Raiola is such a snake. In the interview I read he definitely blame shifted to Brobbey. Now I’m sure Brobbey isn’t innocent, but Raiola does nothing to help in these situations.
Two late goals close out the calendar year as Ajax defeat a rather listless Fortuna Sittard team 5-0. Haller with the late goals on PK and a nice shot from a wonderful pass by Timber. Pasveer hardly touched the ball at all. Ajax are in first place for the moment as PSV close out their year with a match against Go Ahead Eagles tomorrow night. Player Ratings: Pasveer (5.5) - really didn't touch the ball at all Blind (7) - decent enough match at LB and then in the MF; and of course he got the game winner Schuurs (6.5) - did not have much defending to do Timber (7) - gets a good mark for the great run and pass leading to the final goal Rensch (7) - solid enough especially in the offensive zone Gravenberch (6) - above averaged and an early sub off capped his night Klaassen (6) - few touches Berghuis (6) - a few more touches than Klaassen Tadic (6.5) - good enough from the Captain Haller (7.5) - had good position all night long with some nice chances on goal; he will be missed in January when he is playing at the African Cup of Nations Antony (7) - solid game with a nice cut inside and shot for a goal Tagliafico (6) - got some good minutes coming in for Gravenberch Neres (NR) - on late Taylor (NR) - on late Daramy (NR) - on late Best holiday wishes to all of you on both sides of the pond!!!! Let's hope a well rested Ajax team comes back and has a good run in 2022.
Didn't know that. The announcer on the Ajax telecast today was saying Haller would be gone in January.
I'm no Raiola fan but from what I have read/understand, he just does what the player wants to. That's really most agents. I wonder if this is half super sub/half audition to take over if Haller goes in the Summer. This would be 100x better than the last two winter attacking signings (Babel/Idrissi).
They would be insane with omicron going on a rampage to fly everybody from all over the African continent. Expect to see the players from at least the epl to get a ban from the clubs to fly to Africa. FIFA is going to scramble to get the African confed to postpone it, due to the to be expected epl bans. If the African confed then demands from FIFA to impose a suspension/ban on those players to play for their clubs, FIFA can expect them to be challenged in court over those bans, as their judicial ground they're standing on inthat matter is more like quicksand. No court will give a non employer the right to impose suspensions of employees, because of them not being released for work outside of the employees work environment.
https://www.theguardian.com › football › 2021 › dec › 02 › omicron-leads-european-clubs-to-raise-africa-cup-of-nations-safety-concerns2 dec. 2021Europe's clubs are seeking urgent talks with Fifa after raising concerns over player safety at next month's Africa Cup of Nations. The emergence of the omicron variant of Covid-19 has led to..
Napoli lawyer warns he may SUE to prevent players travelling to play in the Africa Cup of Nations, insisting there could be grounds to gain health based exemptions for European ... Daily Mail|8 hours ago In the wake of the increase in positive Covid-19 test results around the world, there have been doubts whether the tournament in Cameroon should go ahead.
Some countries won't be sending athletes to the Winter Olympics in China either: https://www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id/32918026/sources-nhl-not-going-olympics-due-covid Supposedly if you test positive you have to quarantine for 3 weeks. These are not IOC rules, but Chinese government rules
quite frankly this is a huge joke. Omicron is everywhere right now. Why do you think all those EPL teams are canceling matches? To think that preventing players from traveling to Africa will protect them from Covid when they cannot even protect them in Europe says a lot.
Very true, but living in Southern Africa where omicron has reached unprecedented levels right now, I can tell you that Europe and the US have yet to feel its full impact. The travel restrictions are, in my opinion, bogus, but the situation in Africa is worse than it is elsewhere. The (potentially) good news is that omicron may reach its peak very quickly and fade just as fast. We should know more in 1-2 weeks.
The South Africa minster of health said there has been a marked decline in new cases over the past two weeks. My own feeling is this will contribute significantly to herd immunity and while Covid will continue to be endemic, mutations and new medicines will make this a manageable disease.
That new Pfizer pills will make all the difference https://www.nydailynews.com/coronav...0211223-vbvyhjya3vhj3dvi5zqqm6dbdq-story.html
Couldn’t help to wonder why Timber hasn’t been tried on the defensive midfielder role. Quick, agile and good passing, could work. He is too small for a modern CB anyway and we seems to be overbooked in that department. I will love to give it a try in a friendly game.
I have watched him few times Based on the comments here and imo his lapse of concentration in defense is one of his weakness. he looks good on ball, and distribution as well but he has shown quiets a few times lapse of concentration in defense which at NT stage is not acceptable. I would rather invest in Azor Matusiwa
Interesting, Timber is 3 years younger and I think a better prospect that Matusiwa. Let’s see what the future holds for both of them.
Timber has played DM for Ajax in the youth ranks and also for the first team on some occasions. He likely would have been preferred at that position had it not been for a lot of mental lapses by Schuurs last season that prompted EtH to move Timber to CD. Timber has played very well in the CL group matches this season and is still preferred to Schuurs. Alvarez seems to have secured the DM position for now and despite is lessor ball handling skills remains the top ball winner in the MF for Ajax.
Brian Brobbey is returning to Ajax from RB Leipzig on a six month loan. There is no option to buy him after the loan period. This is important as Ajax will be without Haller for a month because of the African Cup of Nations. Max de Wall, a striker with Jong Ajax, may be loaned out to PEC Zwolle for the second half of the season. Ajax would like to extend his contract before this happens.
He suffered a knee injury last year and only came back to regular action two or so months ago. Heitinga does a lot of player rotation on Jong Ajax, I think because senior management wants to get a lot of players experience at this level. It's still unclear whether Hansen will make it to the first team. IMO, the top prospects are Unuvar (splits time between MF and wing), van Axel Dongen (wing), Rasmussen (wing), Baas (LB but has been injured), Salah Edine (LB), Fitz-Jim (MF) & Reeger (RB and MF).
Hah probably better not to. In fairness the man U fans and posters here have been pretty sympathetic to the situation with VDB. But, for sure it is a bad situation for VDB... His career is pretty much being ruined.
This happens all the time. If I were a player at that level, I'd think long and hard before taking a transfer to one of the big clubs. I realize there is more to it than that, but I would much rather go to a sub-top team in a top league than one of the big teams in the same league. So many promising careers go to those clubs to rot. There's always a chance he can pull a Van der Sar or Bergkamp and transfer to a better situation, but I hate to see such a promising talent waste away in a snakepit like United.
Exactly! Unless you are a clear-cut and uber-elite talents (Frenkie de Jong, De Ligt), you should not go to the mega rich teams right away... and should focus on getting playing times in a middle-tier team in order to improve. Gini Wijnaldum provided a very nice blueprint. He "cut his teeth" for two years in Newcastle --- yes, the club was struggling (in fact, relegated), but Gini got the best of situation by playing consistently and then put other clubs on notice - eventually ended in Liverpool. Koopmeiners and Malen seemed to make a good choice as of late... maybe a tad to ambitious, but they are slowly adapting to the demand of the higher leagues. The next couple Dutch exports from Eredivisie would be interesting.... Gravenberch, Timber and Gakpo are probably next in line. Still they are maybe at least a couple years away, we'll see if they make smart choices!