While Fan Jianyang was being dealt with, Pan Yi's flight was already flying to the Netherlands.
This time his target was a veteran and one of his old subordinates.
The former captain of the Hamburg team, Westermann!
At this time, Westerman has entered the end of his career. After his contract in Hamburg expired last year, he moved to Ajax on a free transfer, but he did not have many playing opportunities. The total number of games in all competitions throughout the season was only a dozen. First appearance.
And such a player is exactly what Pan Yi wants!
The team's back line must not be all young. After all, this is the position that needs the most experience, and there still needs to be a veteran to lead the way.
And isn't this kind of veteran captain with extremely high professionalism an excellent candidate?
Moreover, Westerman can not only play all positions on the back line, but also play as a defensive midfielder. It is simply Fuan Jianyang plus, which is even more useful.
In addition, his salary is not high, and his current weekly salary is probably less than 6,000 euros.
Although it is quite high compared to other players in the York City team, it is indeed very shabby for the captain who once won the Champions League trophy.
After all, let’s not talk about clubs like Ajax. In fact, for many “big clubs” in League One, the average salary of players is thousands of euros, even 10,000 or 20,000 euros.
Therefore, Pan Yi first communicated with Westerman on the phone. After confirming the other party's interest, he flew directly over to talk to the Ajax club.
Of course, Pan Yi also informed Ajax that he came for Westerman, and he could buy it out or rent it out.
In fact, for such a veteran, there is not much difference between renting or buying.
Because most of their contracts are signed once a year. If they don't play well, they just don't renew the contract and that's it.
However, since Westerman came with the halo of being a Champions League champion, the contract at that time was still signed until 2018, so the details still need to be discussed - in the previous life, this contract had not expired, and Westman Mann announced his retirement.
Considering his current age and competitive status, even if he does transfer, the fee should not be too outrageous.
Regarding Pan Yi's notice, Ajax did not directly nod to say yes or refuse, but only said that an interview was available and that Pan Yi was welcome to visit the Amsterdam Arena.
After arriving at Amsterdam International Airport, Pan Yi went to the hotel to settle in, and then went directly to the Amsterdam Arena without rest.
Of course, before going, I called the Ajax club to inform them. The other party seemed surprised by Pan Yi's vigorous and resolute style, but still welcomed him politely and said that he would arrange for staff to contact him.
The Amsterdam Arena is located on the outskirts of Amsterdam. Construction of the stadium began in 1993 with a cost of 140 million euros.
The stadium was completed on August 14, 1996 and can be used for football, American football games and concert venues.
When a football game is held, the stadium has 51,628 seats available, and when a concert is held, 68,000 seats are available.
In March this year, the famous Dutch star Johan Cruyff passed away, and he was also a legendary star in the history of the Ajax club.
As a result, Ajax are already discussing renaming the Amsterdam Arena the Johan Cruyff Arena in memory of the Dutchman who was born in Amsterdam and became one of the best players in the history of world football in the city. Legendary superstar.
Of course, the name has not been changed yet, so it is still called the Amsterdam Arena.
When Pan Yi came here, he was guided to the reception room by the staff. After waiting for about ten minutes, someone came over.
It's a familiar face.
It is the legendary goalkeeper of former Ajax, Juventus and Manchester United, Edwin van der Sar!
He has been a member of the Ajax board since November 2012, initially as marketing director, but starting this year he has begun to take on more of the responsibilities of chief executive.
"Welcome, Pan Yi." Van der Sar greeted Pan Yi with a smile.
After a few brief exchanges of greetings, the two of them started negotiating Westerman's trade without further ado.
"Since Westerman is indeed not in the plan of our new head coach Peter Botts, we agreed to sell him." Van der Sar said simply, "The price is... 1.5 million euros."
Grass, so expensive?
Pan Yi complained in his heart.
It's not that Westerman isn't worth the price now, or that York City can't afford the money, but they are not Chelsea after all, so millions don't seem like money.
Money must be spent wisely, and you must spend it sparingly.
