Kenneth Perez finds it difficult to understand that Lucas Ocampos has completely failed in the service of Ajax. The analyst of ESPN had just expected that the Seville attacker, who will face AS Roma in the Europa League final on Wednesday, could add a lot to Ajax.
Ajax wanted to buy Ocampos from Seville for twenty million euros in the final phase of the summer transfer window. The Supervisory Board put a stop to this, after which a rental deal was negotiated. Ocampos was not involved for a moment under Alfred Schreuder. The Argentinian returned to Sevilla disillusioned in January after only 114 minutes of play.
Perez followed the developments with surprise. “It has always surprised me that a player who has played in the sub-top of Spain for years in this Ajax couldn’t even get a chance to show himself,” said Perez prior to the Europa League final. “Ocampos has a lot of those things that Ajax does not have: he has physicality, he is strong and he has depth. Do you ever see an Ajax winger who goes deep? They all get into the ball.”
Perez thinks Ocampos should have been given more time. “You just can’t tell me that someone who has played there for so long, that he can’t get at least one chance at Ajax, the current Ajax right?… Playing in and going deep, you don’t see anyone doing that at Ajax, do you? somewhat surprised that he was written off so quickly…”
The young Francisco Conceição, who was taken over from FC Porto in the summer, took Ocampos’ place in the selection. “So you prefer Conceição to this boy,” Perez states. “They want height, they want physicality, they want people who are deep. They all had that when they hired Ocampos. I understand that it was smart not to pay twenty million euros for him.”