User login
TIME FOR ERIKSEN TO GO?
The director of football at Ajax Amsterdam, Marc Overmars, has admitted that Christian Eriksen might want to take a transfer at the end of this season.
A lot of big clubs have shown interest in signing Eriksen recently and a couple of months back, Eriksen himself had also admitted that he would like to play for a Premier League or a La Liga club. So, there have been speculations that Eriksen might leave Ajax during the upcoming summer transfer window.
The Premier League clubs which have shown interest in Eriksen are Manchester City, Manchester United, Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur.
When asked if he thinks that Eriksen might leave the club at the end of the ongoing season, Overmars said, “That might be the case. Obviously, we don’t want him to take a transfer as he has been a match winner for us. Let’s see what happens. If Christian gets offers from big clubs, obviously, he would want to leave. But, if he doesn’t get big offers, probably, he would stay here.”
Eriksen’s agent, Martin Schoots, has also hinted that the Danish midfielder would consider a move away during the summer transfer window.
Schoots said, “It’s not the right time to talk about transfer issues. The season is still in progress and Christian only wants to focus on his game at this point of time. After the end of the season, we will see. But, I would not say that he would not accept any offer during the summer transfer window. If he gets a good offer, he might accept it.”
Eriksen had joined Ajax in October 2008. Ajax had paid a transfer fee of 1 million Euros for buying him from Odense Boldklub.
Eriksen has played 99 matches for Ajax so far and has netted 20 times.
DE BOER WILL STAY
The Ajax manager Frank de Boer has revealed that he has already turned down two opportunities to leave the club. The manager of the Dutch team has said that he received a great offer from Spartak Moscow, who are currently without a manager following the sacking of the former Valencia manager Unai Emery.
It is thought that they had made Frank de Boer their number one target, but the Ajax manager has revealed that he has turned down that opportunity to remain with the Dutch club. De Boer is in the process of rebuilding the Ajax team to the former glory.
Despite being in a very tough group in the Champions League, de Boer has been able to get Ajax to the Europa league knockout stages. They are also third in the Dutch Eredivisie, but just three points behind leaders PSV. Hence, they have a real opportunity to win the title this season. Despite having a number of volatile players in the squad, de Boer has been able to bring them together and get results. It has impressed the eastern European club Spartak Moscow, who were on the lookout for a replacement for Emery. As a result, Spartak Moscow have now appointed the technical director Valery Karpin as the manager till the end of the season.
"My work with Ajax is not finished. There is still a lot of growth in this team and at Ajax I have fun every day. Also my family played a part in my decision. I have three beautiful daughters and a beautiful wife. She owns her own shop where she has a lot of fun. Was I supposed to tell them 'we are going to Russia?' No. Money is not the most important thing. Six million euros net per year from Spartak was a lot of money but that's me," said de Boer.
BABEL HAPPY WITH CITY WIN
The Ajax midfielder Ryan Babel has said that he is extremely happy with the performance put in by their team in the last two European matches against Manchester City, which has helped them to the third position in the Champions League group stage.
Ajax have taken a total of four points from the last two matches against Manchester City. This means that they are ahead of the Premier league champions in the group, with a real chance of being able to seal a spot in the latter stages of the Europa league in the reckoning. The former Liverpool midfielder Ryan Babel, who plays for the Dutch club now, says that he is happy with the performance of the team in these two matches.
Babel said prior to the two matches that it is extremely important that Ajax look for at least a win from these two matches, but they have excelled by getting a worthy 2-2 draw at the Etihad stadium as well. Now, they will be going into the remaining two matches against Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund with real confidence that they can progress to the Europa league at least even as the prospect of reaching the last 16 stage of the Champions League looks really tough.
"It was a statement to the other teams. We have to analyse what the gameplan will be for the next two games but I think these two games will give us confidence. We have to take it step by step but I think we made a little statement," said Ryan Babel after the match. Despite their good run of form in the European competition, Ajax are struggling in the Dutch Eredivisie. There are currently in the fourth position after having won only once in the last five matches in the league.
