Peter van Vossen: Every Oranje game unique!

Ajax would be absolutely foolish NOT to sell Stek to Roma. First of, it’s a simple supply-and-demand dynamic, like in economics class. The demand for GK is very, very low. It’s a position that’s get filled last in any club. Too many managers feels they can get away with average GK as long as their defense is sorted out. On the other hand, the supply for average goalie is abundant. Look around Europe, and you can pick a handful of GK’s who simply “can do the job.” So to begin with, the transfer fee for GK will always be seemingly low. No clubs will splash crazy money unless they are extremely rich or see a potential world-class. Which brings me to a second point…

De Gea has a HUGE advantage of youth and playing in “top-tier” league. Many believe he is the natural heir for Iker Casillas in the Spanish NT for the decade ahead. This is in contrast with Stek who is 29 y/o and plays only in Eredivisie. You can make argument all day long that Eredivisie should considered be a top league, but unfortunately the reality bites.

Third, Ajax has a stand-by replacement in Vermeer. While he is a long way to reach Stek’s level, he is young and believed in the top 5 of Dutch GK at the moment. He is also cheaper in wages.

Finally, and probably most importantly, Ajax simply needs the money. They have a glaring gap in attack. While the transfer of Sigthorsson has somewhat alleviated the situation, the truth is that Ajax needs a ‘proven’ commodity. Clearly Cvitanich and El Hamdoaui are not part of De Boer’s plan, at all! Ajax is understood to inquire several names, speculation says it could be Berg, Toivonen, or Lens. These are players who have been playing for several years in Eredivise with reasonable success. Ajax need money to fund the transfer.

So to recap, Roma offered 4-5M Euro, Ajax asked for 8-10M. Split this in half, anything in the range of 6-7M should be a handshake for both parties. Ajax will not get any better deal than this, and Roma will not get any quality GK cheaper than this.

Posted from  United States

I think/hope that someone else might come in for Steks… I do want him to move to a bigger club or league and I think we have the replacements in Vermeer… I think there better of making the money they need from el hamadaoui. But I think they have to at least get 9-10 for Steks

Eric.. You said ” Roma will not get any quality keeper cheaper than this” sounds like they just want one of those average keepers like you say for 4-5 mil Steks is world class worth more than that… I don’t want to argue but I’m just saying can’t keep letting the big leagues take advantage of the eredivisie and get top players for nothing. We need to cash in on our quality players we can’t just develop them and then sell them for the big clubs loose change.

Posted from  Australia

how long is stekelenburgs’contract,one year left or more? this is an important factor,too.

Posted from  Hungary

Only one year… I’m sure a club would be willing to pay Ajax asking price at the moment.

Posted from  Australia

@OA– If Stekelenburg was 3-4 younger, and had he not spent half of the season watching his teammates playing from the sidelines, yes, absolutely! He should be in the 10-12M range.

BTW, I think De Gea is an outlier for the reasons I said before. To me the more reasonable comparison is Neuer, who went for 15M to Bayern. Again, he has the advantage of youth (25 y/o) and he plays in Bundesliga (arguably a step or two above Eredivisie). On top of that, Neuer has been playing in Champions League since 3-4 years ago. This past season alone, Neuer wow’ed a lot of scouts when he singe-handledly kept his otherwise average team alive in C.L.

Posted from  United States

Points well made everyone… but then again… DeGea has not been proven. GK position is a position that needs maturity… most of the excellent GKs start shining in their late 20… not early 20s. Also, I don’t agree that clubs usually don’t mind having a mediocre GK… look @ arsenal.. a good GK could have won them the league.

Did anyone see Neuer’s horrific mistake in Bayern’s game few days ago? Mark my words… he’s going to be terrible with Bayern.

Posted from  United States

I’d rather have Steks stay with Ajax for the next year so he could help them get further in the CL.

Posted from  Canada

i don’t know what to say – this sum is almost nothing for one of the world’s best goalkeepers. i understand everything: eeredivisie is not too much appreciated,he has only one year left from his contract,etc.,but just for the facts: barca will probably sell the longtime benchwarmer jeffren for the same 6million euros to sevilla. no comment. when samuel eto had only 1 year left fom his contract his value was around 25 millions. comparing these numbers,i think steks’ real value is around 15millions.
i wouldn’t be unhappy if he stayed at ajax

Posted from  Hungary

@Wissam– For his age, 20 y/o, De Gea is actually quite accomplished. Earlier this summer he helped Spain winning the Euro U21 2011. He conceded only one or two goals (if my memory serves me correctly) throughout the tournament. I watched a couple of Spain matches and several highlights, and he did looked very composed. He was also chosen the GK of the tournament. I believe this is why his price was a bit inflated. At the club level, he helped Atletico Madrid won the Euro League last year. Aside from Iker Casillas, I honestly can’t think of any other young GK in the past decade that has been rated so highly, not on the based on talents alone, but by achievement. Does he worth 20M Euro? Probably not, but again M.U is banking on him to become the world-class.

