The Ajax Herald
Market12 Aug 2030
Ajax say no — this time
The offer from Go Ahead Eagles for Loum Tchaouna was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Market12 Aug 2030
Federico Valverde raises the bar for Ajax
“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.
The dugout12 Aug 2030
Teun De Ligt says Ajax went back on their word
“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.
Squad12 Aug 2030
Words exchanged at Ajax
André-Franck Zambo Anguissa and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Boardroom12 Aug 2030
6 academy players handed senior numbers at Ajax
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Market12 Aug 2030
Ajax promote Patrick Stengs from within
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Patrick Stengs has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market12 Aug 2030
One of our own: Nathan Strootman joins the Ajax first team
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Nathan Strootman is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Squad12 Aug 2030
Eduard Spertsyan wants to go home
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Ajax can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad12 Aug 2030
The formation has left Ben Gannon Doak behind
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Ajax will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
In brief
- Squad Words at Ajax training over how hard people work
- The dugout When it matters, Denzel Dumfries plays
- The dugout The manager’s verdict