We will go for Koulibaly all summer only to get outpriced by Napoli, while sleeping on this fella for a fair fee
Matthijs de Ligt / signs for Juventus, lowering their average age to 56
- Thread starter Suedesi
- Start date
- Status
Why we aren't showing interest for him, and we didn't try for De Jong is beyond me. We are leaving the next generation of talents going to other clubs without even showing a fight.
I see City and Juve as the biggest favourites for his signature. Surprised Real arent looking at him, Ramos isnt getting younger and Varane is badly out of form. They have zero competition there
It looks like they are going after Eder Militao of Porto.
Then we will either fail with bids once they are at top clubs, or go for past it players or overpay for talents behind the supertalents, who ultimately arent as good
Yeah right, also the cheaper option. They need to save some cash for attacking players
Oh they are rumoured to be interested too, a 75m + 25m over 5 years + 10m bonus package, exactly because of the aging Ramos reason...
https://www.diariogol.com/real-madr...para-regalos-y-al-real-madrid_600713_102.html
We signed Scott McT, as our "young" prospect, on the cheap.
The main issue is money. We did not spend big in the Summer. We are not spending in January. It is obvious that Woodie is saving money and top 4 is the target and is an acceptable place to finish.
Finishing 2nd last season, was clearly a step too far for Woodie, so he decided to reign in spending, so we can continue coming in, at around 4th place. I completely understand the frustration which the match going fans have, with the board and their penny pinching ways.
Given all of the above, I don't see why Woodie would want to pay £75M (or whatever the price is), for a player, at this stage.
We should be in for him.
Get both of them. Get rid of Jones, Rojo and Bailly.
Now that they have the money in for De Jong you would think that it means the price for De Ligt has only gone up. Ajax won't be in any rush, not that they would have been before the De Jong deal was agreed either.
Would love to see him here along with a more experienced head next to him. But doesn't seem like we are in the race. Things could change when we get a DoF in who formulates a transfer strategy.
Would love to see him here along with a more experienced head next to him. But doesn't seem like we are in the race. Things could change when we get a DoF in who formulates a transfer strategy.
Nah, he was supposed to arrive last winter / summer as replacement for the experienced Viergever. Schuurs was brought in as potential "next De Ligt" but failed to impressive properly so far.
Would like to remind everyone btw that Raiola is not De Ligt's agent, merely the broker in the transfer dealings for this move on behalf of De Ligt and his actual agent, Hulshoff. So while you'll have to deal with Raiola's difficult negotiating, you won't have to deal with his unfortunate influence on the player, nor his lingering presence after the move is completed.
Last edited:
Barry Hulshoff, now that's a name I hadn't heard in the past 20 odd years.
He’d fit so well at Pep’s City-Ball that it’s frightening.
You would think that all of City, Barca and PSG have enough defenders that they needn't go for another. That's not to say they won't try but in theory that might give us an advantage if we were serious about signing de Ligt. I think it's much likelier we will move for Alderweireld though.
I think it's more likely to expect his transfer to be announced soon, probably in the next week. Like with Frenkie de Jong both Ajax and De Ligt will want this deal done now so they can return the focus on the league and the upcoming CL game against Real Madrid.
Alderweireld over De Ligt would be such a strange decision to me. De Ligt has all of Alderweireld's defensive intelligence, but with additional leadership and physicality. He probably doesn't quite have Alderweireld's crosspass, but he makes up for it by being better on the ball in many other ways. There's the age question but that goes both ways; I'm personally not sure how many more seasons Alderweireld has before starting to regress (if he isn't already)
There have been months of intense transfer talks and rumours going for De Jong. De Ligt has had far less of that and so I can't imagine talks are anywhere near as advanced in his case
Can I ask why people think agents have the power to move their players especially their big superstars. Wouldn't the player just say f off to the agent if he didn't want to move? Pogba to me seems to be a manc through and through. Unless we turn to absolute shite (which we did under Mourinho) I don't think he wants to leave. Perhaps when he's older like 28 and if we haven't won anything significant then he might look to move so he can case his trophy cabinet
I know that kind of money is hard to turn down, but does anyone else think it’s such a shame that teams like Ajax, or Monaco recently don’t get to fulfill their potential? Any decent players are hoovered up so quick that they don’t get a chance. I feel a bit for the fans of those clubs that basically make their living around being a selling club.
It's the only way for a club like Ajax to stay relevant in modern football, the lack of commercial and tv income from the Dutch league just makes things difficult for them. Ajax and their supporters take pride in producing top players. And it's good for Ajax if one of their players goes to Barcelona and succeeds, makes them more appealing for talents. However, Ajax have kind of changed their strategy a bit this year especially, with attracting Blind and Tadic, they are so healthy financially now that they can pay higher wages and invest all that incoming money into players if they want. I'd expect them to break their own spending records this summer too. They want to be a more consistent force again in the CL. But that doesn't change that it's harder for them to keep or attract certain players because of the league they're in.
Oh he's a season ticket holder, he must know then. Come on man unless he has connections with Overmars or VDS he's getting his information from the Dutch newspapers same as me and and everyone else. None of them have claimed a deal is done. De Telegraaf say PSG have made contact with Ajax about De Ligt, Voetbal International are saying Man City are favourites to sign him and Algemeen Dagblad are saying Juve are favourites.
