Sunday, December 12, 2021 at 10:58 PM• Tom Rofekamp • Last update: 23:00

Willem van Hanegem protects Steven Berghuis. The columnist of the General Newspaper believes that the Ajax attacker should be left alone when he returns to De Kuip next Sunday for the duel with arch-rival Feyenoord. Van Hanegem sees enough opportunities for the team from Rotterdam and a victory on Sunday would be the best answer to Berghuis’s departure, according to him.

The 29-year-old wing striker annex attacking midfielder made the switch to Ajax for 5.5 million euros last summer, which did not go down well with Feyenoord’s supporters. “Leave Berghuis alone next week,” Van Hanegem wrote in his weekly column on Sunday. “That boy made a sensitive choice, but that’s no reason to threaten him. I think his departure has been good for both sides. The Feyenoord players feel much freer without him and Berghuis is at home at Ajax. He himself will be wise on Sunday not to provoke.”

Van Hanegem prefers sporting revenge – a real possibility according to the former international. “Ajax has the most money, the best players and a great goal difference. But taking distance is too much to ask in Amsterdam. Not beating FC Utrecht, Go Ahead Eagles and AZ in their own Johan Cruijff ArenA, that is downright embarrassing. Yes, in the Champions League they are unbeaten and they rake in the money with shovels, but the Eredivisie has become a necessary snack. If you would then win, Ajax suddenly has fifteen loss points and Berghuis is also in the ranking below Feyenoord. That must be the motivation.”

The Curve finally wants to ‘make an urgent appeal’ to the supporters of Feyenoord. “Let no one have the slightest reason to point to you this weekend at the Classic between the women on Saturday in Amsterdam and the real Classic on Sunday in De Kuip. I know that pointing is sometimes very unjustified, but put your heads together and make sure that the Ajax bus comes to Rotterdam normally.” Feyenoord and Ajax currently have the same number of points in the Eredivisie. The arch-rivals are both on 36 points after 16 matches: one behind new-fangled leader PSV.