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da aviator aposta： The widely hailed Ajax side who have defied pre-tournament predictions, odds and expectations to reach the semi-final of the Champions League took centre stage in the British media on Tuesday evening.
Under the watchful eye of Erik ten Hag, the revered team embraced the spirit of a club renowned for their revolutionary character and pioneering principles of totaalvoetbal, unpicking Tottenham with delicious ease, slicing, slaloming, flicking, showboating, passing and at times fighting their way to a gargantuan 1-0 victory at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Ajax wowed where Manchester City wilted. At the nucleus of it all was the match-winner, the goalscorer and often untouchable playmaker, Donny van de Beek.
David Hytner of The Guardian described his outing as a ‘complete performance at just 22′; The Times’ chief football writer, Henry Winter, gushingly claimed ‘Van de Beek turned a glittering Champions League semi- final ground into his playground,’; Fox Sports labelled Europe’s budding boy wonder as the ‘one player that embodies the never-say-die spirit of this Total Football-strutting team’.
That these quotes barely scrape the tip of the blonde haired iceburg underlines the extent of the hysteria Van de Beek has whipped up across world football.
For Daniel Levy and Mauricio Pochettino, however, this performance was one which they may well have envisaged almost two years ago. In October 2017, a report from the Dutch media outlet De Telegraaf (via Italian journalist Alfredo Pedulla) claimed that Tottenham were in the running for little-known Van de Beek’s signature.
Fleeting rumours linking Spurs with an integral member of what is rapidly becoming a golden generation at Ajax have arrived in patches thereafter. One of the more recent links was published in February this year, as Italian media outlet Calciomercato claimed he was on a Spurs shortlist with the likes of Adrien Rabiot, James Maddison, David Brooks and Carlos Soler.
And if Levy needed concrete validation to justify an unprecedented transfer splurge in the summer Van de Beek provided it with official signatures and stamps from the iron bank. But it is performances of this calibre on the big stage which naturally induce interest from far and wide, prompting cash-riddled vultures to swoop in ahead of the kettle.
According to Transfermarkt, the 5-cap Netherlands international is valued at just £22.5 million. To label that figure as unsatisfactory or completely and utterly barking mad would be an understatement; Transfermarkt will certainly be making necessary changes to that figure upon their next review.
Van de Beek, who has scored 16 goals in all-competitions this season, was Tottenham’s nemesis on the pitch last night: he played with a verve that hinted he was an experienced world class playmaker merely masquerading across the turf as a 22-year-old pretender, leaving everybody wondering what on earth has happened to Dele Alli, while he simultaneously upstaged another celebrated product of Ajax’s youth system in Christian Eriksen.
A 15th minute opening goal has left everybody associated with the club in a state of agony ahead of an unenviable looking task in Amsterdam next week, but that feeling has only been compounded by the implications of this match-winning display in the transfer market.
Times the aforementioned Transfermarkt valuation by three and we’re probably somewhere closer to a true valuation in light of another stunning display under the European spotlight. If Ajax are capable of attracting a £65 million fee for Frenkie de Jong they shouldn’t be too hard pressed to command a similar figure for their Champions League sensation.
That will leave Spurs in a predicament which, ironically, could hinge on Christian Eriksen’s future. How much a suitor is willing to pay for a player who critically lacked the imagination, swagger and end product of his fellow Ajax youth graduate will undoubtedly shape Pochettino’s transfer budget.
How Tottenham can stop Van de Beek from conspiring to embarrass the visitors to the Amsterdam Arena next Wednesday will be giving Pochettino sleepless nights, while Levy has been left to ponder how on earth a transfer target – and potential long-term replacement for Eriksen – has catapulted his stock into the footballing stratosphere just in time for the summer window when the Dane is likely to need replacing.
The implications of this internationally celebrated performance cut deep into the heart of Tottenham Hotspur.
Levy and Pochettino have been left disheartened with plenty to agonise over.