Just Some Ajax News

Thankfully, they don't have Nike designing the kit. Clean and simple.

 

FRON AN AJAX FAN AND JOURNO............World wakes up to Trabelsi's talent By Simon Kuper Published: February 6 2004 Nobody had heard of the wiry Tunisian who arrived at Ajax Amsterdam's training camp in summer 2001 without his luggage. Hatem Trabelsi had lost his bags at an airport, and played his two trial matches for Ajax on boots borrowed from the assistant coach. He earned a contract regardless………. Now Trabelsi is probably the world's best right-back. This is his big week. On Saturday he hopes to carry Tunisia past Senegal in the African Cup of Nations quarter-final, before winning them the trophy next Saturday. By then he also hopes to have signed for a giant club: perhaps Manchester United, AC Milan or Juventus, but not Chelsea………. Yet the 27-year-old remains, in the words of one British newspaper, "a relatively unknown right-back"………. This tells you something about the irrationality of the football establishment: not as arbitrary as art critics, but quirky nonetheless………. The lorry driver's son from the port town of Sfax is one of a new breed of footballer: so fit and fast he can play in several positions at once. Just as David Beckham is both right-half and central midfielder, Thierry Henry a one-man attack and Pavel Nedved a one-man team, Trabelsi often mans Ajax's right flank all by himself………. Teammates punt balls vaguely down the right, and Trabelsi comes steaming up like a locomotive, weaves past opponents like a sports car, before putting in the most delicate of crosses. Seconds later he will have dropped 60 yards to crunch some unfortunate attacker. Apologies if this makes him sound like the hero of a boys' comic, but he is………. I have seen him dispossess Arsenal's giant Patrick Vieira with a block tackle, a feat of valour seldom witnessed among humans. His admirers include the great Portuguese winger Luis Figo, and the Frenchman Zinedine Zidane, who exited their first encounter muttering, "What a beast!" Yet when Ronald Koeman became manager of Ajax two years ago, he briefly benched Trabelsi. When I asked Koeman why ("how on earth?" etc), he shrugged: "I didn't know him well." ………. Koeman was a great player, and is now a sought-after coach, so he presumably knows something about the game. Yet he overlooked Trabelsi because Trabelsi is a Tunisian, and Tunisians aren't supposed to be good footballers………. The national team, as Trabelsi admits, is "average". He may be Arab footballer of the year, but the Arab world is about as empowered in football as it is in international relations. Being an Arab footballer is like being a Polish pop singer: nobody outside the region notices you………. Trabelsi's genius surprised AC Milan so utterly in a Champions League game last year that they changed formation mid-match, sending the great Paolo Maldini to guard his flank………. Compounding Trabelsi's unfashionable origins is his anonymous personality. He has survived public life almost uninterviewed. Little is known about him except that he is a Muslim who prays five times a day. Partly he hides behind incomprehension. His only European language is French, which to most contemporary footballers might as well be Sanskrit. He famously cost Ajax a goal when he mistook his goalkeeper's screamed "Easy!" for the French "Ici" ("here" and passed the ball back to the out-of-position keeper………. "But it's not just the language," says David Endt, who accompanies the Ajax team as a sort of executive producer. "There is something impenetrable about him. All you see is that big smile." ………. The big clubs have finally seen past the smile. This summer Trabelsi will leave Amsterdam, ending three happy years during which the inefficiency of the transfer market allowed us Ajax supporters to enjoy a player who should have been beyond our bracket………. Trabelsi may depart the club as an African champion, but few in Europe will pay any attention to that either……….

I ALSO WOULD BE INTERESTED IN OTHER DUTCH FANS VIEWS AND HOW LIKELY IS THE SIGNING.

 

I hate all Nike shirt designs, I like what Adidas and Puma are doing and was hoping that the Oranje would go back to Adidas.

 

Ya, what's up with Trablesi going to Arse. Is Lauren on his way out?

 

The return of the v-neck, god theyr'e so hideously ugly designs.

 

schedule is coming out today...

AJAX open at twente
visit psv 24 october
home feyenoord november 14
away CLASSIC is april 17

full schedule - http://www.vi.nl/vi/show/id=62802/contentid=60728/sc=dffa34

 

knopper is AJAX no more, free to heerenveen

rasmus lindgren begins training with the first squad

 

Ajax have agreed terms with both Arsenal & Newcastle and now theres a 3rd unknown club. So the choice is up to Trabelsi which club he gonna choose.

And vdVaart has decided to stay another year at Ajax, after his disappointing Euro2004.

 

Good decision by vdVaart.

 

trabelsi told to choose a destination by monday

http://skysports.planetfootball.com/article.asp?id=212836&cpid=9

 

JOB bit

http://www.yanks-abroad.com/content.php?mode=news&id=000032

 

So is Ajax the clear cut favorite to take the league title again? Or has PSV and Feyenoord closed the gap?

 

1-yes

2-no and no

 

Is Ajax the point at the top of the Arsenal-FC Barcelona-Ajax pyramid?

Seems like most supporters of one club, also follow the other 2...am I imagining things or am I on to something? hummm?

 

In my opinion, how can you support 3 teams?? must be a bitch on travel to spain, england, and holland! sorta a poser if you "support" 3 freakin clubs.. maybe a different term should be used~

 

Fine, clubs that you follow closely and wish that they succeed. I know supporting more than 1 club is hard. But why follow any other leagues if you don't ANY emotional interest what so ever???

On an Ajax news front, so is this Hans Vonk (GK from South Africa) suppose to be any good? South Africa is exactly the hidden bastion of football, now is it? lol. Thanks.

 

1-the AJAX/barca/arse thing is generally related to the players that worked for 2 or more of those... lord dennis, cruijff, overmars, davids, neeskens, koeman, etc.

oh and i wouldnt call it supporting, just interested

2-vonk is pretty damn good - id just assume he took over for lobum until stekelenburg is ready

 

pasanen officially sold to werder bremen, i dont know the fee

http://skysports.planetfootball.com/article.asp?id=214809&cpid=9

 

Mmh, this might change now with Drogba leaving Marseille for Chelsea (how many players do they need, they just bought Kezman!).

 

nope... zlatan re-stated that yesterday - im pretty sure he wants serie A

 

One more thing about premium membership that I don't get....I have seen people tons of club names in their team part of their profile, BUT I can only fit 3 maybe 4 clubs.....18 spaces! And yes, I'm a premium member. I'm guessing it's a conspiracy!

 

We are talking about Chelsea remember. They buy footballers just for the sake of spending $$$$.

Vandervaart,

Am I reading your profile correctly, your a Gunner too? If so make sure you post over on the Arsenal board. It is the most active EPL forum on BigSoccer. Great bunch of people. Always great to see another Gooner and an Ajax supporter. Where are you from? Fill that out. oops, Welcome to Big Soccer!!!