Not really, they themselves want to move to another club. But for clubs that are in one of the UEFA competitions it will be pretty useless to buy them if they cannot play in those CL/Euroleague matches. So that's why they are "benched".
Earnest reached an agreement with Ajax about the sale of El Hamdaoui, but Ajax failed to meet the terms of the player. So if that doesnot change it will be good for the chances of Altidore with Ajax I think.
The details arenot known, but Ajax stated that the gap between what El Hamdaoui asked and Ajax was prepared to offer was far to big. So the difference must be that big they didnot see any room for haggling. The agreed transfer price is rumoured to be around 5 million €€, not much for a top scorer of the Dutch league.
I just learned that the deal has been clinged (or is it clinched) after all. So it will be doubtful if Josi is on his way to Ajax.
Earnie isn't doing too badly with AZ either - they're in 4th, despite shedding a lot of salary (the aforementioned El Hamdaoui and Fulham's Moussa Dembele).
Background info. Earnest Stewart went to Brussels to speak with JK. Earnest knew how GertJan would react to the selection of Jozy, because at AZ they find it upmost important that Jozy gets fully fit again and in this way many hours of targeted labour was lost. JK could feel into that but had the opinion that the training labour was high enough too at Team USA. According to him Jozy wouldnot get worse in Brussels. Earnest went over to see if he could make arrangements about certain friendlies, because in his view sometimes it is over the top with those friendlies. Even worse in his opinion are certain tournements that get organized outside the calendar and almost always in Januari. In Earnest view it is a hot issue, as you have to deal with the interests of two parties involved, but he wants to make it debatable at the least.
AZ fans can ask the Board questions. This time Earnest speaks on a subject that is on YA watchers mind. Question: My whole live I’m a fan of AZ. One thing I noticed the last few years : The biggest shortcoming of AZ is the lack of a striker that can score. We always have to depend on our wingers and mid fielders. Why donot we buy goal getters like KlaasJan Huntelaar or Ricky van Wolfswinkel? Earnest: “A striker ultimately is there to score goals, that’s quite clear. Only the buying of a striker with a status as a goalgetter isnot plain simple. When a striker has a good goal scoring average, very high prices land on the table. Those are sums that AZ simply cannot cough up. So that category of strikers is out of our reach. We have to get strikers in whom we see a goalgetter in potence. Often that are young players, who take some time to adapt to AZ, our football philosophy, the system and other things. That also goes at the moment for Jozy Altidore, Charlison Benschop and Ruud Boymans. When they have adapted to everything we hope to harvest the fruits of our efforts. Danny Koevermans needed a year too in Young AZ before he started to score in the first team like a machine. Maybe you have a question too for Earnest vragendirectie@az.nl
Mark de Jong from Delft gets an answer to his question: AZ puts a lot of effort in the Youth system.Yet it occurs frequently that very talented players from the AZ Youth Academy are being snatched before their 18th birthday by other clubs.What ways has AZ to cover the risks that players are educated over here and ultimately break through at another club? Stewart: We can prevent that by offering them a contract. That is allowed from their 16th birthday. With the real big talents we in fact do this! Once they have a contract, they cannot leave just like that.Take a look at big talents like Thom Haye and Joris Overeem. The problem is that clubs cannot offer youngsters a contract before their 16th birthday. They can leave for a fee of 13000Euros for every year in the Academy, which only applies to professional clubs. Recently this this unfortunately happened with Ezra Walian, who went to Ajax and Dany van der Moot who went to PSV. We did our utmost best to make them change their minds, but couldnot do more otherwise. Very annoying. Within the Netherlands we are now discussing this problem. One of the solutions is to raise the Academy compensation fee. That is often totally not covering the expenses we made for that player. That is a twisted situation. Qestions you have you can email to vragendirectie@az.nl
Question by Nico Mudde, Bruxelles. In Voetbal International TV Wilfred Genee said that he heard from Toon Gerbrands that this summer an offer on Jozy Altidore was made of 8 million Euro. Are there many clubs interested in him? Earnest: “At the moment it is not the time/phase that concrete offers are coming in at AZ. But it is a fact that players like Wilfried Bony and Jozy Altidore frequently are mentioned in the media, for the sole reason that they score. They are interesting. Last summer actually an offer for Jozy was made via via from a financial strong Eastern Europe country. I cannot confirm the 8 million amount. That offer was made at a very late time, which made it impossible for us to react adequately with the recruiting of a replacement! So to us it was not interestingly enough. Besides that, Jozy wanted dearly to stay with AZ . After years of wandering he found a home here. He does not want to leave the club just like that. I will not exclude that this winter break or at the end of the season interested parties will show up for Jozy. He is developing himself enormously: a linking pin for the team, plays along well and on top of that translates that into goals. That does not go unnoticed abroad. This season too there are often scouts from big clubs like Barcelona, Bayern Munchen, Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspurs in the AZ stands! Qestions you have you can email to vragendirectie@az.nl
Earnie, has it ever occurred to you that you may have gone too far too fast with your roster demolition?