1.5 million euros can cover the annual salary of many players!
Let’s just talk about Westerman himself. With his current salary, he spends about 300,000 euros a year...
"Then let's rent him." Pan Yi settled for the next best thing, "We will bear all his wages."
Anyway, he is a veteran and rents year by year, which is obviously much more cost-effective than buying out.
But Van der Sar was not willing to make too many concessions: "Leasing is okay, but you need to pay a rental fee of 500,000 euros a year."
"..." Pan Yi was a little speechless.
This is too outrageous and not cost-effective at all. I feel like I might as well buy it out!
When Van der Sar was playing as a goalkeeper, he kept a tight lid on the goal. Now that he is an official, he also keeps a tight eye on his money bag.
But in fact, Pan Yi can understand it.
Because according to his understanding, Ajax's recent situation is not very good.
Ajax, which has always relied on its excellent youth training system to inject blood into the first team, has been unable to lay eggs in recent years.
In the first few years, there were basically no useful young talents in the first team, which also led to them losing to their archrival PSV Eindhoven in the Eredivisie competition for two consecutive years.
This season Ajax is determined to start over. They first hired new head coach Peter Botts from Maccabi Tel Aviv, and then spent 11 million euros to buy Moroccan international Ziyech from Twente.
Of course, I also bought some other people, but they were basically lesser-known characters, and they didn’t cost much money, so they were not worth mentioning. The only one who was somewhat famous was Dutch goalkeeper Krul, but that was also from Newcastle United. Rented.
In addition, Ajax also promoted a 19-year-old young midfielder from the youth team to the first team. His name is Frenkie De Jong.
A few months before him, he also promoted a 19-year-old rookie named Van Der Beek.
There is another goalkeeper from Cameroon, although he is not in the youth training of the team, but he is only 20 years old. He has just been promoted from the second team to the first team. His name is Onana.
From Pan Yi's perspective, of course he knows that these people at Ajax have actually begun to form a brand new youth army, which will stir up a brand new youth storm in the European arena.
They will reach the Europa League finals, Champions League semi-finals and, of course, dominate the Eredivisie in the next year or two.
Then came the Ajax supermarket sale, where these players were sold for high prices.
But for Ajax now, how do they know what will happen in the future?
No one knows whether these young people can take on the important role!
The decline in performance and lack of star production have made Ajax's finances in the past two years a mess.
The behavior of spending more than 10 million to buy Ziyech can be said to be a ruthless lottery ticket!
I just hope that the arrival of this Moroccan can firstly improve the team's strength, and secondly, after he is played, he can be sold to the five major leagues at a high price...
This is actually the normal operating routine of a club like Ajax.
It’s just that things haven’t been very good in recent years. If players like De Jong cannot be kicked out of their own youth training, Ajax will really not be able to keep the top spot in the country.
Therefore, as the club's new CEO, Van der Sar's first priority at this time is to maintain a balance of payments and make up for the expenditure on buying people.
Of course, for fringe players like Westerman, they can be sold. If they can't be sold, they can be charged a rental fee to help support their families.
Even if it is a transaction of one or two million euros, it is still an income. Even if it is an extra few hundred thousand euros, it is still money!
But Pan Yi's reply was firm: "No, I can't accept such a high rental fee. We are only a League One club, you can't compare us with those big clubs."
"..." This time it was Van der Sar's turn to be speechless.
Yes, he knows that York City is only a League One team, but the problem is that their boss is Pan Yi!
A coach with an annual salary of 20 million euros, plus bonuses from various championships and commercial endorsements, I don’t know how much money he earned in his two years at Chelsea.
Not to mention the fact that York City is already an internet celebrity club. All kinds of sponsors are trying to get in. They are also currently expanding their stadium. How can they have no money?
The main reason is that Ajax has been short of talent recently, and no one is paying attention to its own players, so Pan Yi's visit can be said to have made Van der Sar overjoyed, thinking that he could "rip off a big player".
I didn’t expect that Pan Yi, with his thick eyebrows and big eyes, would be so stingy when it came to doing business!
