André Onana appeared to have played his last match for Ajax against AZ on January 31 of this year. The goalkeeper refused to sign, a summer transfer also failed to materialize and he served a doping suspension. Still, despite an expiring contract last Wednesday against Besiktas in the Champions League, Onana made his comeback under the bar and Erik ten Hag called the drafting of Cameroonian ‘the best for Ajax’. The question is whether this is also sensible from a business point of view, since Ajax is in the stomach with other contract situations.
Noussair Mazraoui’s contract will expire in more than six months and Ryan Gravenberch’s contract will end in mid-2023. Negotiations about a longer partnership between club and player are not going smoothly. It is a headache file that can lead to the necessary tension between technical staff and directors, especially at top clubs, as both sporting and business interests are at stake.
“Is a club run by a football man or a financially driven person? The football man secretly dreams of winning the Champions League and puts everything aside for that,” says Jan van Halst on Saturday. General Newspaper. The analyst and former director states that business is secondary if a trainer thinks he can realize that dream with Onana. “I approve. Football should always be leading, although sometimes you set a precedent for other players.”
An agent who does not want to be named points out that a trainer wants to draft the best players. “It is true that you may have to let it depend on which player it concerns.” The motto ‘if you don’t sign, then you don’t play’ can encourage other players to sign up anyway, but with the drafting of Onana, Ajax also seems to be giving Mazraoui and Gravenberch free rein at the same time. “If they don’t want to sign up, they won’t. If a trainer has a strong alternative for your position, he will choose that. That is the consequence,” says Van Halst.
Van Halst believes that there should also be ‘flexibility in policy’. The anonymous agent states that performance ‘compensates a lot, if not all money lost from transfers’. “I do think that as an Overmars you should also look at who it is. With a player who has already earned his spurs and brings experience, I think you can’t be as tough as with a great talent who can bring you around fifty million. A seat on the bench is harder for him. If you don’t, you can also overplay your hand.”