AJAX LOSE TO DORTMUND
Ryan Babel’s club, Ajax, has been defeated by Borussia Dortmund in a Champions League match at Signal-Iduna-Park. It was a very close match. There was only goal scored in the entire match.
The Dortmund players didn’t disappoint more than 60,000 home supporters who were out there in the stadium to watch this important encounter. Both the teams lost a few opportunities in the match, but, the Dortmund boys were just fantastic in the last 10 minutes.
The Ajax players attacked right from the outset and had a golden opportunity to take the lead in the first half. Ryan Babel got the ball in the midfield and he got rid of a couple of Dortmund midfielders and then, passed the ball to Christian Eriksen inside the penalty area. Eriksen just had to beat the goalkeeper, but, he didn’t manage to do that. Roman Weidenfeller didn’t have to do much to stop that ball.
Just a few minutes later, the hosts also had the opportunity to get ahead in the game. Mario Gotze made his way through the midfield and entered the penalty box. But, his shot was brilliantly cleared by Niklas Moisander. The first half went without a goal.
Ajax again had the opportunity to score a goal in the earlier part of the second half, but, Babel was not able to place his header perfectly. The ball hit the bar of the goal post and another chance went begging. There was no goal scored in the match till the 85th minute and the match seemed to be going towards a goalless draw. But, that wasn’t the case to be. Robert Lewandowski was the one who scored the match winning goal for Dortmund in the 87th minute. He beat Kenneth Vermeer with a powerful shot. Ajax didn’t manage to score the leveller in the remaining time and lost the match.
Want to win a Liverpool signed photo? Send us your score prediction for the next match via twitter, and you might win! :)
HAMMERS SNAP UP CARROLL
West Ham have gone a long way to alleviating the pressure of Premier League survival with the signing of Andy Carroll. Carroll may not be everyone’s idea of a modern striker but there can be no doubt he’s the best in the league at doing what he does, and with Sam Allardyce’s direct tactics his career could be reborn this season.
BABEL SET TO GO
The manager of TSG 1899 Hoffenheim, Markus Babbel, has made it clear that the club wants to release Ryan Babel. As per the manager, when Babel joined the club last season, the club had a lot of expectations from him. But, he has not been able to stand up to the expectations. He has not shown enough commitment and that is not acceptable. He doesn’t work hard in the training sessions. He said that Babel doesn’t give his 100% for the team and there is no place for such a player in the Hoffenheim team.
Portugal vs. Netherlands Preview
Sunday’s match in Kharkiv sees Portugal face 1988 winners the Netherlands, with the latter knowing that victory is imperative if they are to have any chance of qualifying from Group B. They must beat Portugal by two clear goals, as well as hoping fierce rivals Germany pick up all three points in their game against Denmark.
BABEL FACES TWITTER FALL-OUT
Former Liverpool winger Ryan Babel has once again fallen into troubled times following an update on his Twitter account. Ryan Babel has already had bad experiences with sharing his views on Twitter when he was at Liverpool.
However, it seems that he has not learned from his mistakes after it was revealed that the Hoffenheim player could be punished for calling the referee as being on drugs. Hoffenheim lost in the match against Hertha Berlin recently, which prompted Ryan Babel to come out with a statement that appeared to suggest that the referee was on drugs.
BABEL CRITICISED BY TEAM-MATE
Ryan Babel who moved on from Liverpool to Hoffenheim has been known for his excellent skill and performance.
This has even been reflected on his scores which go on to show that he has been the highest scorer for Hoffenheim.
However, of late, he has been accused of not putting in enough effort for the team. The allegations come from none other than his own team mate Tom Starke. Starke has gone on to say that Ryan has not been showing positive attitude for quite a few weeks and this has gone on to reflect on the poor performance in the matches.
