Marked for Xander Newstead
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad9 Jun 2031
The knee: Avery Appiah out for 94 days
94 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Ajax lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market9 Jun 2031
Vitesse come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Ajax did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
The dugout9 Jun 2031
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market9 Jun 2031
Aaron Bouwman hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Ajax can pretend not to have heard.
Squad9 Jun 2031
Oscar Gloukh in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ajax this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom9 Jun 2031
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Xander Newstead has agreed terms with Heerenveen for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad9 Jun 2031
Words at Ajax training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lois Chadli is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Market9 Jun 2031
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Ajax heard it as anything else.
Squad9 Jun 2031
A club from his own country has asked the question, and he has never pretended he did not want to be asked. Ajax have a conversation ahead of them that they will not win with money.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match10 Dec 2029
7‑2. Nights like this are why clubs spend decades trying to qualify for this competition, and they arrive perhaps twice in that time. Everybody who was in the ground will describe it badly for years.
Player ratings17 Dec 2029
A brace, and Marcos Leonardo takes the afternoon — 9.83
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Marcos Leonardo provided it, and the 9.83 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad17 Dec 2029
Mousa Chadli takes the match ball home
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Player ratings17 Dec 2029
Two goals and a mark of 8.30 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings17 Dec 2029
Successful dribbles: 28. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Market17 Dec 2029
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Ajax they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad17 Dec 2029
A move Sam Tickle would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Sam Tickle is living that version at Ajax, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad17 Dec 2029
Tempers go at Ajax
Julian Brandt was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Match15 Dec 2029
Ajax make it 3 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Ajax have 3 straight wins of it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The dugout19 Nov 2029
Ro-Zangelo Daal: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Ajax have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings19 Nov 2029
Age has not caught Julian Brandt yet — 7.99
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.99 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Match17 Nov 2029
Nobody wants to play Ajax right now
4 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Market19 Nov 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Ajax is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad19 Nov 2029
Tempers go at Ajax
Julian Brandt was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Match17 Nov 2029
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Ajax and De Graafschap, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Match17 Nov 2029
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Julian Brandt. 4‑2 against De Graafschap, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings19 Nov 2029
Successful dribbles: 21. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Squad19 Nov 2029
Words at Ajax training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Anton Gaaei is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.