"Let's do this." Van der Sar rolled his eyes and thought of another way, "I can agree to rent Westerman to your team for free. You only need to bear 100% of his salary. But I have one condition. .”
"What conditions?"
"You can't just rent one player, you have to pick one or two players from our reserve team or youth team to buy. The price... we will discuss it at that time."
Pan Yi scratched his head.
Is this the legendary bundle sale?
This is not a good thing!
It can be said that Pan Yi hates this kind of bundled sales!
When he was a child in his previous life, he wanted to buy a CD of a romantic action movie, but his boss insisted that he buy another cartoon called "Calabash" or he would not sell it.
Pan Yi reluctantly agreed, and when he went home and started studying excitedly, he discovered that...the two he bought were both "Calabash Boys".
In short, those who can be included in this kind of bundled sales must not have any good products!
"Isn't this necessary? I only want Westerman alone." Pan Yi shook his head.
"Mr. Pan Yi, you should take a look at the list first. With your ability to discover the potential of young players, you might be able to find a treasure?" Van der Sar smiled and directly handed over an A4 piece of paper.
On top of that, there is a long list, including those from the reserve team and those from the youth team.
It looks like we are really preparing for a clearance sale!
This is not because Ajax is not ready to live a good life, but mainly because in recent years they have become a little less confident in the youth training system that they are proud of.
Who were the people who came out of Ajax’s youth training in the past?
Van Basten, Rijkaard, Bergkamp, De Boer brothers, Seedorf, "Wild Boar" Davis, Kluivert, Sneijder, including Van der Sar...
But what about now?
Let’s just say last year, they also sold a lot of people. I won’t mention their names. You’ll know just by looking at where they went:
Willem II, Utrecht, Sampdoria, Nantes, Breda...
This shows that he is not an owner who can pay a big price, and the players are certainly not valuable either.
Of course, the list on this A4 paper has also been screened by Ajax.
In other words, those who they think are capable of playing in the first team have all been promoted to the first team and will not be included in this list.
In addition to Frenkie de Jong, Van der Beek, and Onana, there are also Kaspar Dolberg, Vaclav Ceni, A. Looney, Kluivert Jr., and Norbert Ayer. Brass and a few others - as time-travelers, of course we know that these people are not really kicked out.
Promoting eight youth team players to the first team at once not only shows that their youth training is "a skinny camel is bigger than a horse", but also reflects from the side that Ajax is indeed short of money!
Spending more than 10 million to buy Ziyech can be said to be more than just a lottery ticket, it is also a huge gamble!
Pan Yi was helpless and could only take the paper and glance at it casually.
Indeed, I don’t even recognize the name…
However, at the end of the list, Pan Yi unexpectedly saw a familiar name: Matthijs De Ligt!
Damn it, isn't this the future European Golden Boy Award winner, the Dutch international who later moved to Juventus for a transfer fee of 75 million euros, and then to Bayern Munich for 77 million euros?
Although he does have a problem with touching the ball with his hands in the penalty area, these two high-priced transfers themselves prove his strength.
As an excellent modern central defender, De Ligt combines stable ground defense and lethal aerial attack capabilities.
His heading ability not only comes in handy in defending his own penalty area, but can also create threats in the opponent's penalty area.
In addition, his excellent tackling ability, extraordinary physical fitness, speed and passing accuracy are all important reasons why De Ligt won the 2018 European Golden Boy Award and was later favored by so many wealthy clubs.
At this time, Pan Yi also noticed that De Ligt's name was not printed, but was written later with a pen.
It feels like Ajax didn't want to sell De Ligt at first, but in the end they added it temporarily in order to raise money.
The general meaning is that you are 17 years old and still cannot meet the standards of the first team, so forget it and sell it!
Pan Yi quickly moved his eyes away from the last line on the list, and pretended to scan the names on it.
This cannot be discovered by Van der Sar!
Otherwise, the price will definitely be raised again.
Then Pan Yi probably figured it out.
