While Fan Jianyang was being dealt with, Pan Yi's flight was already on its way to the Netherlands.
This time his target was a veteran, and also his old boss.
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. However, he did not have many playing opportunities. The total number of matches in the entire season was only ten.
Come and be present.
And that kind of player is exactly what Pan Yi wants!
The team's back line is definitely not all young. After all, it is a position that needs the most experience, and there must be a veteran to lead it.
And wouldn’t an old captain with extremely high professionalism be an excellent candidate?
Moreover, Westerman can not only play in all positions of the back line, but also can play as a defensive midfielder. It is simply Fuan Jianyang plus and more practical.
In addition, his salary is not high, and his current weekly salary is probably less than 6,000 euros.
Although he is quite high compared to other players outside York City, it is indeed very poor compared to 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 had communicated with Westermann on the phone before, and after confirming that the other party was interested, he flew directly over to talk to the Ajax club.
Of course, Pan Yi also informed Ajax that it would be possible to buy out or rent Westermann.
The fact is, for such a veteran, it doesn't really make much difference whether he rents or buys.
Because most of their contracts are signed once a year. If they don't perform well, they just don't renew the contract and that's it.
Because when Westerman came, he was a Champions League champion, and the contract at that time was signed until 2018, so we don’t need to talk about the details - in his previous life, that contract had not expired.
Westerman announced his retirement.
Considering his current age and competitive status, even if he does transfer, the fee should not be too outrageous.
However, due to Pan Yi's notice, Ajax did not directly nod to say yes or refuse, but said that they could have an interview, and welcomed Pan Yi to visit the Amsterdam Arena.
After arriving at Amsterdam International Airport, Pan Yi went to the hotel to settle down, and then went directly to the Amsterdam Arena without rest.
Of course, before going there, I called the Ajax club to inform them. The other party seemed to be surprised by Pan Yi's vigorous and resolute style, so he 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 an investment of 140 million euros.
The stadium was completed on August 14, 1996 and can be used as a venue for football, American football games and concerts.
When a football match is held, the stadium has 51,628 available seats, and when a concert is held, 68,000 seats are available.
In March next 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 is already discussing renaming the Amsterdam Arena the Johan Cruyff Arena in memory of the man who was born in Amsterdam and became one of the best players in the history of world football in that city.
Dutch legendary star.
Of course, the name has not been changed now, so it is not called the Amsterdam Arena.
When Pan Yi arrived, he was guided to the reception room by the staff. After waiting for about ten minutes, someone came over.
A familiar face.
True or false, former Ajax, Juventus, and Manchester United legendary goalkeeper, Edwin van der Sar!
He has been a member of the Ajax board since November 2012, initially as marketing director, but from next 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 simple greetings, the two of them started the trade negotiations about Westerman without further ado.
"Since Westerman is indeed not in the plan of their new head coach Peter Botts, they do not agree 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 does not mean that Westerman is not worth the price now, nor does it mean that York City cannot afford the money, but after all, they are not Chelsea now, and millions are not money.
Please spend your money wisely and spend it sparingly.
1.5 million euros can cover the annual salary of many players!
Let’s just talk about Westermann himself. With his current salary, he only spends about 300,000 euros a year...
"Then they can rent it out." Pan Yi settled for the next best thing, "They will bear all his salary expenses."
Anyway, if you are a veteran, renting the property year after year is obviously much more cost-effective than buying it out.
But Van der Sar was not willing to make too many concessions: "I can loan him out, but I need to pay a one-year loan fee of 500,000 euros."
"..." Pan Yi was a little speechless.
That's too outrageous, not cost-effective at all, it feels like buying it out!
When Van der Sar was a goalkeeper, did he keep a tight eye on the goal? Now that he is an official, does he keep a tight eye on the 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 caused them to lose to their archrival PSV Eindhoven in the Eredivisie competition for two consecutive years.
That season, Ajax decided to start over again. 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 bought some other players, but they were basically less well-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 didn’t come from Newcastle United either.
The team rented it.
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 promoted a 19-year-old rookie named Van Der Beek.
There is a Cameroonian goalkeeper who, although not from the youth training of the team, is only 20 years old, has just been promoted from the second team to the first team. His name is Onana.
