Mike Verweij expects Ajax to pick up a number of players on loan from FC Barcelona this summer. The club analyst revealed this on De Telegraaf ’s Kick-Off podcast. This is, of course, down to technical director Jordi Cruijff, who has very close ties with the Catalan giants.
“Jordi Cruijff really has a massive network,” Verweij begins. “If you were at the premiere of the documentary about Johan Cruijff, you’d have seen Joan Laporta (president of FC Barcelona, ed.) walking around there too. So there is a link with FC Barcelona.”
Verweij therefore suspects that Cruijff will be making contact with his former employer in the coming months. “You can bet your bottom dollar that one, two, maybe even three players on loan from FC Barcelona will be coming.”
“Jordi has those contacts, and that’s one of the advantages of having such a name in the role of technical director. It opens up a lot of doors.” The podcast then quickly makes an implicit reference to previous Barça talents who ended up at Ajax, such as Bojan Krkic.
“They weren’t exactly high-flyers,” says fellow journalist Steven Kooijman. “No, but if you look at Barça B now,” counters Verweij. “This week, Shane Kluivert extended his contract by two years.”
“It won’t happen just yet, because he’ll be going for his chances at Barcelona 1 first. But if he doesn’t get a chance to play this year, then Ajax is a pretty logical step. You’ve seen with Xavi Simons at PSV how well that can work.”
“I’ve seen Shane with the Netherlands Under-19s; he’s a really good player,” Verweij replies when asked how good Kluivert junior is. “I do expect he could make his debut for Barça’s first team next year.”