De Ligt has actually been performing very well in the youth training echelon of Ajax, but it is a bit risky for a 17-year-old defender to play in the first team so soon.
Moreover, defenders do not have very obvious data to support them like forwards. Whether they can be used or not depends on playing on the field.
There are too many young players who perform well in the youth teams, but fail once they reach the professional arena.
In Pan Yi's previous life, Ajax at that time, for the sake of safety, first let De Ligt go to Ajax's second team to play in the Dutch second league this season to see if he could withstand the pressure of the professional league. .
Unexpectedly, De Ligt showed a maturity that belied his age and played quite well in the second team.
So just over a month later, Ajax presented De Ligt with a formal professional contract.
A month later, in the first round of the Dutch Cup, Ajax defeated Willem II 5-0, and De Ligt got the chance to start and made his first team debut.
And he also scored his first goal for the first team in the 25th minute of the first half, becoming the second youngest goalscorer in Ajax history after Seedorf.
By November, he had begun to become a stable main force of the first team, and played in the Europa League group stage, making his European debut.
Only then did Ajax realize that this guy is a talent!
So, I renewed my contract right away! ——It’s because the previous professional contract was only signed based on the fact that De Ligt was at the level of Ajax’s second team, so it would be too easy to poach him.
This is not over yet.
Just that season, De Ligt reached the Europa League final with Ajax. He also broke the record and became the youngest player in the history of European war finals.
He was also selected into the Europa League Team of the Season.
So, Ajax found that their prediction was wrong again!
They renewed the contract with De Ligt again! This time the contract was directly extended to 2021.
Later, there was the story of him winning the European Golden Boy Award and his high-priced transfer.
It can be seen from this incident that at least the current valuation of De Ligt by Ajax is quite biased, otherwise it would not have signed three contracts in a row within a year.
Of course, if the valuation was correct, he wouldn't be on this list.
However, although De Ligt is still young, he has already signed a professional contract.
A team like Ajax, which specializes in the "human trafficker" business, naturally has a very complete mechanism to prevent its children from being abducted midway.
After all, national football associations have different age limits for young players to sign professional contracts. In the Premier League, players can sign professional contracts at the age of 16, in France, they can sign professional contracts at the age of 17, and in Spain, they can sign professional contracts at the age of 18.
Because of this age limit, Spanish teams are at a disadvantage. Many talented young people can only sign youth contracts with clubs before they turn 18, and youth contracts are not protected by labor laws.
Therefore, Spanish teams often have young people they have worked hard to train being poached before they turn 18. Among them, Arsenal head coach Arsene Wenger only spent hundreds of thousands of euros in training fees to get Lamar from Barcelona. The West Asian youth academy poached Cesc Fabregas is the most famous example.
In the Netherlands, you can sign professional contracts at the age of 17. Ajax will even reach an agreement with outstanding young players early, which means that they will sign professional contracts that will take effect in the future.
This so-called professional contract signed in advance is actually a means of tying players down, and liquidated damages are often relatively high.
Like De Ligt, the liquidated damages are as high as 10 million euros!
However, since Ajax wants to sell, it will definitely not be higher than this price, otherwise Pan Yi will just pay the liquidated damages and then talk to De Ligt.
Even though 10 million euros didn't seem like much money when he was at Chelsea, he could do a lot of things in many clubs.
Ajax bought Poland international Milik from Leverkusen last season, and it only cost more than 3 million euros...
Pan Yi first read the entire list "seriously" calmly, and then deliberately frowned:
"How do I know which player is capable of playing in League One or even the Championship? Otherwise, why don't you let me go to the training ground and have a look?"
This is Pan Yi's method of lowering prices to pick up leaks.
Otherwise, it would be too fake if he decided who to buy just by looking at the list.
Van der Sar might suspect that Pan Yi had already inspected De Ligt, so the price would certainly not be lower.
When Pan Yi said this, Van der Sar laughed:
"Great! And as luck would have it, we have a warm-up match tomorrow against the Molde team of Norway. Come and watch together then, and I will let all these players play!" (End of Chapter) )
