Players Leaving Ajax

[afcajax73]

yeah, rumours are this morning that hes off to chelsea now?! who knows, i hate the media, i refuse to believe anything now until hes there shaking the managers hand

[SPL]

Glad we have got rid of Manucharyan . By my reckoning we have 28 players left and that includes Rommendahl , who is still deciding what to do, plus Sno and Wielaert , both now with the Jong but first teamers basically .

We quite rightfully need a clear out but that 28 could come down to well under 20 .

Steks, VdWiel and Suarez all look like leaving .

Sno ,Wielaert and Aissati have no future in first team sqaud and have to go asap.

Urby has turned down an extension and needs to go rather than a free next year . Rommendahl still deciding .

Bodul, Sarpong , Donald, and V dHeijden all on loan last season and did not set the world on fire . one or 2 will leave.

Add the fact that Lindgren was watched by Brondby last Saturday and his days are probably numbered and Atouba is likely to be out for another month or 2 and is not going to get much 1st team action and we could see that 28 go down to about 16 to 18 . Thats without taking into account various rumours invented by the press which wont happen .

Just a thought with a tough season starting soon we are a bit up in the air and with no known signings in sight.

We cannot start a season with such a small squad.

[rjf1]

I just finished reading an article that was written in the NY Times Sunday Magazine a couple of weeks back (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/06/magaz ... cer-t.html), that left me a little depressed about Ajax and the future of the team. The article dealt with the famous Ajax soccer academy, but the most telling point of the article was that the entire purpose of Ajax in the post-Bosman era is to use the academy to develop star players; bring them up to the 1st team and showcase them for a couple of years; and then sell them off for as big a profit as they could get.

Forget about trying to build a winning football team, or reestablishing the Ajax football legacy -- the governing board doesn't give a crap about any of it -- they figure Ajax can't pay the salaries to field a dominant team, so just make as much money as they can using De Toekomst as a player factory. Hard to get excited about who will come and who will go and the start of a new season and how Ajax will do in it after reading that.

[Orange14]

I just finished reading an article that was written in the NY Times Sunday Magazine a couple of weeks back (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/06/magaz ... cer-t.html), that left me a little depressed about Ajax and the future of the team. The article dealt with the famous Ajax soccer academy, but the most telling point of the article was that the entire purpose of Ajax in the post-Bosman era is to use the academy to develop star players; bring them up to the 1st team and showcase them for a couple of years; and then sell them off for as big a profit as they could get.

Forget about trying to build a winning football team, or reestablishing the Ajax football legacy -- the governing board doesn't give a crap about any of it -- they figure Ajax can't pay the salaries to field a dominant team, so just make as much money as they can using De Toekomst as a player factory. Hard to get excited about who will come and who will go and the start of a new season and how Ajax will do in it after reading that.

Unfortunately this is the reality that all but a handful of teams in Europe place. Look at Valencia that just had to sell Villa and Silva to save themselves from bankruptcy. I doubt they wanted to do that. We might be in a better position today to keep players had van Basten not wasted money on some bad transfers. Barcelona are forced to seek a €150M bank loan just so they can continue to pay players salaries. Things won't be getting any better any time soon.

[Purple Cow's Ghost]

they figure Ajax can't pay the salaries to field a dominant team, so just make as much money as they can using De Toekomst as a player factory.

But the point is they are exactly right. Ajax does not have the T.V. revenue for them to be able to match the expenditure of clubs from Europe's major leagues, and the Eredivisie does not have the prestige to attract players at the peak of their careers. If you were a star player would you not rather play against Barcelona, Madrid or Manchester United than against R.K.C. N.E.C. or Polder Boys '37? Ajax have become a feeder club, like a AAA baseball club. We have become the equivalent of the St. Paul Saints or the Lansing Lugnuts.

The only way out as I see it is to join a different and more lucrative league, there are three alternatives:

1. Something like the Phoenix League that was proposed a few years ago, a league for clubs that are a big fish in a small revenue pond. Clubs like Ajax, PSV, Celtic, Rangers, Anderlecht, Club Brugge, Porto, etc etc.

2. Another alternative would be to look for a major league that would take Ajax - the Bundesliga or the E.P.L. would be the obvious places to start.

3. Try again to form a Benelux League. This would be the easiest solution to pull off, though I'm not sure how much greater the revenues would be.

If we are not prepared to do any of those things then we have to accept that the world has changed and we are now merely a stepping stone on the way to bigger clubs.

[Orange14]

But even some of the better clubs in the Bundesliga are not exempt from this. Werder have not been able to keep some of there better players (Ozil is rumoured to be on his way out) and there are mid-table clubs that are not even as good as Ajax. You can look to Spain, Italy, and England for similar examples as well (I don't follow the French league and thus cannot comment). Some type of Pan-European club league would be a way out but that won't go anywhere as you will quickly run into problems of what clubs belong in what league. I think we need to reconcile ourselves to the fact that football is changed (but given the financial problems of lots of clubs, the final chapter is not yet written). I hope we can keep players this season as I think this team can be real special, particularly if we go through CL qualification smoothly. We'll see what happens when the transfer window opens in a few weeks. I still think that some of our top ranked players do not want to play for mid-table teams in either England or Spain (not sure any of them want to go to Italy and only Juventus appears to be in a buying mode these days).

[SPL]

Interesting posts above . We have been selling players since JC left for Barca. All the great players from early 70's left and in between V Basten, Rijkaard and Bergkamp, all legends of the game left early . Then came Bosman and the 95 team went for peanuts. This is just to point out that selling our talent is not something that has only just started .
Big problem of the modern game is that EPL have big money and wages to offer all borrowed from the banks and this has put wages out of control.Until something can be done to stop clubs buying players until they are out of debt we will be a selling club.

