Not happening for a number of reasons. Dutch clubs haven't showed (yet) that they have the quality like Porto who belong to the subtop and have players who demonstrated their quality to break through at the bigger stage. Ajax is the only Dutch club in the CL the last 3 years, where Suarez and Vertonghen are the only one who have showed quality of subtop or higher. This Ajax squad doesn't have any player that convinces the bigger boys to spend a truck load of money. The other teams who do have players that show quality regularly are inconsistent as a whole. Feyenoord failed to qualify last year, PSV really just didn't care to show any motivation, Vitesse failed to qualify also thanks to drawing a strong opponent. AZ dropped of the map all together both in the EL and the Eredivisie same case with Twente. All in all if I were a big oil baron I would have my doubts about Eredivisie players, talent such as Clasie, Bony, Van Ginkel. Maher, De Vrij and BMI etc. nice and all but as long as they haven't proven it on the big stage I wouldn't go all overboard with the cash.
1 Kenneth Vermeer 2 Ricardo van Rhijn 3 Toby Alderweireld 4 Niklas Moisander 5 Christian Poulsen 6 Mike van der Hoorn 7 Viktor Fischer 8 Christian Eriksen 9 Kolbeinn Sigthórsson 10 Siem de Jong 11 Bojan Krkic 12 Joël Veltman 15 Nicolai Boilesen 16 Lucas Andersen 17 Daley Blind 18 Davy Klaassen 19 Tobias Sana 20 Lasse Schöne 21 Derk Boerrigter 22 Jasper Cillessen 23 Danny Hoesen 24 Stefano Denswil 25 Thulani Serero 26 Eyong Enoh 27 Ruben Ligeon 30 Mickey van der Hart
Now all I have to do is find a Fischer 13-14 away kit with the proper lettering for under $100 I don't like my chances
Bojan looked pretty good in the minutes he got today which is a good start for him. Hopefully he builds on this performance as he gets more games. But it seems like he was mainly a right winger today where I was never truly convinced with him but did think he could be more involved there while he was at Barca. Is that where FdB is planning on playing him mainly or was it just an experimentation for now?
I think he'll mainly be playing there. RW is the position where we were lacking, so that's why we brought him in. At striker we have the Son of Sigthor, and Hoesen as first and second choices, and Fischer can also play there. Only way I see him playing striker is if someone comes up big on the right wing, and Bojan plays better than those other two, meaning he moves central. But outperforming the strikers isn't the bigger of the two problems. The bigger problem for him is that someone will have to unexpectedly become a force on the right side for him to be free to challenge for the striker spot. That said, I think he'll do fine out on the right for us, and he wont be under the same crippling pressure to score goals out there that he was under at Barca and in Italy. Sure he'll get some criticism if he plays badly, but he isn't that likely to lose his spot (who's going to take it from him?), and struggling at right wing isn't going to piss people off (I don't think anyway) as much as sucking as the lone striker
I just can't wait for the solution Frank de Boer comes up with when Boilesen becomes a better left back option than Blind. If he stays healthy, that is likely to happen. There are very few foreign players I like more than Boilesen, so even as a Dutch NT fan, I'm not even super mad. That said, Frank would be crazy to put a players that has gone through such a learning curve like Blind (Ajax player of the year) on the bench. I see it as probably the hottest issue concerning the player selection at Ajax. I mean Blind is on his way to earn a ticket for Brazil and sitting on the bench would end that maybe.
@DRB - There has been discussion of Blind moving to the holding midfield position as there are no realistic options backing up Poulsen at this point in time. In addition, the club still has Dico Koppers at left back. He wants to leave for another club but neither ADO or Twente want to pay the €800K transfer fee.
I don't want to make it sound like I think Bojan will struggle playing on the right wing. I think Bojan with his bursts in pace and acceleration, decent link up play with surrounding players, ability to offer width and beat his man (albeit somewhat inconsistently, but he doesn't rely on skill in one on one duels, but rather on his pace and trickery which aids his cause against poorer fullbacks/defenders), and the opportunism to try and take on long range shots which he often did in games he played as a winger for Barcelona (admittedly mainly from the left side), can prove to be a good asset for what is missing on that right side and work to his strengths of build-up play and start attacks through him. He'll definitely fulfill a role to that of an inside right-forward which he played against Bremen yesterday and played his role out well. Hopefully he'll continue on that note for as long as he's utilized as a wide man rather than the vocal point of your attack in the center. Suffice it to say, but Bojan on the right is different from seeing Cuenca on the right. Bojan is an insider forward who is more about getting into the box and shooting areas while Cuenca is more of a traditional winger who likes to beat his man and send crosses into the box. On that note, is there any interest from your side on re-loaning Cuenca for another year with an option to buy? Would just like to know because an attack featuring both Bojan and Cuenca would be interesting to see. What, from La Masia or just in general (of which there are many instances)? Fabregas, Arteta, Motta, Gabri, Alvarez, and Navarro easily come to mind while many of the recent homegrown products have good potential to make a career in some of the top 6-8 leagues in Europe. Either way I'm not sure why Bojan not living up to his promise merits a question of whether any La Masia product has ever succeeded away from Barcelona, even if he was highly touted as a teenager.
azulgrana - I don't think the club is interested in Cuenca these days. It's still not clear whether he is fully healed from his knee injury. I think there was great disappointment last spring that he missed so many matches. Regarding Bojan, it will be interesting to see how he plays. de Boer may go to a more free wheeling front line with lots of positional exchanges. He could end up having a very nice season in terms of goals scored.
Maybe this isn't new but De Jong basically committed to the club for this season in the press conference after the game against Werder Bremen. He also urged for Eriksen and Alderweireld to stay. Say what you want about his game, but you can't deny he's really embracing his leadership role.
Didn't Fox Sports take over Eredivisie Live? I thought I read somewhere recently that Fox Sports still hadn't come to terms with the Eredivisie to license the TV rights.
I know the Eredivisie Live website has already been changed to foxsports.nl The fox tv channel starts August 19th
Please tell me we at least put a large sell-on clause in that stupid sale. Unfortunately I can see the same thing happening again with Lukoki