“We have already lost five or six basic players this summer,” he referred to Lisandro Martínez, Sébastien Haller, Noussair Mazraoui, Ryan Gravenberch, Nicolás Tagliafico and André Onana. “I don’t really want to lose another important player.”
Antony was missing from Ajax because his mind is on a transfer to Manchester United, where he can most likely earn three times as much. “It’s difficult and I understand such a boy,” said Schreuder. „But you play at Ajax, then more clubs pass by. Ajax does not play in the Champions League and United do not.”
Did Antony play his last minutes for Ajax?
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Ajax has reportedly rejected an initial offer of 80 million euros for Antony. “That is an absurd amount of money,” said Schreuder at ESPN. “Whether we can also refuse a higher offer, that’s not up to me. Then you have to be with the management of the club. But I don’t want to lose him. And I think Ajax is still reasonably well off.”
Different type of player
Without Antony, Ajax played a lot less well than last week against FC Groningen (6-1). Schreuder decided to replace the Brazilian with Steven Berghuis. “That’s a different type of player,” he acknowledged. “Steven often goes for the combinations, Antony for the action.”
Ajax sometimes played sloppy against Sparta, but Schreuder was reasonably satisfied. “It could have been a bit faster at times and we should have scored that second goal. But we did control the game and gave little or nothing away. Three league games and 9 points is fine.”
Steven Bergwijn scored the only goal for Ajax. “You can’t always win 6-1,” said the attacker. “But I understand that it looked rough. Did we miss Antony? Berghuis has other qualities and he has shown that. But with Antony we have more depth. Did I talk to Antony about the Premier League? No, he doesn’t speak English very well and I don’t speak Portuguese.”