From Pan Yi's point of view, of course he didn't know that the people at Ajax had actually begun to form a brand new youth army, which would stir up a brand new youth storm in the European arena.
They will reach the Europa League finals and the Champions League semi-finals in the next year or two, and of course they will also dominate the Eredivisie.
Then there was the Ajax supermarket sale, and those players were sold at high prices.
But for Ajax now, how do they know what will happen in the future?
No one knows whether those young people can take on the important role!
The decline in results and the lack of star production made Ajax's finances in those two years a mess.
The behavior of spending more than 10 million yuan to buy Ziyech can be said to be a ruthless lottery ticket!
I just hope that the arrival of the Moroccan can improve the team's strength, and secondly, after he is played, he can be sold to the five major leagues at a high price...
That is actually not the normal operating routine of a club like Ajax.
It’s true that in recent years, things have not been very good, including if De Jong’s own youth training cannot be promoted, Ajax will really not be able to retain the top spot abroad.
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 new players.
For fringe players like Westerman, of course, if they can be sold, they can be sold. If they can't be sold, they can be charged a rental fee to help support the family.
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, he cannot accept such a high rental fee. They are not a League One club, and I cannot compare them with those big clubs."
"..." It was Van der Sar's turn to be speechless.
No, he knows that York City is a League One team, but the question is whether their boss is Pan Yi!
A coach with an annual salary of 20 million euros, plus various championship bonuses and commercial endorsements, I don’t know how much money he made during his two years at Chelsea.
Not to mention that York City no longer has the feeling of being an internet celebrity club. Various sponsors are eager to get involved. They have recently been expanding their stadium. How can they have no money?
The Lord is right. Ajax has been short of talent recently, and no one is paying attention to its own players. Therefore, 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 that." Van der Sar rolled his eyes and thought of another way, "He can agree to rent Westerman to your team for free, and we need to bear 100% of his salary. But he has one condition.
.”
"What conditions?"
"I can't just rent a player. I have to go to their reserve team or youth team to pick one or two players to buy. The price... we'll discuss it then."
Pan Yi scratched his head.
Is that the legendary bundle sale?
That's not a good thing!
It can be said that Pan Yicuo's kind of bundled sales is abhorrent!
When he was a child in his previous life, he wanted to buy a CD of a ruthless 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 legs he bought were not from "Calabash Baby".
In short, if you can join the kind of bundled sales, they will definitely not have any good products!
"Then there's no need to beg, right? He just wants to beg Westerman alone." Pan Yi shook his head.
"Mr. Pan Yi, let me take a look at the list first. With my ability to discover the potential of young players, maybe I can find some treasure?" Van der Sar smiled and directly handed over an A4 piece of paper.
There is a long list there, including those from the reserve team and those from the youth team.
It seems that you are really preparing for a clearance sale!
That's not to say that Ajax isn't ready to survive. I bet it's true that in recent years, they have become a little less confident in their own youth training system, which 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" Davies, Kluivert, Swyder, including Van der Sar...
But what about Ruming?
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...
It seems that the owner can't pay a big price, and the players are certainly not valuable either.
Of course, the list on the A4 paper has not 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 that list.
In addition to Frenkie de Jong and Van de Beek, Onana, there are also Kaspar Dolberg, Vaclav Ceni, A. Looney, Kluivert Jr., Norbert Ayer
Brass and a few others - as time-travelers, of course they knew that those people were not really kicked out.
Yidong has promoted eight youth team players to the first team. In addition to showing that their youth training is "a skinny camel is bigger than a horse", it also reflects from the side that Ajax is indeed short of money!
Spending more than 10 million to buy Ziyech is not just a lottery ticket, but also a big gamble!
Pan Yi was helpless, so he took the paper and took a look at a few things.
Indeed, I don’t even recognize the name…
Oh, at the beginning of the list, Pan Yi unexpectedly saw a familiar name: Matthijs De Ligt!
Hey, isn't that the future European Golden Boy Award winner, who later transferred to Juventus for a transfer fee of 75 million euros, and then transferred to Bayern Munich for a transfer fee of 77 million euros?
Although he does have a problem with touching the ball with his legs in the penalty area, those two high-priced transfers themselves proved his strength.
As an excellent modern central defender, De Ligt has both stable ground defense and deadly aerial attack capabilities.
