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Hours after Sofyan Amrabat was officially unveiled as an Ajax player, head coach Míchel Sánchez was already giving his verdict on the new signing before the match against Telstar. Speaking to the cameras of ESPN, he said he was delighted with the arrival of the new number six.
"He is a world-class player and I am convinced that he will help us enormously," Míchel begins. "He arrives with great enthusiasm, with a special motivation to help Ajax grow and to make sure that we are a very competitive team in the three competitions."
Asked whether Amrabat was the first choice, Míchel left no doubt. "Well, we had several options, but he was the first choice for us," Míchel said. "We fought for a long time to convince him to accept our proposal and we are very happy with our arrival."
"Sofyan understands the number six position perfectly. He is a player who is going to give us balance. He is going to give us personality and leadership. Often the ball does not need to go through him for the team to play well, but with him we will be strong, both in attack and in defence."
Elsewhere, Youri Regeer is attracting interest from Werder Bremen. That move is not done yet, though, so Míchel could not say much about it. "He is ill today," he says about Regeer’s absence against Telstar.
"On Thursday he already played with a small problem and today he is not in the line-up. I prefer to think about today’s match and from tomorrow we will look at the three days we still have before the transfer window closes. We will try to make sure that the club puts together the best possible squad in order to compete in three competitions."
See Ajax’s line-up against Telstar here.