Matthijs De Ligt | Ajax CB

Bloedrood

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Not for me personally, the strategy is sound now and is working, if PSV wins the league it doesn't mean it isn't working. PSV is an Eredivisie points machine, they can independently from how Ajax is doing get a record number of points, while Ajax still get the number of points that would win the championship 9/10 times. If that happens, congratulate PSV, but don't panic and continue what you're doing.
I agree, but that's this season. Next season could be very different. People were happy with Bosz and the Europa League final too, expecting it to continue next season but that changed quickly. Ofcourse now finally Overmars seems to have his shit together with transfers, anticipating better and attracting some experience aswell. But don't forget they really wanted to sell Ziyech last summer, what would this season have been without him. Some luck involved there that he stayed. I agree Ajax should continue on this path, but last summer nobody left, next summer players will leave. It's a different and tougher situation. For Ajax to deal with it properly they'll have to spend some of the transfer money that's coming in, Ajax hasn't really done that before on this scale, will be an interesting summer.
 
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KirkDuyt

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The problem for Ajax, or any Dutch club for that matter, is that it's impossible to really hold on to talent. Players like De Jong, De Ligt, Ziyech etc won't remain at the club. With a bit of bad luck, Ajax loses all of them this summer. Of course with their great youth academy they can fill in the gaps, but not every generation of talents is as good as this one. That's why it's impossible for Ajax to get to the later stages in Europe on a regular bases. There's simply not enough financial pull to keep their talents at the club when they are at their peak.

Problem with Ajax is that their base still doesn't accept the fact that they're not a consistent top or even sub top side in Europe. They see it as a failure to not qualify past the group stages of the CL even though that's quite an unreasonable demand. Look at PSV for instance. Especially Ajax fans ridicule them for coming last in their group this year even though they're clearly not as strong or as rich as Spurs, Inter and Barcelona.

I think Ajax has been managed just fine for most of the recent past. They simply can't consistently compete at the top level and you appoint all ex players you want to the board. It won't change the fact that Dutch clubs don't have the cash to compete at the top.
 

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Problem with Ajax is that their base still doesn't accept the fact that they're not a consistent top or even sub top side in Europe.
It may not be a realistic attitude, but isn't this the right attitude? The alternative is to accept it. Would they be up against Madrid if they had accepted it and not get Tadic and Blind back? You have to keep the ambition, realistic or not.
 

Bloedrood

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Ajax is the richest club in Dutch football, supporters should expect more from them than from the other Dutch clubs. 2 years ago they reached the Europa League final, now they're doing well in the Champions League. Why wouldn't they be able to do this on consistent level? They're not just relying on youth academy players to fill the gaps anymore, it's why they were able to attract Tadic and Blind. They're capable of more financially now than they have been in the years before. And they're about to get a truckload of money from CL and transfers, if spend wisely they could be this good again or maybe even better next season. The main thing holding back Ajax and PSV right now are the other Dutch club's performances in Europe, ruining the UEFA coefficient for the Netherlands, making it much harder for them to get into the CL in the first place and thus making CL income less reliable.
 

KirkDuyt

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It may not be a realistic attitude, but isn't this the right attitude? The alternative is to accept it. Would they be up against Madrid if they had accepted it and not get Tadic and Blind back? You have to keep the ambition, realistic or not.
It's a very good attitude as long as you don't make any drastic changes to policy over some unrest. You don't need another revolution after 2 years without a titles. Sometimes the youngsters coming through the academy are slightly less good and sometimes you buy a Kerlon instead of a Tagliafico. Scouting players isn't an exact science and neither is developing youngsters. Ajax should always be hungry, but should never listen to supporters when it comes to running the club.

@Bloedrood

Ajax should obviously expect to win, or nearly win, the domestic title every year. What they shouldn't expect is making the EL final or CL quarterfinal on a yearly basis. Blind and Tadic are good buys, but in the grand scheme of Europe they are nothing special. It would be amazing if Ajax (or PSV) (or Feyenoord, but who am I kidding) would consistently make the knockout stages in Europe, but I don't see it happening, because they may be rich in Europe, but even midtable premier league sides can spend more and more importantly pay a much higher salary. Then there's the Dutch league, which is extremely weak and not very attractive to play in for world class talent which means you will simply not hold on to your best players. Which in turns means you will inevitably experience poor seasons where the people you replace them with arent as good.

