Jordi Cruyff wants to add several more targets to Ajax's shortlist this summer, but Bart van Rooij is not among them. In the Kick-off podcast from De Telegraaf, Mike Verweij says the FC Twente right-back is "absolutely not an option".
ESPN reported last week that Ajax had held initial talks with Van Rooij's management. John van den Brom and Daan Rots then strongly denied that claim.
"It's simply not true. I read that Van Rooij was supposed to have spoken with Ajax, but he has not," Rots said at a press moment. "He is my partner on the right-hand side, so I would have to know about things like that. He said it was not true. To my knowledge, his agent has not spoken with Ajax either."
Speaking on Kick-off, Verweij explained how those reports surfaced. "Jordi Cruyff and Joël Lara, the scout he brought with him, really have all of Europe mapped out. They also have the contract situations - including limited transfer fees - of all players on their laptop."
"That is also the reason why you sometimes see a name crop up," Verweij said, referring to the rumours around Van Rooij. "A call is made to Bart van Rooij's agent: 'Hey, what is his contract situation?'."
"Then a whole thing is made of it. But he is absolutely not an option for Ajax," Verweij said, dismissing the rumours. The club watcher added that the huge bank of data available to Cruyff and Lara is also why Julian Brandt was able to be brought in.
"From 1 April they had already started talks with Brandt and he increasingly began to believe in the Ajax project. It really was a military operation, but it just goes to show that with a good story you can also outdo big clubs. Because there are also clubs that come to Brandt at the last moment, but then he says: 'Couldn't you have come a bit earlier?'."