I beg to differ Robin but I think to be honest you're letting you bias get in the way of judging and comparing Ajax's summer signings vs. Feyenoord's
Let me give a few example of why I think that is.
robin_007 said:
Personally I think Ajax and PSV will go for the championship.
Ajax has bought good players (Gabri, Roger Garcia, Ogararu, Perez, and of course Stam 8) ). Plus they allready had some good players and there are some new talents (Huntelaar, Rosenberg, Vermaelen, Emanuelson, Babel, Maduro and new youngster Jan Vertonghen).
I don't really know about Feyenoord. They haven't lost Kuyt, but theire new signings aren't the greatest. Huysegems, Kolkka and Lucius can't convince me. They have bought a fantastic goalie in Henk Timmer, but it wasn't neccesary, because they allready had Lodewijks, who still is great. They've got some nice talents as Benjamin de Ceulaer, and 1 wonderchild: Jonathan de Guzman. Keep your eyes on him, he's going to make it.
Those 3 players aren't very convincing, you're right. But these 3 signings of Feyenoord don't convince you but Ajax's mediocre signings (Gabri and Roger) do? :-s :eh:
Gabri vs. Lucius
Gabri is a versatile but pretty mediocre player overall (Barca only had few mediocre players left and now they're getting rid of them slowly slowly...) and is injury prone as well.
What's good about him is he works hard but that's no different from Theo Lucius!
In fact while neither are impressive, If I had a choice I'd take Theo!
He's more energetic than Gabri with a higher stamina and better fitness/condition and he too is a versatile and decent player.
Difference is he's also been playing in Eredivisie all his life and knows everything about the league now and is fully settled while Gabri is coming to new territory!
So that's that.
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Perez vs. Huysegems
Then we have two attacking AZ players ending up as rivals next year at Ajax and Feyenoord and they are Kenneth Perez and Stein Huysegems.
The signing of Kenneth Perez does not impress me. He
was a couple years ago (in his peak) a very good player. One of the best even in Eredivisie arguably and if Ajax had signed him then I would've been happy.
But they've signed him now when in a month's time or so I think he'll turn 32!
He's past his peak and has lost a LOT of pace/agility and shaprness over past year or so!
Then we have a guy who always had a LOT of potential but still hasn't fulfilled it and that's the Belgian, Huysegems who still has a lot of time to do that as he's 24.
Tall, fast, good left-foot, can take a great FK, sure he's inconcistent but if he gets regular playing time at Feyenoord, he could turn out to be a very good player.
So AGAIN, I prefer Feyenoord signing, Huysegems over Kenneth Perez in this time and day!
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Then we have Kolkka vs. Roger (to compare their 3rd signing) even though both are different positions, Kolkka is a winger and Roger is an AMC, we'll talk about them anyway.
Roger is a player who is less than impressive and not good enough for first team of most clubs in top leagues!
He is good technically and has a good shot on his left-foot
but.....
1) He's a few years past his peak and has been showing signs of that whenever he's gotten a chance to play for Villarreal (often as a sub!) So he too is past his best and Ajax have acquired in the 'twilight years of his career' :|
(and in fact I think both him and Perez are likely to be offloaded in a year or max two years from Ajax as they won't be good enough by then!)
2) He is not EVEN a 90-min player anymore! He lacks stamina and fitness and can take small knocks and injuries often.
3) He lack the proper determination/teamwork and fitness levels to be a 1st team regular! That's why he found himself on the bench at Villarreal and unless Ajax is desprate or very short on cover, same might happen here.
4) He's SLOW!!
Now.. Kolkka is no world-beater, that's for sure. The Finnish winger is also past his best and although not as fast as he once was (like Panathinaikos days for example), he still has enough pace and acceleration to trouble many defenders and put in good crosses or shots with either of his foot! (something Roger can't do! :nono
So as for Roger whom you wanted to know more about,
He's overall a player who
still has it technically but for many other reasons is a MEDIOCRE player more or less and another signing that doesn't excite me at all and in fact saddens me.
Because once upon a time, Ajax was one of the best in Europe and only GREAT players could play for this club. Now the quality of their signings clearly show that the club lacks proper ambition/fund/money and even if you're decent or avg, you can still be bought and play for this club. :|
Well there's lot more talk about.. regarding other teams like AZ and their fab signings! 8) and much more stuff like the champions PSV but this is already getting quite long and I'll leave it at this.
