21 - Frenkie de Jong

Ursegor said:

I'm not a fortune teller. I'm stating my opinions. Even in the Alexis-Dembélé case you can see that I don't make statements just to troll, I didn't claim Dembélé was crap or anything, there were far worse people here on that matter. Sanchez at his best was a class player, a very good one, just a notch below world class. If I get that one wrong, it's still not an outlandish prediction that I made. From his time at Dortmund and the beginning at Barca I didn't see a player who can be the new talisman once Messi retires. Still don't see it like with Neymar.

With De Jong I see nothing. I'm sorry. If he proves me completely wrong you can come back and make fun of me, I'll be happy. Close to 50 % backpass percentage in the Dutch League.

Whatever. I gave my 2 cents.

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What exactly do you expect from a DM/CM like FDJ if not to do what he is doing phenomenally well already which is retaining the ball, having an incredibly high passing percentage, clever positioning, fantastic dribbling ability, great passing game, vision of the game, anticipation etc. In many ways he is like a more mobile and faster clone of Busquets FFS or the younger brother of Redondo. As for the creation aspect, that is not his role at Ajax. That is the job of mainly Ziyech. I am actually happy that we are not paying €75-90 million for an attacker from the Eredivisie but for a more low-key (on the field) DM/CM in FDJ. The abilities that he has already, he will have everywhere else. On the other hand tons of offensive players who have been setting the Eredivisie and other smaller leagues on fire offensively, have often failed to reproduce those performances in better leagues.

Not to mention some of FDJ's performances for the national team. Take a look at his performance against a stacked France team. That was no joke. Great family background, has his head screwed on the right way etc. He is far from being the finished product as well. Amble potential and time to improve further and playing with world class players on a regular basis will only make him better.

The price is not optimal but it's 2019 and the market is not what it was remotely even 5 years ago. After buying freaking Coutinho for €160 million, I refuse to get too worked up over transfer fees.

PSG isn’t buying Allan for €80m. Though I’d prefer him this winter to an average player of €30m.


Henrique is a terrible director but I don’t believe he’d be allowed to do that.

Well the Pepistas have to shut up about barto now. He’s bought their profile of player but also brought some physical guys so it’s not complete one dimensional tiki taka.

Hamzah said:

Well the Pepistas have to shut up about barto now. He’s bought their profile of player but also brought some physical guys so it’s not complete one dimensional tiki taka.

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So possibly one great signing (on paper that is, yet to be seen if it will be a success story like every transfer by default) and we are supposed to forget 8.5 years of neglect of this club, tons of absurd transfers and decisions, FIFA bans, Neymar case and exit fiasco, court cases, our reputation being negatively impacted on several occasions due to the above and other incidents etc. "Allowing" RM to do what they have been doing in the CL due to our own failures in that competition etc. The board learning the art of what it means to sell a player and how to do it 7 (!) years into their reign (LOL) and not being ruthless enough when "past it players" are not moved on in time. Let alone handing out contract extensions and wage increases to seniors who are only going to decline repeatedly.

Sure, not everything is bad (far from it) but I am sure as hell not going to change my tune just because of the board buying FDJ. No sane person would. For every FDJ there is a €160 million Coutinho and a Arda Turan etc.

Leo_Messi said:

So possibly one great signing (on paper that is, yet to be seen if it will be a success story like every transfer by default) and we are supposed to forget 8.5 years of neglect of this club, tons of absurd transfers and decisions, FIFA bans, Neymar case and exit fiasco, court cases, our reputation being negatively impacted on several occasions due to the above and other incidents etc. "Allowing" RM to do what they have been doing in the CL due to our own failures in that competition etc. The board learning the art of what it means to sell a player and how to do it 7 (!) years into their reign (LOL) and not being ruthless enough when "past it players" are not moved on in time. Let alone handing out contract extensions and wage increases to seniors who are only going to decline repeatedly.

Sure, not everything is bad (far from it) but I am sure as hell not going to change my tune just because of the board buying FDJ. No sane person would. For every FDJ there is a €160 million Coutinho and a Arda Turan etc.

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Fair points, I guess when the bar was low then the guy getting his act together seems remarkable. Still that’s all in the past and the only thing that matters in football is what’s happening right now.