In short: because the agents have a God complex. Case in point with Pogba was Raiola offering him to City for example, which Guardiola couldn't help but mention in a press conference right before the derby. Or Raiola bringing Pogba to Juve for absolutely peanuts, very much against the wishes of our club and legandary manaer, and then a couple of years later making us pay a world record fee for him to come back. To be fair, it would be hard not to start to believe you're a magical creature after pulling a stunt like that and making shiteloads of money on it too.
The Rooney to City saga is another example at our club of the bad influence of managers. Of course you're right, the players have the final say. But they simply tend to be easily manipulated.
Big club wants a player: if the player moves he can negotiate a better salary, and if he stays he can negotiate a better salary.
I've just this second spoken with my mother-in-law's dog, tv watcher. Widely acknowledged and accepted he will be swapped for McTominay.
I'm a season ticket holder and have grown up with family ties very close to many/most Ajax boards, and still usually only know very little more about what's going on, and the little bits of inside info are almost always only after the fact
I don't disagree. I'm basing it more on a hunch than anything - Alderweireld should be an easy deal to do, has proven himself in the Premier League and would weaken a rival - and nobody has really linked us with de Ligt so far.
The thing that makes me question it most is the collective age of our defenders. Smalling is the oldest at 29, Bailly and Lindelof are both still just 24 and Tuanzebe could also be on the fringes by next season. It basically depends on whether the next manager is fazed by throwing another young defender into the mix or not.
Part of having a DoF is understanding and committing to a timeline. My opinion is that we are still building for 2 more seasons and then ready to take the power back away from City/Liverpool. To think we could do that next year would show naivety and the same sort of poor planning that has us where we are now. Koulibaly would not fit the timeline of our trajectory as well as De Ligt, not to say he would be a bad signing. We are realistically still 2-3 years away from getting back to the mountain top. When Rashford, Martial, Pogba are really hitting their primes. But we still need to build an entire back line potentially and build out quite a bit of our midfield as the players around Pogba age. Buying a player like Koulibaly (yes, I know he is not old) suggests we can make it to the mountain top next year which I don't think is true.
I hope we do everything in our power to land this kid as I think it's the less expensive medium to long term move since he wouldn't need replacing for ages and the more logical player to add to what is starting to look like a stunning core of young players.
All I know is Ajax are going to blow the Eredivise out of the water now with the sell of De ligt and De Jong. almost 150M in transfers when it's all said and done. If they can invest that correctly I can see them having a hegemony in that league for years to come.
with €86m for De Jong (the variables are basically guaranteed according to overmars), getting €150m for them combined would be too low, as De Ligt should in theory be the more expensive of the two. So really anything below €165m now would be disappointing.
We've had more money than the rest of the league forever, though. maybe not quite to this extent, but still. hasn't helped us consistently win the league though, at all. Who are we supposed to invest it in? Players worth €30m+ aren't interested in playing in the Eredivisie. Even Diego Lainez turned Ajax down in favour of an equal offer from Betis the other day.
Indeed. He has been the best young CB since...Varane, at least. It is pretty much dead cert that he is going to be one of the best CBs in the world. And despite being young, he has shown so much leadership already. If we get him, our defense would be settled for years.
Yeah agreed. It's a question of whether we're looking for short term or mid to long term success. Realistically speaking, de Ligt will be the better player within 2-3 years and unless we go all out to win the league next season, we should sign de Ligt. From our recent history, it doesn't seem like the board want to overspend on older, short term signings. Koulibaly at 28 (in the summer) will be approaching that bracket of player (although he is a world class defender). So, the DOF hiring will be interesting to see as they're likely going to follow that philosophy of thinking.
Also, given that there are numerous areas that we need to improve, realistically we won't be able to buy world class replacements for all those positions, so playing the long game and buying top tier talents to compete in say 2-3 years might be the better shout.
Would it? I think De Ligt is worth less than De Jong, despite him winning the Golden Boy award. I genuinely think De Jong is the greater talent of the two and midfielders tend to fetch more money than defenders (Pogba vs Van Dijk for example). I think if someone comes in and offers 70-75 million Ajax will take it. And they really should considering that's Van Dijk money for someone who is a far bigger gamble.
We need to sign the new De Ligt and De Jong.
We should have brought De Ligt back from Stockholm along with the Europa League 3 years ago
I actually thought Davinson Sanchez was the better of the 2 that night. No doubt De Ligt looks a talent though.
De Ligt is the bigger talent for me for sure, though of course considering their age anything can still happen. Somehow I also feel he's more ready to move abroad despite being younger than Frenkie.
In general you're right about attacking and creative players being more expensive, with goalkeepers and fullbacks normally being the cheapest and receiving the lowest salary.
Though this all depends too, Liverpool paid nearly as much for a goalkeeper as Barca did for De Jong. And maybe Ajax are more lenient with the De Ligt transfer fee because they already made mad money for De Jong and don't have to pay a percentage to Willem 2 and RKC.
Sanchez certainly had Rashford's number however to me De Ligt always looked like he would be the better of the two. Truth be told we should have signed both, criminal that Spurs got Sanchez so easily
Thats because you got swayed by speed and recovery tackles. On the ball, maturity and positioning wise, De Ligt was miles ahead and he was the younger one.
Sanchez isn't altogether different from Bailly, same rashness and injury issues.
- Status