Marc Overmars: "Ajax must become the Bayern Munich of the Eredivisie."

[Panna King]

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"With so much money in the bank, when will Ajax do something with it?" In recent years, it has been a frequently asked in the direction of technical director Marc Overmars. The club almost always opted from their own youth after an outgoing transfer. That has changed.

Dusan Tadic (at least 11 million euros) and Daley Blind (at least 16 million euros) have cost Ajax quite a bit. These are amounts that can still accumulate with millions through bonuses. Everything with only one goal: the championship must return to Amsterdam.

Nevertheless, the Ajax philosophy, in which the youth training is central and should not suffer. "That is the culture of Ajax, it will stay that way," says Ajax coach Erik ten Hag. "Players like Tadic and Blind can stimulate that even more, and they can take young players to a higher level."

With their Premier League experience, Tadic (29) and Blind (28) have to take the Ajax talents by the hand. They do not stand in the way of development, but they ensure a better and possibly faster growth of young players, that's the idea.

Ten Hag: "We want to continue to play youthful talents, they can develop and be successful with Ajax, Blind and Tadic are players who are not in their last days, but who are still motivated, who are sharp. achieve and want to realize something together with us. "

At Ajax everyone counted on a departure from Hakim Ziyech this summer. But for now he is still playing in Amsterdam and the arrival of players like Tadic and Blind may tempt him to stay for another season.

"It could well be that Ziyech remains," says Ten Hag. "He has the desire to leave, two years ago agreements have already been made about this, there has also been talks with other clubs, but at the moment there is nothing concrete." He is extremely motivated to join us in the season. "

Bayern as an example

Overmars agrees with the trainer's words. "Our own youth remains the most important thing: self-educated players must have chances, that's all, but the arrival of experienced players is nice, that's what our young boys ask for", says Overmars.

With the new policy Ajax wants to put PSV and Feyenoord at a disadvantage. In fact, according to Overmars, Ajax wants to become "the Bayern Munich of the Premier League". Bayern is responsible for all German clubs, both sporting and financially, and has dominated the Bundesliga for years.

"The amount that we have paid for Blind is pretty substantial," admits Overmars. "We could have waited for six weeks, then the transfer fee would have been considerably lower, but we wanted the club to be ready for Sturm Graz (preliminary round Champions League July 25 and August 1) We can do this because we have this money that has been gathered together in recent years. "

 

 

 

 

 

[Danny]

How much money in the bank do they have? I like Ajax's principles but taking history away, these days they were a non-entity on the continent. Football has changed and will be forever changed, it surprises me to see clubs like Ajax or PSV struggle to compete in the Champions League.

Obviously PSV have had a couple of good runs (knocked out recently by Atletico I believe?) but this is more aimed at Ajax and even then PSV will eventually be eliminated.

[Azeem]

Ajax can't even hold on to their young talents talk about becoming the Bayern of their league.

[Panna King]

7 hours ago, Danny said:

How much money in the bank do they have? I like Ajax's principles but taking history away, these days they were a non-entity on the continent. Football has changed and will be forever changed, it surprises me to see clubs like Ajax or PSV struggle to compete in the Champions League.

Obviously PSV have had a couple of good runs (knocked out recently by Atletico I believe?) but this is more aimed at Ajax and even then PSV will eventually be eliminated.

Ajax have around 250-300+ million euros in their accounts.  There are transfers still unresolved also Frenkie de Jong to Barcelona for around 40-50 million euros and Ziyech looks set to leave.