Atletico agreed to pay €10 million for Heitinga. El Ahmadi is going to Feyenoord According to what I have read on the net, Napoli fans will straight up kidnap Huntelaar if he refuses to play for them. What else is going on?
In the bag so far: El Ahmadi to Feyenoord Amrabat to PSV The hot property that AZ, Feyenoord and Ajax are fighting over is Heerenveen's Sulejmani. Heerenveen also look likely to lose Pranjic (to Ajax or AZ). Another rumour that unfortunately won't go away: Engelaar to Ajax. Schalke have officially confirmed they've contacted Fred Rutten.
I'm not too worried about more players leaving to be honest. I reckon Engelaar's staying. And they're almost all on extended contracts so if they leave, they'll leave for shedloads of money. I am very, very worried about Rutten though. We'll never find another manager who's that good a fit for this club. Oh and I forgot: we signed Fat Theo Janssen. Who's no longer fat!
I agree with Johan that Italy is looking better. Roma has just lost Totti to a knee injury and will clearly need a center forward. They play more of a Dutch style of football than the other three of the big four (I rule out Napoli).
Johan you said El-Ahmadi would: a) not leave Twente b) would be more than Ajax could afford if he would leave So given what you said about El Ahmadi, Engelaar will be worth 4million, maybe less?
By the way, I think PSV have a real steal in Amrabat. From the games I saw on Setanta against PSV & Ajax, he was a terror.
where do you guys think pranjic will end up? i know there have been rumors of him going to ajax but he has stated if he leaves heerenveen he would want to go to one of the big leagues meaning italy england or spain..
Amsterdam...bitches. But seriously I'm going to just avoid the question and say that I'd rather see him to go England.
I'm reading gossip/buzz about this Dario Cvitanich character replacing Huntelaar. I've read articles from the tabloid style news sites that we already beat Espanol and Boca to his signature, but I want to see this in writing on the Ajax site. [youtube]iybnOUBXV7I[/youtube] Notice the stands collapse after the first goal in the video.
I don't think I ever said either a) or b). I've always said that El Ahmadi was bound to leave at some stage, we're realists over here and know full well that we can't hold on to players of that quality. I did say that I personally felt (and still feel) that his playing style is better suited to Ajax than to Feyenoord and that's one of the reasons that I don't understand his choice. The El Ahmadi transfer sum remains undisclosed by the way: it's anything between five and eight million Euros from what I've heard. As for Engelaar, he's quite a bit older than El Ahmadi so bound to go for less. I hope to God that Engelaar's staying. We're yet again facing a bit of an exodus over here now that Rutten's move to Schalke has been confirmed. So that's Youri Mulder, Fred Rutten, El Ahmadi already gone. Ambitious, quality management, passion and dedication at all levels of the club, sound financial administration, quality football that entertains the crowds and not just in Enschede - Twente has done everything right over the past two seasons yet here we are, we have to start all over again with new players and new management. And maybe we get the train back on track again - what's the bloody use as there will always be another Schalke, another Ajax, or another Feyenoord bleeding us dry as soon as we start to threaten to become a top European side. Sorry about this rant but sometimes football in this country gets too depressing for words. I'm sure Groningen and Heerenveen fans will understand.
tbh johan this isnt only twente it happens to.. ajax is as bad but maybe on bigger scale, ajax are still i think considered to be a bigger club than twente.. and so ajax steals their players... and in turn, bigger clubs than ajax steals their players and so on.. its football..
Ajax are a much bigger club than Twente and always will be. But what is that based on? The frustrating thing is that Twente have done everything right over the past couple of years. The club's incredibly well run on all levels - can the same be said about Ajax? The issue being that when you're a small club, you never get rewarded for your good work. As soon as people start to notice how well you're doing, you're bled dry, and there's absolutely nothing you can do about it apart from trying to up your budget every way you can.
I know I'm not telling you anything you don't know, but you did ask. I would say it's partially based on superficial reasons, such as being located in the biggest/wealthiest city in the Netherlands. It's mostly based on past success in the league & Europe. Obviously winning the Champions league in '95 didn't hurt. In addition we developed a reputation for "Total Football" and also our ability to develop players through our own youth system who many bigger European clubs liked to poach from us. All of this really put the club on the map as being significant on a worldwide scale. But you know this!!! Clearly it has very little to do with how we have performed in the past decade or so. With that said, amidst the complete mismanagement of Ajax we have still been able to win the league a few times and place 2nd ALMOST every other year.. Our lack of success in Europe has been very disturbing, but we aren't exactly tanking it in the Eredivisie. "The road to life yes it goes up and down, doesn't really matter as long as the music goes on." I believe Ajax has the resources and the reputation to turn things around
But that's precisely the point I was trying to make. Like I just said on another thread, the big clubs can have complete half-wits manage them and that won't bother them much. Whereas small clubs like Twente can have geniuses manage them and do everything right, yet they'll still get screwed in the end regardless.
im praying de guzman stays on for another year, but i seriously doubt it. fey'd seems to love selling their talent first chance they get.
Well then you are absolutely correct, but to pretend to not understand why we are a bigger club is just silly Don't get me wrong I think Twente is totally underrated. But seriously you guys have only won the league once in 1926 and the Intertoto cup is your only European trophy...Lets be realistic. (I mean this in a totally non-condescending manner)