De Telegraaf journalist Mike Verweij has revealed Ajax are expected to pay a club-record fee to sign Tottenham winger Steven Bergwijn, although a deal is not expected to happen quickly.
The Dutch side are leading contenders to land the 24-year-old (ESPN), who has signalled his desire to leave north London this summer in search of regular first-team football (Algemeen Dagblad).
Ajax reportedly made an opening offer worth £15 million for the Netherlands international last month but saw the bid knocked back by Spurs (Mirror), who paid £27 million fee to sign him from PSV Eindhoven (BBC Sport).
While Ajax’s interest in Bergwijn has been long-standing, Verweij expects the club to break the €25 million (£21.5m) record it set for Sebastien Haller’s transfer last year, but added that a move will take time.
The journalist cited that Ajax could push to seal a deal next month when the new financial year comes around to allow the club to post stronger figures on the back end.
Verweij told De Telegraaf: “That deal may take some time, and it has to do with several factors.
“Daniel Levy is a very difficult negotiator, but also, accounting-wise, it seems interesting for Ajax to sign him after July 1st. So sell before and buy after July 1st, so you’re in two different financial years; Ajax can therefore write better figures.
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“I think the fans will have to be patient for a while before Bergwijn arrives, but I am almost certain that he will come.
“Clearly, he’s the absolute best [for Ajax manager Alfred Schreuder]. Ajax is going to break the record price, which was the €25m purchase of Haller.”
Spurs Web Opinion
There are plenty of factors at play here that are preventing what is an inevitable deal from being completed quickly. Hopefully, all these obstacles in the way can be cleared in good time to allow Spurs to receive their desired fee and reinvest the money back into the team.
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