Eriedivisie. Top quality players want to test themsleves against the best, and that doesn't involve away days at De Graafschap. Attracting quality players to play here is very very tough, even if you have a guarenteed C.L. place.

The fact is Ajax will eventually have to leave the Dutch competition if they want to return to the elite of European football.

[jamcocteau]

The problem isn't the money we have to spend, it's the weakness of the Eriedivisie. Top quality players want to test themsleves against the best, and that doesn't involve away days at De Graafschap. Attracting quality players to play here is very very tough, even if you have a guarenteed C.L. place.

The fact is Ajax will eventually have to leave the Dutch competition if they want to return to the elite of European football.

Purple, a very good posting. Was thinking about this and I was looking at the last few years signings in to NL and there is not one established foreign player who has joined this league. The biggest players who have come to the Eredivisie have been dutch players returning after long stints in bigger leagues - eg Stam, Davids, McKaay, Van Bronckhurst - I cannot think of any bigger established players who have moved to Netherlands

[Philippe]

The fact is Ajax will eventually have to leave the Dutch competition if they want to return to the elite of European football.

this is not likely to happen, is it ?

[Philippe]

This would still leave us Eur 34m or maybe even Eur 44m to spend in the next 10 days, not sure which amount as even you have changed the amount by Eur 10m in your last 2 postings. Or would you rather spend the full amount on one player.

Very good post. Thank you.

X being the amount received for Babel,
Y being the amount received for Sneijder,
X+Y is the total amount available for transfers.
27 +17 = 44 M€
already spent : unknown

available remaining : around 40 M€

[Manneken Pis]

The fact is Ajax will eventually have to leave the Dutch competition if they want to return to the elite of European football.

this is not likely to happen, is it ?

Eventually, in my opinion, yes it will.

In the past teams like Ajax could develop (through their youth system together with some shrewd buys from Scandinavia) a European level competitive team. We'd have a little burst of success and then disappear while we rebuilt. With the size of larger leagues' TV contract revenues and post-Bosman, I honestly think those days are gone. The crux of the issue is inequality in media revenue to support the purchases and salaries of the bigger teams in the bigger leagues.

The situation can only be changed to Ajax's benefit if the revenue model is destroyed and replaced by a "European Super League" (the long term goal of the G14 and temporarily blocked by UEFA's compromise creation; the Champions League),

or

There are smaller leagues merging to create criticical media mass for larger tv contracts (e.g. the Benelux league that UEFA is now re-reviewing after dismissing it out of hand several years ago).

I'm not actually saying I like these alternatives, just that I don't see a third one if the situation is to change. Look at it this way, how many different teams reached the semi finals of the European Cup in the 80s the 90s ans the 00s..... I haven't looked but I bet the strangle-hold is tighter and tighter.

[jamcocteau]

50 million on our bank account, let's get a move on

and then ""And we have around 40 M€ to spend, right ? Albert Riera's statistics are not very impressive to say the least. Very strange."

in reply to your above posting, you were the one that mentioned Eur 50m and then downgraded it, not me.

so Eur 50m less the Eur 6m for the spaniard gave me the Eur 44m and then Eur 40m less the Eur 6 million gave me the Eur 34m. Dont blame me if you change amounts every time you post

[Manneken Pis]

This would still leave us Eur 34m or maybe even Eur 44m to spend in the next 10 days, not sure which amount as even you have changed the amount by Eur 10m in your last 2 postings. Or would you rather spend the full amount on one player.

Very good post. Thank you.

X being the amount received for Babel,
Y being the amount received for Sneijder,
X+Y is the total amount available for transfers.
27 +17 = 44 M€
already spent : unknown

available remaining : around 40 M€

I believe Babel got 50% of anything over €10MM its 27 + 13.5.

I'm a pedant I know.....

[Philippe]

let's say that leaves Ajax a huge amount of money, even after signing the non scoring midfielder Albert Riera ...

[The Purple Cow]

I think a Benelux league might work, or possibly a league of "Big-fish-in-a-small-pond" clubs like Ajax, P$V, Porto, Benfica, Rangers, Celtic, Anderlecht, Club Brugge, Spartak etc etc.

[Philippe]

I think the second option was discussed and rejected a few years ago. It would kill the domestic leagues. Many supporters don't want it : it would make attending to away games impossible.

[Van der Vaart]

Ajax has made another offer for Riera.

[JohnyAjax]

A signing i'd really recommend : AZ Alkmaar's Haris Medunjanin. He had a good last season on loan at Sparta Rotterdam and he could prove a very good link between our middlefield and attack. A very good option and we should really have a look at him.I recommend a €2 million bid to AZ, if they have a higher valuation, we could abandon our bid.