Precisely when she was in full swing as a club, Ajax went through one of its toughest weeks in years. An important screw in a team that will not be allowed to play for a long time, a frustrating fax affair, an academic product that refuses to stay and a transfer is stuck – all this the luxury team from Amsterdam went through in a few days. Some clubs do not experience such a chain of faults for a lifetime.
The removal of Andre Onana for 12 months
UEFA has recently stepped up its anti-doping activities. In a procedure on behalf of the organization that has become routine, testing of banned substances for players has begun not only after games. The members of the organization arrive at the training complexes of the teams and select two players at random. Last October, they arrived in Amsterdam.
Onana, the goalkeeper of the Cameroon national team, did not feel well the day before the test and took a drug, whose name is very similar to the name of a product designed to help reduce weight, which his partner took after pregnancy. The confusion cost the goalkeeper dearly, the substance he took was considered prohibited and he was punished with expulsion for a year.
Ajax CEO Edwin van der Sar Was interviewed a few hours after the announcement of the UEFA decision. “Although the UEFA accepted Onana’s version and believed him, she decided to punish him very severely. He was banned from training and taking part in games. The sky fell on him. Appealed to the CAS (High Court of Sport), “said the former goalkeeper.
The 24-year-old Onana has 141 appearances in the Ajax uniform. He won the championship with the team, the cup, reached the semi-finals of the Champions League and the final of the European League. Until a solution is found to the Cameroonian’s case, if at all, his replacement will be 36-year-old Marten Stecklenburg, who reached the 2010 World Cup final with the Netherlands. The veteran goalkeeper returned to Ajax last summer, after nearly a decade of wandering in Italy, France and England.
BREAKING: Ajax goalkeeper Andre Onana has been banned from football for a year after failing a drugs test last October. pic.twitter.com/VvWaNalazA
– Goal (@goal) February 5, 2021
The most valuable player in the club’s history – outside the European campaign
Under the management of Van der Sar and professional manager Mark Obmars, Ajax has undergone a revolution in recent seasons. She continues to sell her outstanding talents to top clubs, such as Frankie de Jong and Matthias de Licht, but she no longer buries the cash that goes deep inside the vault.
Precisely in the Corona era, Ajax completed the most expensive acquisition in its history and shattered the record in Dutch football for an incoming transfer (player joining the league): Sebastian Haller was bought from West Ham for £ 25 million.
The Ivory Coast national team striker has joined the special texture that exists at the Johan Cruyff Arena. Academy products, like the young players acquired from outside, continue to take the stage, while at the same time, the club invested in veteran and significant players: Dusan Tadic gave up the Premier League and became the most dominant player in the Netherlands, Daley Blind returned home after 4 years at Manchester United for 16 million Euro. In fact, the return of the brake was the record transfer in the Netherlands until Haller arrived.
The team from Amsterdam, with its financial reserves, wants to create a new reality in the Netherlands where it will be the main ruler, after in recent years also the sworn rivals PSV and Feyenoord have won the championship. Indeed, the superiority of Ajax is well felt, the best players in the Netherlands play for her and she is in first place.
This season, the Dutch teams have a special incentive: whoever is crowned champion will automatically enter the home stage of the Champions League next season after years of having to face qualifiers. With Haller, Ajax believed they had a good chance of getting far in the Europa League as well, after dropping out of the Champions League. It’s just that, as in the case of Walid Badir and Maccabi Haifa, the name of the powerful striker was forgotten in the registration of the players for the decisive stages in the European factory and he will not be able to play.
It could be a technical failure, a human error, or just irresponsibility. Haller, who has already scored twice and conceded four goals since arriving in Amsterdam, will have to focus on the local frame only.
Even in Amsterdam people do not like Mino Raiola
Brian Robbie, one of Ajax’s academy products, caused a headache for the club’s heads this week. The 19-year-old striker, who this season is ahead of the senior team, shows impressive physical data and has two goals in the league. Apparently the cliché “did not rip a pair of shoes” is appropriate here, but it does not exist in Raiola.
The super-agent, who represents, among others, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Paul Pogba and whoAlex Ferguson Call it “Agent Shit,” sending delegates to where they can make the most money. Robbie has the potential but he has lost appreciation for the club that gave him the first chance. That’s how it is as someone as powerful as Raiola whispers in your ear.
“We tried to do everything we could, but we could not convince him to sign a new contract,” Obermars was quoted as saying this week in an official statement issued by Ajax on the subject of Robbie, who will leave at the end of the season. According to reports in the Netherlands, Raiola has arranged for a striker who promises a prestigious contract in Leipzig.
Filters from Moscow
Osama Idrisi, the 24-year-old winger who joined on loan from Sevilla on the last day of the transfer window, is still awaiting his Ajax debut, although he, unlike Haller, who has already made 7 appearances for the team and has been forgotten, has signed up for the Europa League. But this is not the only bizarre story around Idrisi.
The reason Ajax paid € 9 million to add the Moroccan national team player at least until the end of the season was to prepare for the departure of Quincy Promes. Spartak Moscow offered 12 million euros to return the Dutchman, who won the championship and the cup with her.
On a Dutch scale, Fromm is another glittering name that Ajax have signed as part of a change of heart at the club, but when such a sum may come in for a relatively veteran player, it is hard to refuse. However, his transfer came across a serious obstacle: the Dutch national team winger is involved in a stabbing incident that is still under investigation and there is a chance that the prosecution will demand that the player want a prison sentence.
Despite Spartak’s positive acquaintance with the 29-year-old Fromm, the Russian luxury group has been alarmed by the developments and the deal is currently stuck. The transfer window in the Russian league will close on February 25 and currently on Ajax another blow has landed with inflation of players filling the same role on the pitch. Here, too, as with the plethora of recent scandals, it will be difficult to find a solution.
