Henk Spaan is critical of the role of Susan Lenderink in the possible cancellation of the transfer of Steven Bergwijn. He makes this known in his column in The Parool. The financial director of Ajax should have given Marc Overmars the means earlier to take over the wing attacker from Tottenham Hotspur.
‘Instead of listening to Overmars and attracting Erik ten Hag and Bergwijn at an earlier stage, she looked too much at the numbers,’ says Spaan about Lenderink. ‘Dusan Tadić and Daley Blind, the big earners at Ajax, have no residual value. Bergwijn, which cost about 23 to 24 million euros before Wednesday, could be sold to Ajax for at least double after two years.’
Bergwijn scored twice in injury time on Wednesday evening for The Spurs and as a result, a 2-1 deficit to Leicester City was turned into a 2-3 win. ‘The financial director didn’t listen to the technical people and let the deal fall through. A day later, Bergwijn, who single-handedly took three points for Tottenham, was worth ten million more. You can blame the opportunism of the football world, you can also calculate the opportunism’, says Spaan.
Ajax switches to Ihattaren
Ajax switched quickly the next day and ended up with Mohamed Ihattaren. Although he is not seen as the alternative to Bergwijn, Spaan thinks it would not necessarily be a good move: ‘After the Bergwijn failure, Ajax immediately diverted attention by approaching Ihattaren, a potentially good player, but one that is far from being able to decide international matches, let alone league matches in the Premier League.”
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