Actually it isnot his fault that the players list thinned out that fast. It was the heritage of the collapse of the previous owner and his financial empire. They had a big debt to erase and they had the fortune that the liquidator was very helpful in not selling all the players when the club hit the rocks as he could have done. He listened to the arguments of the management that selling all the players would mean the club would cease to exist, thus costing all the people at work with AZ their jobs. So he sold the whole club for a symbolic price to a foundation. The club thus had the chance to plan the liquidation of the debt and they managed to do so in just two years and now are debt free. So they didnot have much room to manouvre and have done wonderful given the circumstances. So salute to this management.
There are various ways to restructure the debt. At the present, the team is trying to avoid relegation and, even if it succeeds at it, a bottom of the table finish would effect Earnie ability to attract even a moderate level of talent in the future. Or keep Verbeek. You'd think that, after the last season's Europa League run, his career was ready for a take-off.
Oh, please. AZ isnot relegation stuff. It will in the end come right. AZ is very well capable to attract good talent, as they come into a well structured club with a good staff. Verbeek is comfortable in the club, so he isnot looking for an exit. The strong point of this mangement team is that they do not go into stress mode when things are hitting head wind.
Dear old Earnie has the team built for next season with the new signed players. If it was up to him the transfer window could be closed.
Aside from Aussie Eli Babalj and Jeffrey Gouweleeuw who else has AZ signed?? Those guys, both 21, have a pretty good pedigree. Jeffrey is a CB, right? Lords knows, AZ had problems in that position last season.
Question of Joey van Alphen “Is there a big chance that a type of player like Adam Maher emerges from our Academy again?” Answer by Earnest Stewart: “Our Youth education in the past years has been doing an extremely good job. When you look at our selection, a third of that exists of self educated players. Adam Maher on the other hand is an exceptional talent. That kind of player only emerges once in so many years from your own Youth education. At least I can say that at the moment some pretty big talents are present, boys with a huge potential. Whether those players can reach to the level of Maher is not yet possible to tell. Even with Maher for a time it was a question whether he would be able to survive at AZ. Because of his smallish length and physic he sometimes was on the bench in the Youth too. Just because of that he developed strongly in playing smart soccer, spotting spaces and the right way of running free. Only around his 15th or 16th he because of that made an enormous growth spurt as a soccer player. The boys that trumped him before physically were lacking in smartness to stop him. Often enough only at the end of the education all aspects converge. It is up to our present talents to make the same steps. Besides we since a few years work with a different educational view with the Youth, even more focused on becoming aware of the job (skill set? FSF) of top sporters. The first batch that has totally completed that trajectory is the present AZ U17. They have more luggage than those before in that category. That hopefully will help for a higher quantitative and qualitative contribution of the Youth Academy to our A selection. Questions you have you can email to vragendirectie@az.nl
Earnest Stewart has a big task at hand, that will shape the course of the club for the next coming years. He has to find a new coach, as Advocaat leaves and a new general manager, as Toon Gerbrands is leaving too. The important question is what the goal has to be: try to reach for the top section of the league or continue as it goes. AZ has taken coaches with prestige to take the helm, but is that still an option?