super storm

Chapter 1503 Scratching the Lottery Ticket

When the whole world is scrambling to pay attention to the news of Yang Yang leaving Real Madrid, and guessing which team Yang Yang plans to go to next, they don't know that Yang Yang has quietly appeared at Amsterdam Airport.

During this period of turmoil from the outside world, he first locked himself in his home in Madrid. After training behind closed doors to maintain his state, he also took more time to watch Ajax's game videos this season.

In fact, this connection has been going on for about half a year.

In the season that just passed, Ajax only won the Eredivisie runner-up in the end, four points behind the champion Eindhoven.

The Champions League stopped at the qualifying round, the Europa League was also eliminated early, the Dutch Cup only played one round, and the league once again finished second. This kind of Ajax is really unsatisfactory, so that the team has been a little turbulent throughout the season.

Players are also worried about the status quo of the team, and many people are thinking about leaving.

When Yang Yang wanted to return to the national team and prepare for the World Cup, he turned north halfway and changed planes in Amsterdam, during which he stayed overnight in a hotel near the airport.

Van Gaal, Van der Sar and the core executives of the club secretly went to the hotel to meet and discuss the preparations for the new season.

……

"Last season, the team's performance was not ideal, so relatively speaking, we did not receive the same attention as a year ago, and other teams did not poach us too much, but the situation is still not optimistic."

Van Gaal is worried about Ajax's current situation, because the team did perform too badly last season.

More importantly, there is only one year left before the three-year agreement between Yang Yang and the Supervisory Committee.

Is Yang Yang sure to lead Ajax to a high level of performance and competition within a year?

Not to mention Van der Sar and others, even Van Gaal, who knows and is familiar with Yang Yang, feels that this is such a difficult task. Even though he has always boasted of being arrogant, if you ask yourself, he is not so sure.

"Little Kluivert, I told you before that this kid is determined to leave the team, and we really can't persuade him." Van der Sar sighed, "We are all very optimistic about him, but he just doesn't listen."

After Ziyech pushed forward to the winger position, Kluivert Jr. and Sancho became substitutes for the winger position, and both performed well, but unlike Sancho, Kluivert Jr. was arrogant and obviously not willing to be a substitute and rotate positions.

"What's more terrible is that Ziyech has also received the attention of many teams now, and he is likely to leave the team."

When Van der Sar said this, he looked at Yang Yang worriedly, "If Kluivert Jr. and Ziyech leave at the same time, then we will have a lot of vacancies in the frontcourt, and we can only promote young players such as Mullen and Stens."

As we all know, young players need time to develop, and they need to be given enough room for mistakes, so it is difficult for young players to achieve results. This is well known, but next season will be a crucial season for Ajax, so there is no room for loss.

"Yeah, Ziyech has performed quite well this season. He is the team's assist leader. His combat effectiveness is very important to us." Van Gaal also felt that from the perspective of team stability, it is very important to keep Ziyech.

Yang Yang nodded, "Then let Kluivert leave and sell it for a good price."

After two years of reorganization, the Ajax youth training camp is also full of talents. When Keizer was coaching before, he led the team to win the runner-up in the Dutch second league. In the past season, the Ajax youth team won the Dutch second league.

If it weren't for the fact that the first team and the youth team cannot be in the same league, the Ajax youth team should be promoted to the Eredivisie.

From this point, it is not difficult to see that in the past two seasons, under the management of Yang Yang, Van Gaal and Van der Sar and others, Ajax's youth academy has really undergone earth-shaking changes.

Although Kluivert Jr. is talented, it is not enough for Ajax to subdue him.

More importantly, if Ajax makes a concession this time, then all teenagers will do the same in the future, what will Ajax do?
"And Wobel, this kid's agent appeared in Seville a few days ago."

"Seville?"

Van Gaal nodded, "Barcelona has just signed midfielder Arthur from Gremio, Brazil, and then wants to build a defense line. The number one signing target is Sevilla's central defender Lenglet. It is said that there has been a substantial breakthrough in the current transfer, and Sevilla wants to introduce Vobel to fill Lenglet's vacancy."

Wobel is the main central defender of Ajax this past season, partnering with De Ligt.