It's a promising kid and would secure the mid field for foreseeable future but a wage of €16m per season is huge! Especially when some of the oldies are gearing up for a renewal!!

Aryagorn said:

It's a promising kid and would secure the mid field for foreseeable future but a wage of €16m per season is huge! Especially when some of the oldies are gearing up for a renewal!!

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Of course Barça haters are gonna shout "€16m per year wage!!!" but from what I read, it's €10m wage + €6m signing bonus. Which is still very expensive btw. I found it crazy when I read €10m wage + €10m signing bonus for Rabiot, so I won't say it's common thing in FDJ case even though FDJ is a better acquirement.

€90m transfer fee is big too obviously I think we can all agree. But this market is going crazy at the same time. Madrid spends €60m (45+15 I think, not sure) on 16yo kid Vinicius. Mbappé cost €180m, Dembélé €140m, and FDJ is supposed to be greatest midfielder of his generation so on paper these numbers make a little sense.

Now we shall let the truth speak on the pitch. Actually let's wait for an official announcement and official numbers first.

Never expected this to happen lol, I had stopped caring for a while. Pleasantly surprised. Barto avenged his L to Nasser, and has been building a good résumé with his transfers since last summer. We don't even need more than a couple more transfers to secure the squad long term now.

Ursegor said:

I'm not a fortune teller. I'm stating my opinions. Even in the Alexis-Dembélé case you can see that I don't make statements just to troll, I didn't claim Dembélé was crap or anything, there were far worse people here on that matter. Sanchez at his best was a class player, a very good one, just a notch below world class. If I get that one wrong, it's still not an outlandish prediction that I made. From his time at Dortmund and the beginning at Barca I didn't see a player who can be the new talisman once Messi retires. Still don't see it like with Neymar.

With De Jong I see nothing. I'm sorry. If he proves me completely wrong you can come back and make fun of me, I'll be happy. Close to 50 % backpass percentage in the Dutch League.

Whatever. I gave my 2 cents.

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Not sure where you're getting this backpass idea. Frenkie is 2nd in the league in successful passes in the final third. Source: https://twitter.com/WhoScored/status/1083031385827405824

I've seen plenty of other stats that reference his passing in the final third and dribbling/passing success rates too. The best part of his talent is the ability to progress the ball forward and set the tempo. Seeing him play those progressive passes against the likes of France/Germany/Bayern helps show that it's not just against minnows either.

75+15 is certainly expensive as hell but I knew it would be like this since early in the Fall. We could've gambled on him with more risk but a much lower price if we had tried for last summer, but his transition to midfield launched the (expected) bidding war. If he does develop like Arthur has been, then it will certainly have been a worthy investment.

Thank. God.

I’ll give Barto credit on this one. Rolled up sleeves seemed to work.

He's young so it's not such a bad investment even if things go south. Otherwise, if this goes through it's a good coup for us. The only other factor is whether the manager can use him well and develop him.

Jair Ventura said:

PSG isn’t buying Allan for €80m. Though I’d prefer him this winter to an average player of €30m.


Henrique is a terrible director but I don’t believe he’d be allowed to do that.

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Given how this turned out I don't think you'll have to worry too much about him. He'll prob be out of the job by summer.

DonAK said:

Given how this turned out I don't think you'll have to worry too much about him. He'll prob be out of the job by summer.

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I don’t fault him for losing out on FDJ. Barca offered a lot more than PSG.

Alot of money for a great young player. We are looking at someone who will be in our 11 for the next 10 years.

To be honest I was warming to the idea of having Ndombele in there after really enjoying the fight that Vidal has brought to us.

But Frenkie is the the most suited long term bet.

Didn't PSG offer FDJ a blank check ?

Call me biased but I'm 100% convinced he chose us over PSG for other reasons than money (if we did even offer more). The guy has been in love with our club for years. Many on the forum are/were convinced that this doesn't mean anything in footballers careers, but I disagree.

If Frenkie does sign, I hope this will be a lesson to all of you bashing on the dude (calling him a rat, greedy and whatever) without knowing the facts. You should know better than to trust all those shitty tabloids.

Anyways, I'm very excited about this transfer. For the first time in years, I feel like we'll have an incredible midfield again. We'll never get close to prime Xavi-Iniesta-Busi, but if we get even 10% of their combined talent in our midfield, we're set.