General Football Discussion

[raymon]

At Kendal Calling this weekend and seen about 5 people wearing various Ajax shirts! May not sound like a lot but on a par with any major English team. And the only Dutch football team to be represented.

[Orange14]

Swen Mislintat was just hired as the Technical Director at Borussia Dortmund!! Maybe they see something that ajax did not. Hope he still likes all the players he bought last summer and that he will take some of them.

[SPL]

Big game in Worthing today as they play home to Braintree with the winners promoted to the National League ,which is really the 5th league.Many proper football names there. 3000 tickets for sale but all went on line within minutes so I was unlucky.Usually get 1300 so many glory seekers who probably wont go next season. Its on TNT ie BT on proper TV so will watch.

[SPL]

Sadly my local team Worthing lost 4-3 after ET so no promotion. A good game plenty of well taken goals but Worthing's defending is a bit like Ajax .Too many soft goals and they cannot defend corners.

[SPL]

Was watching my local cricket team today in Worthing. Talking to someone I knew I asked why his 4 small grandchildren had Fulham shirts on .He pointed to a red haired guy and said thats my son in law Harrison Reed who plays for Fulham regularly. I got chatting to Harrison only because he was trying to control his youngest and I said my granddaughter is now 9 months .

I knew he was a local lad and was a Southampton player for years. I mentioned I was an Ajax fan and said Calvin Bassey had a hard time convincing our fans.He said Calvin was a decent defender and had a good season. We mentioned youth and I said Bassey was unlucky because Hato broke through. He asked how good is he and I said a very good prospect and in a couple of years he will possibly be at Arsenal who fancy him. I said he is not a de Ligt who at just 17 looked absolute class.

Harrison is a nice friendly down to earth lad and he did not mind me talking footy.Wasn't expecting to talk to a Premier League footballer at my local cricket ground

[SPL]

2 big games in England today. My local team Worthing need to win today and will be promoted to National League. If they dont win its likely to be playoffs for the 5th year in a row.

For every Ajax fan just hope Ipswich win today,they need 4 points from 3 games for promotion and paying us 8m for Akpom. Millwall,now 2nd only got a 90 min equaliser last night otherwise we could have celebrated with a win today. Ipswich game in hand away to Southampton ,who are also in the promotion shake up.

Worthing Ipswich and Ajax win today would be great

[Tom_]

Just looked at the results. Good to see your locals got their win. Ipswich only drew but seems like they are still a good chance to go up.

[SPL]

Thanks Tom ,could not get a ticket but I knew the score as the ground is only a 10 min walk away and I heard loud cheers for the 2 goals. Worthing now up with some well known names in the National League.

Ipswich need 3 points from 2 games but have won 1 in the last 4. I am not certain they will take Akpom .He has not performed for them ,mainly sub , and they are not going to want him in the PL . Maybe they will give us say 2m to cancel the agreement and he will be back with us.

[SPL]

Come on Ipswich beat QPR promotion and Akpom is sold ,hopefully.

[Tom_]

This might be the highlight of the season for Ajax.

[SPL]

Agree Tom ,provide Ipswich pay the 8 or 9 m .

[Orange14]

Ipswich wins does this mean they have to take Akpom?

[Tom_]

Yep I think so. €8M is spare change for the Premier League so no big deal for them. Apparently he played 900 minutes for them over the whole season.

[Jinne]

I think they will try to sell him again. But thats not our problem anymore.

[Orange14]

Silvano Vos is leaving AC Milan having failed to progress. Ajax sold him on several years ago for €2.75M as he had a high salary for a youth player and was not showing much progress as a #6. another example of a player who leaves too early and who knows where he will end up.

[WP_Legend]

Silvano Vos is leaving AC Milan having failed to progress. Ajax sold him on several years ago for €2.75M as he had a high salary for a youth player and was not showing much progress as a #6. another example of a player who leaves too early and who knows where he will end up.

Is his contract being ripped up or are they looking to sell?

As we had a sell on percentage clause.

[Orange14]

Silvano Vos is leaving AC Milan having failed to progress. Ajax sold him on several years ago for €2.75M as he had a high salary for a youth player and was not showing much progress as a #6. another example of a player who leaves too early and who knows where he will end up.

Is his contract being ripped up or are they looking to sell?

As we had a sell on percentage clause.

Don't know. the article did not say. He played this season for the reserve team in Serie C

[SPL]

Vos and Misehouy both took the money to obscurity. Misehouy went to Girona but is on loan for some small Greek side.

[Orange14]

Vos and Misehouy both took the money to obscurity. Misehouy went to Girona but is on loan for some small Greek side.

van de Beek was on the Bench at Girona as they finished 19th and are relegated. I'm not sure I want to have a manager who presided over a team that was relegated despite having enough resources to stay up.

[Orange14]

Here are some opening thoughts about last season and the future.

We can all agree that this season was a humiliating disappointment for both the players and the supporters. There was such a fall off from the performance under Farioli in he 2024-25 season. The club looked unfit, falling apart in the second half in almost all games. Surprisingly the club played well against both PSV and Feyenoord but then dropped points against Excelsior and were humiliated in the Cup against AZ. The club went through three trainers, none of whom could right the ship though Garcia did a decent job winning the two playoff games to assure minimal Euro football next year.