Sevilla has always liked to introduce this kind of potential and talented young teenagers to cultivate, and then sell them at a high price. This is also the way Sevilla survives in La Liga. More importantly, this team can not only play in the four major leagues, but also compete in the European arena all year round, and their performance is very good.

However, this is not a big problem for Ajax, because Ajax has already prepared.

"How are you talking with St. Paul?" Yang Yang asked with concern.

Before, Van Gaal and the scouting team searched for many young central defenders. After careful selection, four of them were selected, and detailed information and videos were sent to Yang Yang. After repeated discussions with Van Gaal, Van der Sar and others, Yang Yang finally chose Sao Paulo's young central defender Militao.

This player has excellent physical fitness and fast speed. He can play as a midfielder, a central defender, and even a right back. He is very comprehensive, active with his feet, and has excellent passing ability.

"Basically, the talks are almost done. Later, Porto also intervened halfway, but we started relatively quickly, and the deal was settled with 600 million euros."

At the beginning, he personally flew to Sao Paulo, Brazil to negotiate, and he made a decision on the spot, and won 600 million.

"Did Maxwell help?" Yang Yang asked with a smile.

Van Gaal nodded, "It's because of his help that it went so smoothly. Now he is the head of our scouting network in Brazil and South America, and he is looking for outstanding young talents for us."

"Have you gained anything?" Yang Yang asked with a smile.

Maxwell has always been in touch with Yang Yang, and they have also cooperated with each other in business. After retiring, he first stayed in Paris for a while, but he wanted to return to Brazil, so under Yang Yang's persuasion, he became part of Ajax's scouting network in Brazil. This time he was able to successfully sign Militao, and Maxwell also contributed a lot.

Brazil's domestic environment is very complicated, especially the football environment. With a native like Maxwell who knows the basics, it is more convenient for Ajax to introduce talents.

"At the end of last year, he and our scouts went to the United States to watch the Brazilian youth team's game. In March, he went to Montague, France to watch the World Youth Invitational Tournament. Some of the players were really good." Van Gaal praised.

The Montague Invitational is a traditional event. There are many similar events in France, such as the more famous Toulon Cup, which Yang Yang has participated in, but the age group he faces is different.

"For example, last year Brazil U16 and Netherlands U16 met in the warm-up cup in the United States. At that time, the Dutch team had five Ajax players, so we specially arranged scouts to go there. The most impressive player in the cup was the young Brazilian midfielder Giovanni. He was only 15 years old at the time. He scored twice in the game against the Netherlands and scored three goals in three games."

"For the Montague Invitational in March this year, we still arranged a lot of scouts. The most eye-catching one was the Brazilian midfielder Reinier, who scored four goals in four games and performed very well. There is also forward Gabriel Veron. Although he only scored one goal, his ability to hold the ball and break through is very good."

"How feasible is it?" Yang Yang asked with concern.

"None of them have ever played for the first team of their clubs, and they are only fifteen or sixteen years old. If we are interested and take the lead, there should be no problem, but the price must be sufficient, as well as training fees."

Ajax is taking a different route than Real Madrid.

Real Madrid is rich and powerful, and it specifically selects the top talents, such as Vinicius, and the Santos genius Rodrygo who has recently been linked to Real Madrid. These two players are recognized geniuses in Brazil.

Ajax definitely has no way to covet these players, so they can only choose those within their ability, or start earlier, pay to buy them, and then loan them back to the Brazilian club, and pay a training fee every year.

The advantage of this is that the transfer fee is not too high, which is within the range of Ajax's tolerance, but the younger the age, the greater the risk. No matter how good Ajax's scouts are, they cannot be sure whether a fifteen or sixteen-year-old player will definitely be able to gain a foothold in the European League.

"How much?"

"All three are around €300 million."

Yang Yang frowned slightly, that is to say, it would cost about 1000 million euros to buy them all.

This is why Van Gaal hesitated not to start.

For Ajax, there is no more to say, and less to say.

"Let's do it, scratch the lottery ticket at that time!
Real Madrid made a big bet, and Ajax took a cheaper one. Who made themselves out of money?

"The right back still needs to continue looking." Yang Yang ordered.

Van Gaal and Van der Sar looked at each other, both showing wry smiles, right backs are very scarce in European football now.

"By the way, how is your coaching team going?" Van Gaal suddenly thought of the most important question.

(End of this chapter)