Players Leaving Ajax

[Orange14]

actually, landing both suchy and onyewu would cost about 5M in fees = BAM

those two are for from the only defenders that will be had this summer

Onyewu is out of contract right now and it will be interesting to see who wants to sign him. I think he's hoping for a solid performance in the upcoming Confederation Cup in South Africa. I did not think his two matches in the recent WC qualifiers were of such quality that he will command top money.

[Blind3]

Maybe I'm putting too much faith in BMJ , but I'm willing to give him a chance to build the club to his specs. 13 is a fair price.

[gordonvandekamp]

I really don't think there is a very good chance Onyewu would play for Ajax. First off, I can't imagine Ajax is even aware of him based on scouting for recent defender purchases. Secondly, even if they were, I can't see Onyewu wanting to come here at this time in his career. He's out of contract, but he's 27.

At 27 he's going to know this is probably his last chance to make a move to a big club (meaning a team in a top Euro league) before he's too old. I can't imagine Ajax being one of those clubs for him.

I would have liked to have kept Vermaelen, however that's a good bit of money to get for him. I'm just worried we won't sign anyone to replace him and get another winger instead, I'm not even going to speculate.

[bluedaddy19]

Onyewu is out of contract right now and it will be interesting to see who wants to sign him. I think he's hoping for a solid performance in the upcoming Confederation Cup in South Africa. I did not think his two matches in the recent WC qualifiers were of such quality that he will command top money.

those 2 WCQ's don't matter, and I doubt anyone was there... on the other hand, there were at least a dozen teams that came to the belgian title tie to watch him, and of course plenty saw him play three stellar games against liverpool and everton in europe

I really don't think there is a very good chance Onyewu would play for Ajax. First off, I can't imagine Ajax is even aware of him based on scouting for recent defender purchases. Secondly, even if they were, I can't see Onyewu wanting to come here at this time in his career. He's out of contract, but he's 27.

At 27 he's going to know this is probably his last chance to make a move to a big club (meaning a team in a top Euro league) before he's too old. I can't imagine Ajax being one of those clubs for him.

I would have liked to have kept Vermaelen, however that's a good bit of money to get for him. I'm just worried we won't sign anyone to replace him and get another winger instead, I'm not even going to speculate.

i guarantee they know of him quite well, even if they aren't interested, as he's been in the team of the year next door like 3 times

and we all know ajax is among the best non-big-4-league clubs to go and standout if you want to earn a glamour move

i also disagree this is his last chance for a big deal, 27 is hardly headed over the hill for a center back

that all being said, i don't think they are chasing him which absolutely befuddles me

[gordonvandekamp]

i guarantee they know of him quite well, even if they aren't interested, as he's been in the team of the year next door like 3 times

and we all know ajax is among the best non-big-4-league clubs to go and standout if you want to earn a glamour move

i also disagree this is his last chance for a big deal, 27 is hardly headed over the hill for a center back

that all being said, i don't think they are chasing him which absolutely befuddles me

I pretty much agree with you. My post about Ajax not knowing about him is more that they don't seem to have scouted outside of the Dutch league as most recent purchases indicate. They should know of him, and probably do, but he doesn't seem to be on the radar as far as actually signing him is concerned.

27 isn't pushing it necessarily, however if he signs a 3 year contract and is a bust riding the bench, he won't have many (or any better) options at 30+. I don't think Ajax is a glamor club for him, unfortunately, he's probably looking bigger for the next few years.

[bluedaddy19]

I pretty much agree with you. My post about Ajax not knowing about him is more that they don't seem to have scouted outside of the Dutch league as most recent purchases indicate. They should know of him, and probably do, but he doesn't seem to be on the radar as far as actually signing him is concerned.

27 isn't pushing it necessarily, however if he signs a 3 year contract and is a bust riding the bench, he won't have many (or any better) options at 30+. I don't think Ajax is a glamor club for him, unfortunately, he's probably looking bigger for the next few years.

1- ahh gotcha

2- it seems he is... as of last week, he had offers from fenerbahce, a prem team, a la liga team and a bundesliga team, with several others probably on the way

[Blind3]

I saw where the Daily Mail linked him with Birmingham.

[SPL]

If Ajax is not a glamour club for him then what are Birmingham!

[Orange14]

If Ajax is not a glamour club for him then what are Birmingham!

LOL! He also had a stint with Newcastle a couple of years ago and failed to impress. The club did not pick up his option and Onyewu returned to Standard Liege. maybe Newcastle regret their decision given how their defense performed this past season.

[aveslacker]

I pretty much agree with you. My post about Ajax not knowing about him is more that they don't seem to have scouted outside of the Dutch league as most recent purchases indicate. They should know of him, and probably do, but he doesn't seem to be on the radar as far as actually signing him is concerned.

