Maurice Steijn has internally urged Ajax for the arrival of Stefan de Vrij, Vangelis Pavlidis and Anastasios Douvikas, Mike Verweij reports in the podcast Kickoff by The Telegraph. The journalist has confirmed those three names in addition to the list of players that was already publicly known. “Sven Mislintat has swept everything off the table,” says Verweij.
According to Verweij, Steijn had a verbal promise from Mislintat that he would have a say in the purchasing policy. That agreement was said to have been quickly violated by the now dismissed director of football affairs, who went completely his own way.
“There is a persistent rumor, often put forward by Kenneth Perez ESPN, that Steijn would have signed with the agreement that Mislintat would be responsible for all purchases. That is simply nonsense,” Verweij assured on Monday afternoon. “When Steijn had his job interviews, it was agreed that they would bring in players in consultation.”
At the end of July, Steijn left for Germany with the Ajax selection for a training camp. At that time, Branco van den Boomen (acquired on a free transfer from Toulouse) was the only signing that Ajax had brought in. “At the training camp in Herzogenaurach, Maurice Steijn already felt wet…”
“Every name he brought in was simply swept off the table by Mislintat. The list is even bigger than anyone already knows. Noa Lang, Jerdy Schouten, Nicolás Tagliafico, Calvin Stengs, Sergiño Dest, Anwar El Ghazi, Thiago Almada and Nick Olij were already known.”
“Stefan de Vrij has been in the picture. Ajax has been busy with Anastasios Douvikas, Mislintat did not want. This also applies to Pavlidis, who is doing quite well at the moment at AZ.” The latter striker is the top scorer in the Eredivisie with thirteen goals in nine games (together with Santiago Gimenez of Feyenoord). Douvikas was sold by FC Utrecht to Celta de Vigo at the end of August. The transfer amount was reportedly twelve million euros.
De Vrij got sidetracked at Internazionale last season and seemed to be on his way to a transfer-free departure, but the 31-year-old defender finally decided to sign on July 8. De Vrij is currently stationed in Milan until mid-2025.
Verweij calls it ‘very painful’ that Ajax did not consider names such as Pavlidis and De Vrij. “Look at what kind of team you could have made… Then you wouldn’t have been seventeenth and also kept a lot of money in your pocket.”