So in short, why can't they do it consistently? They don't have enough money to pay out huge salaries and our league doesn't have enough pull to keep talented players.
 
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Dolf

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We should have signed him after the Europa final, it was clear he was class.

Dutch/Ajax fans...do you think United could get him? Would £100m be enough?
Moneywise United could definitely get him but I doubt he would choose United when he could walk into almost every big team in europe.
Ramos, Boateng, Hummels, Thiago Silva, Pique, Chiellini all need to be replaced.
 

Cassidy

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Didn't realise Riola is his agent, do we have a chance now Jose has gone?
 

KirkDuyt

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Was immense yesterday. Him and VVD will be a fantastic backbone to our national team for years to come. Now we just need 9 other good players and we're back!
 

charlenefan

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Was immense yesterday. Him and VVD will be a fantastic backbone to our national team for years to come. Now we just need 9 other good players and we're back!
I doubt you have many more years of VVD tbh, maybe 1 tournament
 

charlenefan

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He's 27, if he stay fit until he's 32, that's three tournaments. Not completely unthinkable I'd say.
He'll turn 29 during next years Euro's, so yeah ok he should still be on the scene for the 2022 World Cup (31) but he'd be 33 by the time for the 2022 Euro's
 

Thisistheone

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He was class last night. fecking 19? Mental

There was one play where the ball was hanging in the air and he wiped out about 3 Madrid players jumping for it and nodded the ball to a team mate to keep Ajax on the front foot.
 

arthurka

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I would pay 100m for this kid instead of Koulibaly. He changed my mind last night, I´ve watched him couple of times before but last night he was absolutely immense.
We need to start building a future squad at this club and stop buying players to paper over the cracks. What a talent this kid is.
 

izec

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I would pay 100m for this kid instead of Koulibaly. He changed my mind last night, I´ve watched him couple of times before but last night he was absolutely immense.
We need to start building a future squad at this club and stop buying players to paper over the cracks. What a talent this kid is.
He may not even cost that much. Plus we got a good relationship with Ajax. We are dumb if we are not after him.
 

JohnnyLaw

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Still think he's too similar to Lindelof
Even if he is that’s quite frankly just tough shit for Lindelöf. If we have a shot with De Ligt, and we should have, it’s going to take alot more than Lindelöf to justify any hesitation from our end.
 

Henrik Larsson

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Such a good player already, and a real natural leader and warrior as well (and he's nothing like Lindelöf, who would be a pretty good partner for him though).
 

Keeps It tidy

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It seems like Juventus has become favorites to sign him. It seems that Juventus' sporting director Fabio Paratici was at the first leg. Juventus have had a long relationship with Raiola.
 

charlenefan

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Such a good player already, and a real natural leader and warrior as well (and he's nothing like Lindelöf, who would be a pretty good partner for him though).
You've either never seen De Ligt play or you've never seen Lindelof

I'm not saying they couldn't work as a partnership but neither would be the most obvious compliment to one another
 

passing-wind

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We should have signed him after we played Ajax in the Europa League final him and Sanchez (Tottenham) were class.

Seems we are always late to grab a talent before they become known to other respective leagues top teams with the exception of Martial. This points more towards the off fields problems we have that can only be solved with a DOF.
 

Sparky Rhiwabon

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You've either never seen De Ligt play or you've never seen Lindelof

I'm not saying they couldn't work as a partnership but neither would be the most obvious compliment to one another
I’m not sure why the obsession on here that CBs need to be different types of player to be able to play together. I suspect it’s because our most effective pairing in recent times, Vidic and Ferdinand, happened to be quite different in style but I’m sure that “two Vidic's” or “two Rio's” would have made just fine pairings.
 

charlenefan

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I’m not sure why the obsession on here that CBs need to be different types of player to be able to play together. I suspect it’s because our most effective pairing in recent times, Vidic and Ferdinand, happened to be quite different in style but I’m sure that “two Vidic's” or “two Rio's” would have made just fine pairings.
Well I did say that I wasn't suggesting it couldn't work as a partnership but generally speaking unless you have two complete CB's that can do it all you're better off having one CB who's excellent at abc and another who's excellent at xyz