27 isn't pushing it necessarily, however if he signs a 3 year contract and is a bust riding the bench, he won't have many (or any better) options at 30+. I don't think Ajax is a glamor club for him, unfortunately, he's probably looking bigger for the next few years.

1- ahh gotcha

2- it seems he is... as of last week, he had offers from fenerbahce, a prem team, a la liga team and a bundesliga team, with several others probably on the way

Last summer Gooch was supposedly drawing interest from all these big clubs and ended up staying at Standard, as he was right before he got loaned to Newcastle. I heard names like Real mentioned. This left the impression that his agent was talking him up.

I hope he ends up at a good club that plays competitive soccer in the league and Europe.

[bluedaddy19]

Last summer Gooch was supposedly drawing interest from all these big clubs and ended up staying at Standard, as he was right before he got loaned to Newcastle. I heard names like Real mentioned. This left the impression that his agent was talking him up.

I hope he ends up at a good club that plays competitive soccer in the league and Europe.

gooch's agent is not an up-talker

as you know, i have a foot in the door in this world, and i can tell you with 10000% certainty that gooch did have an offer from real madrid that was rejected by standard (though, to be fair, i think they had marketing to the states in mind as well as his playing ability) and mourinho tried like hell to bring him to chelsea

he personally has also rejected moves to boro, 'gladbach, anderlecht and so forth

standard repeatedly opted to not sell him, a minor fact that seems to be completely missing from the whole bigsoccer blather chatter about this all, just cynics talking nonsense

the fact that the guy has remained a big topic for this long should send a positive message... instead the american fans just hand wring and assume the worst, as they always do when they sit down to eat their own, essentially spoiling their own fun for no reason

it's the same thing with the "he failed at newcastle" line, which is pretty crap - no, he wasn't the master of the universe, but he did okay for his first 12 games ever in the prem, certainly far better than his ridiculous partner titus bramble, for whom he was constantly having to cover... and besides, who the hell "succeeds at newcastle" these days? this is a club who finds signing joey barton an answer

the fact is, he has continually gotten better and still is improving - most recently, his distribution from the back and long ball ability have markedly improved

as i said, i don;t think we are chasing him and i doubt we could win the race, but it seems idiotic not to at least try - as of today, he is easily better than vermaelen in the middle (not that this is a fair comparison as gooch is a few years older), easily better and more potentially lucrative than wielart, but not quite the equal of the departed johnny H

[aveslacker]

Last summer Gooch was supposedly drawing interest from all these big clubs and ended up staying at Standard, as he was right before he got loaned to Newcastle. I heard names like Real mentioned. This left the impression that his agent was talking him up.

I hope he ends up at a good club that plays competitive soccer in the league and Europe.

gooch's agent is not an up-talker

as you know, i have a foot in the door in this world, and i can tell you with 10000% certainty that gooch did have an offer from real madrid that was rejected by standard (though, to be fair, i think they had marketing to the states in mind as well as his playing ability) and mourinho tried like hell to bring him to chelsea

he personally has also rejected moves to boro, 'gladbach, anderlecht and so forth

standard repeatedly opted to not sell him, a minor fact that seems to be completely missing from the whole bigsoccer blather chatter about this all, just cynics talking nonsense

the fact that the guy has remained a big topic for this long should send a positive message... instead the american fans just hand wring and assume the worst, as they always do when they sit down to eat their own, essentially spoiling their own fun for no reason

it's the same thing with the "he failed at newcastle" line, which is pretty crap - no, he wasn't the master of the universe, but he did okay for his first 12 games ever in the prem, certainly far better than his ridiculous partner titus bramble, for whom he was constantly having to cover... and besides, who the hell "succeeds at newcastle" these days? this is a club who finds signing joey barton an answer

the fact is, he has continually gotten better and still is improving - most recently, his distribution from the back and long ball ability have markedly improved

as i said, i don;t think we are chasing him and i doubt we could win the race, but it seems idiotic not to at least try - as of today, he is easily better than vermaelen in the middle (not that this is a fair comparison as gooch is a few years older), easily better and more potentially lucrative than wielart, but not quite the equal of the departed johnny H

Fair enough. Like I said, I want him to go to the best possible team where he will get consistent, significant playing time. I saw a few of his Newcastle matches and I thought he did ok, not great, but better than Bramble. Considering where Newcastle where then that was probably about as good as good be expected.

I don't want him to go to a place like Real because that place is a snakepit. I think he might do well in Italy now that he's gotten better control of his upper body and doesn't seem to get whistled for ticky-tack fouls.