Btw, your argument “most of the excellent GKs start shining in their late 20″.. well, that’s a conventional belief. That’s probably true 15 or 20 years ago. These days around, the youngsters are involved in some many competitions, from U15 to U21, plus the clubs, etc. Cech, Buffon, Casillas, Julio Cesar, etc were well established in their mid 20’s. Same with the best of the crops in today’s current generation. Neuer, Lloris, Hart, Akinkeef, Muslera (Uruguay), Romero (Argentina and AZ Alkmaar),etc… they’re all in the mid 20’s.

Posted from  United States

I’ve been thinking that Feyenoord fans are a bunch of fucking racist. Whereas they treath badly players like Fer, Wijnaldum, Cabral (don´t even deserve tight the Michaychi’s they said), they give huge support to the likes of Vlaar, De Vrij, Clasie, etc.

Edit: Michaychi’s shoes

I’m talking this because I’ve read lots of forums where those “fans” express all this shit.

Pretty sure Jan is a Feyenoord fan. Might want to take that back Seriously though, don’t judge a whole team’s fan base because a bunch of people are upset that the players left them/want to leave them.

Posted from  Canada

Also, here’s some Dutch class to cheer you up haha

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v​=aMnUHiopHds

Posted from  Canada

@keko, i also read some feyenoord forums, http://www.fr12.nl to be specific. I agree that vlaar, de vrij and clasie are the more loved players, but that has nothing to do with racism. Fer and wijnaldum didn’t renew their contract and they left( or want to leave) to a rival team and so thats the reason that they are being despiced by a lot of feyenoord fans.

Vlaar, de vrij did renew their contract do they are seen as heroes. Clasie is a typical hard working player feyenoord player the fans like to see so thats the reason they like him. I don’t recall cabral being hated in any kind of way.

Robbert, that’s not true. I read those forums (The most important is this:http://feyenoord.netwerk.to/forums/)since years and last season Wijnaldum was among the most critised players, in despite of being one of the best last season (14 goals). About Cabral, who isn’t leaving feyenoord, I heard terrible things since his debut, but he’s clearly beside Narsingh, Ozbiliz, and Martinus the most talented winger for the coming years. What a coincidence that all this extremely hard critics fall against those who are not white and have lived in the margins of Rotterdam!.

If you don’t believe me about Cabral, I suggest you to read the Cabral’s topic in that page.

I don’t believe the anger has to do with racism at all. It’s about contracts (aka loyalty in the eyes of the core supporter) like Robbert said. And btw on most forums pretty much every player is strongly ciriticed whenever the team loses. Especially a club that has the history of Feijenoord and going downhill like this club did. When Vlaar was ‘thinking’ about renewing his contract, he was the bad guy too. Football is about oppurtinism: one week Wijnaldum is a hero, next week is a noob. And now he goes to another Dutch team=> he’s Judas

About Steks: maybe he needs a new challenge. He has now proved himself in the Micky league and also -let us not forget – for the Dutch squad.

Posted from  Netherlands

Hello!!

Venezuela lost the semi finals match in America Cup against Paraguay!

I am VERY angry because we our lost was very unfair: Venezuela kick 3 times to the post, they dominate the game, for example the extra time, out players was running like in the first time, we were too much superior in physic conditions, we missed a lot of goal occasions, and we lost in penalties!.

But we lost playing MUCH BETTER… and that’s very paint full for me, because is not the first time that my team lost playing much better.

And well, being a Orange fan I am used to feel like this, because is usual when orange los deserving the win. I felt like Netherlands Italy en EC in Holland!!!

Check the highlights

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwMqf3tAnX0

The worse was the Paraguayan behavior… the began to insult and to fight, The coach, the assistant and one player were red carted!.

Paraguay achieve the finals without any WIN!! (They nil the 3 group games, and defeat Brasil and Venezuela in penalties) !!

I am very proud, because we were much better than Paraguay, a team who played the last WC!! Maybe, the next WC we can go for first time…. Lets pray!

I hate catenaccio!

WOW! That must be one of the best PK shoot-outs I’ve seen. All shot were driven hard and precisely (except, of course, for the one that got saved ).

Posted from  United States

@Eduardo… I watched the game extremley disappointing I was actually thinking about the stress you’d be going through… Bloody Paraguay they did not deserve it at all.

Posted from  Australia

Off topic: I just want to send my condolences to the parents of the 80+ kids/teenagers that got brutally slaughtered today.

Nobody deserves that. It is just plain wrong.

Terrible news, indeed.

@finn; im so sorry for your country mate! thought are with them

Posted from  Netherlands

Okay I’m convinced. Let’s put it to aciotn.

Posted from  Germany