Mike Verweij thinks that Ajax regrets that Arnaut Danjuma was never attracted. According to the Ajax watcher of The Telegraph Villarreal’s 24-year-old wing attacker has been ‘very high on the list’ in Amsterdam. Danjuma left an excellent impression as a substitute with a goal last Monday in the match between the Netherlands and Gibraltar (6-0).
“He made a great comeback, although maybe the opponent wasn’t the best you could hit. He has established his name for a while, although I have to say that he already did in the previous matches in the Spanish league. I think Ajax is very sorry that they didn’t buy it”, Verweij says in Kick-Off, the football podcast of The Telegraph. He is asked when Ajax has been in the market for Danjuma.
“I think that was when he still played at NEC and later Club Brugge”, Verweij responds. Club Brugge took over Danjuma from NEC in 2018 for almost three million euros, after which he made the switch to Bournemouth a year later for more than sixteen million euros. Danjuma previously told in an interview with Football zone that there had been ‘here and there’ contact with Ajax in February of this year, but that nothing happened because he did not want to leave Bournemouth in the middle of the season.
“Ajax had him very high on the list, but did not go through with it and I think Overmars regretted that,” says Verweij. “It should also be noted that he had to take a big detour after he initially couldn’t make it. He got injured after the international match against Belgium (in October 2018, ed.). It took quite a while before he recovered from that and was as good as he was then. But I expect a lot from him and the discussion that the Netherlands has no wingers can also be thrown into the trash.”
“The great thing about that boy was that he played as if he were playing football freely in the street”, colleague Valentijn Driessen adds. “He picked up the ball, just made his move, found his opponent and passed the ball. the Dutch’s game is often a bit sterile. Van Gaal always says that a station has to be skipped, but that never actually happens. As a result, you actually have little speed and it is fairly predictable. This guy and Noa Lang create a certain unpredictability that opponents struggle with.”