[SPL]

Reports state Real Sociedad want either Leo or Sarpong.Not sure what leo is doing as he still hopes to geta contract here but I cannots ee Sarpong going to a small club like Sociedad. I think he needs to go out on loan for a year and play a whole season.I would hope that would be in Holland but I can see him going to somewhere like Birmingham for a season.

[SPL]

With the 3 loanees back we now have 31 first teamers of whom Leo and Vermaelen have still not gone . With 5/6 players to come in we need to get rid of about 12 players.I can still see us having about 28 first teamers again clogging up our reserves in some cases.

Nb 32 players if you count Manucharyan.

[orange goblin]

Honestly I think that we'll not see more than 3 new players coming. Maybe Jol itself has said that, if I correctly remember.
Assuming that Elia and Obradovic are coming (reports say that we are in talks with the first one and that the second will sign in July) the third one should be a defender (but who? boulharouz?) or a midfielder (Engelaar, but seems tempted by Panathinaikos and Ten Cate). For sure I hope we'll buy a central back, so Vertonghen should be properly used in midfield.
anyway i would like to see something like this:

STEKELENBURG

VD WIEL OLEGUER - buy- OBRADOVIC

GABRI AISSATI VERTONGHEN

SUAREZ SULEJMANI ELIA

bench team:

VERMEER

WIELAERT ALDERWEIRELD BLIND EMANUELSON

ANITA ENOH LINDGREN

LEONARDO CVITANICH (surprise!) LUQUE or ROMMEDAHL

PLUS PADT SARPONG BODUL TO REACH 25.

We should get rid of:
Schilder, Martina and Gentenaar (expiring contracts)
Silva, Sno and Bakircioglu (no space for them)
loanees Ogararu, Luque or Rommedahl (idem)
On loan: Vd Heijden, Donald
De Jong: switched in the Elia affair or on loan.

To me it seems a reasonable plan. But who the new defender? I would have liked braafheid, i like boulahrouz and sankoh but I don't see this happen

[aveslacker]

I wonder if Gabri is going to be around much longer. I have no reason to say that, but he's getting older and may want to go back to Spain or something.

I would also imagine that we'll be getting rid of either Vermeer or Steks.

Personally, I'd like to see the Enoh-Aissati-Anita midfield work together. They had some very good moments last year.

If we do buy Elia, we should probably assume that we're going to sell Suarez, meaning our front line might look like this:

Elia - Cvitanich - Mickey

[SPL]

Orange Goblin . I go along with most of your list of leavers but would you want Siem de Jong to leave . I
would see Sarpong being sold or maybe loaned out and de Jong stay . Sarpong has been around for 2/3
years and not really developing whereas Siem has had just 1 season and did not look too bad at times.

In our midfield I see one of the defensive players leaving. Enoh Lindgren Anita Vertonghen and Gabri is 1 too many. Blind is a younger Vertoghen as he too can play central defence and midfield.

Steks has said he wants to stay and Vermeer will not want to be a bench warmer. As for Suarez sadly when all the really big names finish moving I see one of the top clubs coming in for him. If Chelsea
fancy Dembele of Az Suarez must attract a really big club as well.

[Van basten]

Goal.com Summer Shopping: Who Should Ajax Buy?

Ajax appointed Marco van Basten last summer in order to guide the club to their first Eredivisie title since 2003/’04. However, the Milan legend miserably failed and resigned one match before the season came to an end.

Highly rated coach Martin Jol left German side Hamburger SV to pick up the vacant position at Ajax, but Jol has already encountered his first disappointment with the transfer of Thomas Vermaelen to Ajax.

Defensively, the Godenzonen aren’t exactly solid and Jol will most likely be desperate to add a class act to his defence.

Their midfield appears to be strong enough to fight for the league title again, but Ajax’s attack could use a real goalscorer. Dario Cvitanich has so far failed to fill the gap Klaas Jan Huntelaar left when he signed for Madrid and Jol could be tempted to splash the cash on a new striker.

Stekelenburg (c)

Van der Wiel Oleguer Rajkovic Obradovic

Gabri Vertonghen

Aissati

Suarez Berg Sulejmani

Subs: Vermeer, Bruno Silva, Wielaert, Lindgren, Enoh, Emanuelson, Cvitanich

Alderweireld, Blind, Anita, De Jong, Sarpong, Leonardo, Bodul.

IN (3):

Slobodan Rajkovic (Chelsea)

The Serbian defender missed half of last campaign due to a suspension for an alleged spitting incident. However, he impressed at the back for Twente when he returned to match action. His loan deal at Twente will come to an end this summer and Rajkovic will return to Chelsea. The London side don’t look like they’re ready to hand him regular first team football yet though. Therefore, Ajax would be wise to step up and strengthen their defence with Rajkovic, either on a loan move or a permanent stay.