The club had some unfortunate injuries with first choice keeper Jaros sidelined for the final 1/3 of the season with a knee injury. Similarly, Zinchenko who was bought in January to play left back went down in his second game with knee ligament damage. Japan international Tomiyasu who was recovering from a knee injury when bought in January for six months was not game fit until the final six or so matches. Sutalo missed games throughout the season.

Ajax were fortunate that Paes who was brought over from the US soccer league did a passable job in goal. His back up, Jong Ajax keeper Heerkens suffered a freak ankle injury in a match and was out leaving only Reverson as a backup. Since Jaros returns to Liverpool, Ajax need to upgrade this position.
The MF was unsettled all season long. There is no true holding MF on the roster in the Jordan Henderson mode. One of the options is to go out and find an established #6 as there is no real candidate in the youth ranks who stands out at this moment. The other is to rely more on two deep lying MFs that can both cover and advance as needed. This was pretty much how ten Hag handled things in the CL run where de Jong and Schone played deep and either was a true #6. This will be up for Cruyff and the new manager to solve.

Here are the players on the roster right now including players coming back from loan (L);
GK – Paes, Heekens, Reverson, Setford (L)
DF – Gaaei, Rosa, Wijndal, Itakura, Baas, Sutalo,Bouwman, Alders (L), Goojier (L), Janse (L), Kaplan (L), Verschuren (L)
MF – Regeer, Gloukh, Klaassen, Mokio, Fitz-Jim, Bounida, Steur, Mannsverk (L), van den Boomen (L)
FW – Dolberg, Carrizo, Godts, Edvardsen, Konadu, Berghuis, van Axel Dongen (L), Faberski (L), Rijkoff (L)

Out of Contract: Weghorst, Tomiyasu, Zinchenko

Several Jong Ajax players have seen spot playing time or been on the bench because of injuries to first team players. Of these Ouzane is the only one ready to challenge for a first team place. Had Unuvar not missed time because of injury he might be a possibility as well. Most of the rest are either not good enough or need one more season at Jong Ajax. However, there are always surprises coming up through the ranks and it is possible that we may see some breakthroughs.
Not qualifying for the Champions League clearly has an impact on Ajax finances and whether they can bring in any new players if the price is over €10M. One way to address this is player sales. I think the team wants to keep Godts for another season and he wants to stay as well. Unfortunately, Ajax don’t have any players who command high sales prices. We are not going to see the Antony size money coming in. Here are players I think will be sold and their values according to transfermarkt.com: Sutalo (€15M), Gloukh (€15M) , Gaaei (€5M), Itakura (€10M), Wijndal (€4M), Fitz-Jim (€3.5M), Edvardsen (€4M). Maybe they also sell Kaplan but he is not going to bring in much either. You can see that even if all of them are sold, Ajax will get only about €50M. That’s not much of a transfer budget!!

Ajax have a good core of young defenders though I don’t know if Janse wants to sit on the bench behind Baas. Goojier had a good season on loan after missing much of last season with a knee injury. If Gaaei leaves he might be the right back. He also played as the holding MF in a Jong Oranje match so we will see. I would like to see what Bounida can do in the MF. I don’t think he is a natural winger. Steur needs to get stronger and also show he can play 90 minutes. Mokio had a very good second half of the season. Dolberg is questionable as a striker to bet the house on and Ajax have only unproven youth behind him.

[SPL]

A good summing up from Orange. Unless Godts or Baas get sold we will get at most 50m from the players you list. Kaplan will go ,4 or5m, Wijndal F-Jim and Edvardsen will realise max 2m each .

We need to appoint a new coach asap and I too dont want a coach who speaks little english and has just been relegated in Spain.A new Jong coach also is needed and the first thing they need to do is sort out the 11 loaned out players. Janse Verschuren and Gooijer all had good seasons and can be backups .

Only highlight of the season was Sunday when we won the penalties.

[Orange14]

I agree about an English speaking manager!!! Farioli spoke excellent English and I don't think he learned much Dutch in the year he was with Ajax. Apparently Michel speaks little or no English. This won't work at all. I think the decision about the manager is the most important one that Jordi will make. There are some good candidates but Ajax don't have a lot of money to pay and a limited transfer budget as well. EPL teams always have money to splurge. With the first Conference League qualifying match in late July, the team needs to begin practice while the World Cup is still going on. This won't affect the squad as there are no WC players other than Sutalo and he will likely be sold.

[Tom_]

I hope they sell Godts. I don’t think he’s even an average player. I know he did some numbers this season but I’m almost certain he won’t next season if he stays. Cash in now while he has some value!

[Amol]

I hope they sell Godts. I don’t think he’s even an average player. I know he did some numbers this season but I’m almost certain he won’t next season if he stays. Cash in now while he has some value!

I struggle with this one. He makes so many dumb choices but he does get double teamed a lot which in theory should free up other players. The trouble is that he either never sees or never takes that passing option.

[Orange14]

I hope they sell Godts. I don’t think he’s even an average player. I know he did some numbers this season but I’m almost certain he won’t next season if he stays. Cash in now while he has some value!

I struggle with this one. He makes so many dumb choices but he does get double teamed a lot which in theory should free up other players. The trouble is that he either never sees or never takes that passing option.

That's why I always say look at David Neres tapes. He almost never got caught in a double team and gave the ball up before the second opponent could get to him. I always thought he was underrated while at Ajax.