[SPL]

Reports state Rommedahl is to sign a 2 year 1m euros ayear deal with Olympiakos. Chelsea prepare to pay 24m euros for Greg .

As we are likely to get way over the odds for Greg it will put our finances back in order.Shame we could not give Rommedahl and Pantelic what they wanted and also give Urby arise to keep him. Still we have to pay Atouba 1.4m a year !!!

We would then be faced with losing just 3 first teamers of which Vermeer is a ready made replacement.
So we would be looking to buy a right back and a goal scoring winger.

[aveslacker]

We quite rightfully need a clear out but that 28 could come down to well under 20 .

Steks, VdWiel and Suarez all look like leaving .

Are you sure about that? I'm still not convinced that any of those three guys are going to leave. Maybe Steks, but that's about it. I don't think there is anyone out there who is both willing and able to cough up the fee for either VdW or Suarez.

At least I hope not!

[orange goblin]

if steks and van der wiel leave, after all we have already their replacements: vermeer and daley blind (or anita).
personallly I am absolutely scared cause we lack a great central forward and now with rommedahl leaving (what a mistake) also a proper winger (buy beereens at least!).
oh, if suarez leaves with the others, we are full of money, more than 60 millions, but who will came to the ArenA to replace such a player? with the CL qualifiers so near the situation is becoming very, very dangerous.

[acab]

We sell Suarez for 40m. and Van der Wiel for 20m. than we buy Ruiz for 20m. , MArcus Berg for 10 and Roy Beerens for 5. We are 25m plus and stil have good team. Don't worry about a thing, coz every little thing gonna be all right

[Amol]

Lol. We are stuck in a chicken and egg kind of story. We don't have money to buy replacements before selling VDW and Suarez. Once we sell them for a big sack of money, no one will sell us their players for cheap.

I'm seriously hoping that Zeegelaar and Blind step up and do the business this year.

[acab]

Lol. We are stuck in a chicken and egg kind of story. We don't have money to buy replacements before selling VDW and Suarez. Once we sell them for a big sack of money, no one will sell us their players for cheap.

I'm seriously hoping that Zeegelaar and Blind step up and do the business this year.

And Verhoeven!! He's a lot better player than Vermeer, i think. He should be No 1 if we sell Steks.

[afcajax73]

rommedahl left..

[Orange14]

We are forgetting two young players who should see action this year. Apparently Sulejmani looks like he finally wants to play football. He received praise from Jol after the recent friendly. Eriksen saw action on the Danish WC team and I believe was the youngest player in the tournament. This makes the Rommedahl loss OK in retrospect (one cannot blame him for leaving as he got the 2 year contract that he wanted). We also don't know whether our Korean striker (who has good size) will turn out. I'm not sure given what other teams who have money have done that Suarez will leave right now (he might in January). BTW, does anyone know how de Zeeuw is feeling? I have not seen any reports following the kick to the head.

[Cedric]

We are forgetting two young players who should see action this year.

But they don't play on the right side, and I think there is a problem in this area : Rommedahl, Kennedy, Ogararu already left, Van der Wiel might leave too, so there's no right back anymore (Jol said he rather see Anita on the left and Blind on midfield), unless we consider Oleguer as a right back (...), and the only right winger is Suarez, who might leave or play as a central forward...

[Orange14]

I see in today's news that Bayern have made it official, they have contacted Ajax about van der Wiel. It was a tempered story indicating that they are not going to over pay. It's my understanding that there is a €20 M buyout clause in the van der Wiel's contract. Can anyone confirm this? If it is true we are in good negotiating shape but clearly don't want an unhappy player if a bid for less than that is tendered and refused. I guess going forward this is the only good way to proceed, having reasonable (and profitable) buy out clauses.

[Orange14]

The deafening silence about Urby leaving the team is quite telling. I assume the club has let it be known that they would like to get something for him rather than seeing him leave on a free transfer. The lack of any rumor at all indicates that he is not rated very high and only mid to low table teams would be interested in him. Too sad really as he is a decent utility player but doesn't have enough quality to start for top rated clubs (I'm referring to the big four leagues). I guess we will end up losing him in the end but it would be good to get some €s.

[Orange14]

No, this isn't a rumor of anyone leaving! There is a good column up on Soccernet this morning about why the transfer season is much different than in years past: http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/st ... rs&cc=5901 It's why we 'might' not lose any of players this go around. Interesting perspective.

[afcajax73]

Now theres rumours all over the internet about Sulejmani going to West Ham on a season long loan!! what the hell!!!

[ajaxcolombia]

I just stumbled into this. Don't know if you all eady discussed it: http://soccervoice.com/n100717.htm#text Arsenal want to take all three to Emirates. Steks, Suarez and Van der Wiel.

[acab]

http://www.football-italia.net/jul20r.html

bayern has a new target. Guess who is staying in Amsterdam

[Amol]

http://www.football-italia.net/jul20r.html

bayern has a new target. Guess who is staying in Amsterdam

That's excellent news. I think the only thing we need for this season is a CF. If we lose Suarez, hopefully Sulejmani can finally replace him this year.

[SPL]

Arsenal to pay 50m euros is the land of fantasy .Wenger would have a fit at the thought of spending real money.

Jol has said no to Sulejmani going on loan .

[Blind3]

Typical silly season . Endless games of musical chairs. Wake me up when it's over.