Ivan Obradovic (Partizan Belgrade)

Another Serbian youngster who is a must have for the Amsterdam side. Belgian international Thomas Vermaelen is widely expected to leave Ajax for Arsenal this summer and Obradovic would be the perfect replacement as left back. He’s still young, but has already attracted the interest of big clubs such as Barcelona and Juventus. If Ajax want him, they’ve to make a move this summer, because a bigger team will not hesitate to snap him up otherwise. Nevertheless, his hefty €7 million price tag could pose a problem for the Dutch team.

Marcus Berg (Groningen)

The Groningen fans won’t be too happy to see yet another player move to Ajax after the transfers of Bruno Silva, Rasmus Lindgren and Luis Suarez in the past two years, but Berg would certainly be the perfect addition to the Ajax attack. The Swedish international is the same clinical finisher Huntelaar was at the Amsterdam outfit. Additionally, Berg is good in the combination and strong on the ball. The striker would be a guarantee for at least twenty goals, especially with lieutenants such as Luis Suarez and Miralem Sulejmani.

OUT (10):

Dennis Gentenaar – The experienced goalkeeper has mainly been warming the bench in the past three seasons and will move on to get regular first team action. His move to newly promoted Eredivisie side VVV is expected to be a done deal within days.

Thomas Vermaelen – Martin Jol might be reluctant to see the Belgian defender leave the Amsterdam ArenA, but Ajax have already accepted a €12.5 million offer from Arsenal for the centre back. Vermaelen will sign his contract at the Enlish powerhouse later this week.

Robbert Schilder – The versatile Schilder has been a useful addition to the Ajax squad, but simply lacks the class to make it at the top level. His contract expires this summer and the youngster will move to Breda outfit NAC.

Donovan Slijngard – Slijngard was farmed out on loan to Sparta this term and didn’t impress sufficiently to get called back to Amsterdam. The left back leaves Ajax on a free transfer to sign for Sparta.

George Ogararu – The Romanian right back was farmed out on loan to his native country last summer and the defender’s situation at Ajax has gone from bad to worse with the breakthrough of Gregory van der Wiel this term. Ogararu is likely to return to Romania on a permanent deal.

Jan Arie van der Heijden (loan) – The holding midfielder was considered one of the biggest talents of his generation. However, a string of injuries prevented him from making an impact so far. Van der Heijden will probably be made available for loan.

Evander Sno – The former Celtic player never looked like Ajax material since joining the Amsterdam giants last summer. Sno will be offloaded again this transfer window, if an interested team shows up.

Kennedy Bakircioglu – The Swedish attacker is an excellent player for a mid-table team, but has never impressed wearing the Ajax tricot. Bakircioglu has reportedly attracted the interest of several Segunda Division teams and Ajax aren’t very much likely to frustrate a transfer.

Javier Martina – The young right winger made his official debut this campaign in the away match against Twente, but failed to break into the first team since then. Martina will be allowed to move the club this summer and will probably sign for a team such as Sparta or Heracles.

Dennis Rommedahl – Rommedahl used to pose a serious threat for any defender in his good days. However, the attacker isn’t as quick as he was before and is no longer good enough to play for a team like Ajax.

[orange goblin]

@spl

Absolutely! I appreciate De Jong very much and agree with u that he has developed more than sarpong. I wrote of him leaving only cause I read it somewhere that Twente should ask him in the Elia affair. Siem is a good prospect, no doubt about it.
I am worried about our defence. Elia is not so necessary, two new defenders (LB and CB) are the top priority for me. Elia is a good move only cause Suarez one day will leave and Ajax need to fill the hole in time. for one time before, and not after his departure.

[bluedaddy19]

italian report says fiorentina have called about oleguer

http://www.v-bal.nl/nieuws/48038/olegue ... ntina.html

[SE6Ajacied]

italian report says fiorentina have called about oleguer

http://www.v-bal.nl/nieuws/48038/olegue ... ntina.html

So what is with us and defenders? I actually rate him but he's been in and out of the side and now Fiorentina (a Euro Qualifying Serie A side) are after him.

For Oleguer read Escude, I hope he stays.

[SPL]

Very strange. If he were to go we would need 2 centre backs as I am not convinced with Wielaert.

[bluedaddy19]

turkish paper says rijkaard wants oleguer at galatasaray, while a spanish paper says eh also wants luque

http://www.v-bal.nl/nieuws/48054/rijkaa ... uque-.html

[cdnajaxfan]

turkish paper says rijkaard wants oleguer at galatasaray, while a spanish paper says eh also wants luque

http://www.v-bal.nl/nieuws/48054/rijkaa ... uque-.html

Luque?! That's a laugh! He must be smoking too much of the Turkish Hash!

[ZoefdeHaas]

If he wanted them, he could've just managed Ajax