His header ability can not only be used in defense of his own penalty area, but also can create threats outside the opponent's penalty area.
In addition, his excellent tackle ability, extraordinary physical fitness, speed and passing accuracy made De Ligt win the 2018 European Golden Boy Award, and was later favored by so many wealthy clubs.
reason.
Pan Yi also noticed at that time that De Ligt's name was not printed before, but was written with a pen later.
It feels like Ajax didn't want to sell De Ligt at the beginning, but they had raised money before and added him temporarily.
The general meaning is that I am 17 years old and cannot meet the standards of the first team, so forget it and sell it!
Pan Yi quickly looked away from the last line of the list and pretended to scan the names on it.
Will Van der Sar discover it?
Otherwise, the price will definitely be raised again.
Then Pan Yi probably also wanted to understand Hong.
De Ligt has actually performed very well in the youth training echelon of Ajax, but it is a bit risky to let a 17-year-old defender go to the first team so soon.
Moreover, defenders do not have very obvious data to support them like forwards. It only counts whether they can be used or not and have to play on the field.
There are too many young players who perform well in youth teams, but fail once they reach the professional arena.
In Pan Yi's previous life, Ajax at that time had to be on the safe side and 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.
Say it again.
Unexpectedly, De Ligt showed a maturity that belies his age and played quite well in the second team.
However, just over a month later, Ajax gave De Ligt 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 scored his first goal for the first team in the 25th minute of the half, becoming the second youngest goalscorer in Ajax history after Seedorf.
By November, he had begun to become a stable main force in the first team, and played in the Europa League group stage, making his debut in the European competition.
It was then that Ajax discovered that he was only talented because of that kid!
However, Ma Zai has renewed his contract! - Because of the previous professional contract, De Ligt was signed at the level of Ajax's second team, which would be too easy to be poached.
That's endless.
That same season, De Ligt reached the Europa League final with Ajax. He also broke the record and became the youngest player to appear in a European final.
He was also selected into the Europa League Team of the Season.
However, Ajax found that their prediction was wrong again!
They renewed De Ligt's contract again! That time they directly extended the contract to 2021.
Later, there was the story of him winning the European Golden Boy Award and being transferred to a high-priced player.
It can be seen from this incident that at least the current valuation of De Ligt by Ajax is greatly deviated, otherwise they would not have signed three contracts in one year.
Of course, if the valuation is correct, he will not appear on the list for sale.
As for you, although De Ligt is very young now, 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, football associations in various countries have different age limits for young players to sign professional contracts. In the Premier League, players must be 16 years old before they can sign a professional contract, in France, they must be 17 years old, and in Spain, they must be 18 years old before they can sign a professional contract.
Because of that age limit, Spanish teams are at a disadvantage because many talented young people can 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 spent hundreds of thousands of euros in training fees to recruit Lamar from Barcelona.
The West Asian youth academy poached Cesc Fabregas is the most famous example.
In the Netherlands, seventeen-year-olds can also sign professional contracts. Ajax will even reach an agreement with outstanding young players in advance, which means they can sign professional contracts that will take effect in the future.
The so-called professional contracts signed in advance actually tie the players' legs, and the liquidated damages are often relatively high.
Like De Ligt, the liquidated damages are as high as 10 million euros!
Well, since Ajax wants to sell, it will definitely not be higher than that price, otherwise Pan Yi can just pay the liquidated damages and then talk to De Ligt.
Even though 10 million euros was not much money when you were at Chelsea, you can do a lot of things in many clubs.
Ajax bought Polish international Milik from Leverkusen during the season, and it only cost more than 3 million euros...
Pan Yi read the entire list "seriously" calmly, and then deliberately frowned:
"How does he know which players are capable of playing in League One or even the Championship? Otherwise, why don't we let him go to the training ground and have a look?"
That means Pan Yi is going to lower the price to pick up the missing leg.
Otherwise, if he just looks at the list and decides who to buy, that would be too fake.
Van der Sar might suspect that Pan Yi had not inspected De Ligt in the first place, so the price would definitely not be lower.
And after hearing what Pan Yi said, Van der Sar burst into laughter:
"Great! And I said, by coincidence, they have a warm-up match tomorrow, and they will miss the Molde team in Norway. I'll watch it together then, and he will let those players be there!" (this chapter)