I'd love De Ligt here but I'd still see the need for a Koulibaly type as well (though not necessarily Koulibaly himself)
 

In Rainbows

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I would pay 100m for this kid instead of Koulibaly. He changed my mind last night, I´ve watched him couple of times before but last night he was absolutely immense.
We need to start building a future squad at this club and stop buying players to paper over the cracks. What a talent this kid is.
All of our duds have been the bargain buys. Pogba was obviously our most expensive buy. Martial was the most expensive teenager at the time of his transfer. De Gea was the most expensive teenage goal keeper at the time of his transfer. We have some good young talent at this club. Buying players who fit their timeline is better than buying players who could be done in 3 years.

But, United haven't been linked with de Ligt thus far.
 

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We should have signed him after we played Ajax in the Europa League final him and Sanchez (Tottenham) were class.

Seems we are always late to grab a talent before they become known to other respective leagues top teams with the exception of Martial. This points more towards the off fields problems we have that can only be solved with a DOF.
This is not the first season clubs have tried to sign him.
 

IrishMcD

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Even if he is that’s quite frankly just tough shit for Lindelöf. If we have a shot with De Ligt, and we should have, it’s going to take alot more than Lindelöf to justify any hesitation from our end.
Couldn't agree more, teams who have a much healthier centre half situation than us will be all over this if they think they have a chance of signing him, Madrid, Juve, PSG, City, Liverpool, Barca etc but people doubt if we should try to sign him because of Lindelof being a similar type of player to him? That's like saying no thanks Jessica Alba, I kind of got with Susan Boyle last weekend when I was desperate but feel I should probably give that a chance.
 

Adam-Utd

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Couldn't agree more, teams who have a much healthier centre half situation than us will be all over this if they think they have a chance of signing him, Madrid, Juve, PSG, City, Liverpool, Barca etc but people doubt if we should try to sign him because of Lindelof being a similar type of player to him? That's like saying no thanks Jessica Alba, I kind of got with Susan Boyle last weekend when I was desperate but feel I should probably give that a chance.
Lindelof clearly isn’t a Susan Boyle though is he. He’s easily Monica from friends. Used to be fat but suddenly got quite hot. She’s been great in bed recently so why should we cheat?
 

IrishMcD

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Lindelof clearly isn’t a Susan Boyle though is he. He’s easily Monica from friends. Used to be fat but suddenly got quite hot. She’s been great in bed recently so why should we cheat?
Because Jessica Alba is Jessica Alba, and if romantic Comedies have taught me anything is that Jessica Alba is that perfect girl next door! Hollywood tells me that's what I should aim for. Also, I'm sure Susan Boyle probably has her qualities, probably take me 24 pints to see them. Jesus, Valentines is really bringing out the romantic in me.
 

IrishMcD

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Lindelof clearly isn’t a Susan Boyle though is he. He’s easily Monica from friends. Used to be fat but suddenly got quite hot. She’s been great in bed recently so why should we cheat?
Also, if Lindelof is Monica, is Jones our Gunther from Central Perk?
 

izec

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Lindelof clearly isn’t a Susan Boyle though is he. He’s easily Monica from friends. Used to be fat but suddenly got quite hot. She’s been great in bed recently so why should we cheat?
A threesome fitting all parties and everyone is happy is not cheating.
 

RooneyLegend

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Wasn't all that impressed. Fail to see what he has that Tuanzebe doesn't potentially have.
 

IrishMcD

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Valencia is our Rickety Cricket from Always Sunny in Philadelphia! Man he went down hill quickly!
 

Keeps It tidy

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Once again he is the best young CB I have seen. And CB is the position I often watch the closest. Usually with young talented CBs they are either too rash, try to do too much on the ball or are overall reliant on their physical gifts. De Ligt came into senior football and immediately started playing like a 10 year veteran. The best young CB in Europe outside of De Ligt is probably Dayot Upamecano of RB Leipzig. Dayot is incredible for a CB his age but, he can be guilty of all the things I mentioned before. And with young CBs you usually have to put them at FB or in midfield as a way for them to get on the pitch with De Ligt there was no reason to ever put him in a different position.