AZ official website reporting that a fee has been agreed and Vlaar is talking to us. They say other clubs are interested but they only have an agreement with us and Ajax are officially no longer trying to sign him. http://www.az.nl/index.php?module=news&articleID=18338 Dutch media saying that he has 3 days to agree a transfer / pass medical and the fee is 3.5 million euros.
Just a fee from the reports so far, no mention of any exchange. Ham Sandwich has a long term injury, so nothing should happen to him on the transfer front until the summer.
Anyone know anything about him? Is he another young central back? Can he play wide? We're rather stacked at centre-half right now, with neither Davenport nor Huddlestone having gotten a match yet this season, and both Dawson and King still quite young. But fullback looks much more wide open.
Ron who?! I don't like signing unknown players. There's no guarantee they'd be successful. At least a "known" player would have some reputation and you'd know what he's capable of.
Vlaar is known well in Holland, Marco Van Basten has already called him up to the NT, what you have is another young promising centre-half who could be the future for the Dutch National side along with Johnny Heitinga of Ajax. However you guys still have Huddlestone and Dawson, so yeh there could be some problems, and Vlaar could probably play fullback but he won't be anything close to a wingback as he lacks some pace.
Vlaar will be 3rd choice centre back, competing with Dawson and coming into the team when Dawson or King are suspended/injured/tired. He'll get games I'm sure. Davenport will be sold off to a championship side when he impresses enough for someone to bid close to 1 million or so. Gardner is mentally not up to it, and would have been sold to Charlton if not for a failed medical. He's back to fitness so I suspect he may be gone in January. Naybet is too old and has barely featured this season. Huddlestone is playing as a midfielder and improving very nicely at Wolves, he will stay there for the rest of the season.
Not bad, i have only seen him once though in a friendly against Italy & he scored a great goal (shame it was a own goal). As Sendo says he is going to be competing with Dawson, i really like Dawson and i think Vlaar is going to have a good battle with him and a difficult one.
Known to whom? you or the manager of our team? Vlaar has 2 Dutch caps (sorry, giggling at that) after only 11 AZ games. So his rise has been rapid. Marco van Basten saw something in him after just a few games, so perhaps he is decent. Described as the 'next Jaap Stam' is something good, and as Davenport is off and Naybet retiring then this guy seems fine. The choice is often this: Buy promising players for cheap and develop them, or let someone else do that and buy them for lots. I know what i'd rather..
Have you considered checking his age? He's too young to be a NT regular, it's impressive that he made it already. Anyways, Don't know if it's a good move for him. I mean, he's been fighting with his club management for about a month now to let him move to Ajax because he wasn't getting enough first team action. Now if he completes this move to Spurs he'll remain at exactly where he was; the bench. Doesn't make sense to me, he'll be a good addition to your youth though.
Agreed, this is why i don't like this deal, does this mean we're getting rid of Ledley? we fvcking better not
ok.. now we have a surplus of central defenders in addition to the central midfielders... what happened to davenport and huddlestone? are they still injured??? and how about defendi??? is he a center defender also???
Jesus. Why am I listening to people whine about this? Firstly, it might not actually happen. Secondly - is getting another promising young player (if it does go through) a bad thing all of a sudden? Thinking about it, you moaners are right. I miss the good old days when we had a dearth of any decent players. Hell, I'm getting a warm feeling in my heart when the only central fvcking defender we could attract was Ramon Vega. You people don't know when you have it made. Honestly. Davenport is as good as gone, accept it and move on. Gardner is shite, a two month spell this season aside and I wish him all the best but will help him pack his bags. If this Vlaar character is better than those two players, then get him and ship out the others. Unless of course, progression is a bad thing. Kinell! Maybe some of us have been exposed to woeful underachievement for so long, that the glimmer of mild success makes us brick it. Class dismissed.
Completely agree with Lillywhite. Davenport is leaving if we can get money for him, he was a Santini signing anyway. Naybet is retiring. Gardner is not good enough. That leaves us with King, Dawson, Vlaar and Huddlestone who's out on loan. I think it's much better to have a compact squas of top talent than a bloated squad half-full of average playing ability. £2-3m for 20-year old Dutch international is a bargain. Don't forget Jol knows the Dutch market very well and knows talent when he sees it. Can't wait to see the fella in action. Now for the clearout
Huddlestone is at Wolves where he is played in midfield. It would be criminal to waste his passing ability in defence after all. Davenport is plodding along with Norwich I believe. Haven't heard anything breathtaking about his time there. Last I heard about the aptly named Brazilian, he was back in Brazil. Don't know if this is still true or if he's came back again and is in the reserves.
Indeed. Let's hope we get a couple because of BMJ! Absolutely. Key thing is getting the quality in first and then getting rid of the dead wood. If he doesn't turn out to be an exact copy of Stam but only half as good, well not bad cover at least. If not then he happily go the way of davenport et al. Who knows, he could be as good as Stam - result. Of course, this isn't over yet and whatever Ajax has been saying, they might still come in with an improved offer for him.
I've never seen the kid play so I can't comment. Some sources are saying he's the next Stam, while others are labeling him as a waste of money. So which is it? Has anyone on here seen the kid play more than 3 times for AZ?