Josip Sutalo continues to struggle at Ajax with one former Dutch striker insisting that a defender who emerged as a target for Premier League giants Arsenal last summer is not worth ‘even’ three million euros these days.
You’d be hard pressed to find a less convincing win anywhere in European football.
Ajax beat Go Ahead Eagles 3-2 away from home on Sunday. Somehow, some way, they beat Go Ahead Eagles 3-2 away from home on Sunday. The hosts mustered a staggering 24 shots on Ajax’s goal and – with his confidence shot and his reputation in the Netherlands already broken beyond repair – Josip Sutalo could have been forgiven for breathing a sigh of relief when he picked up an injury which saw him removed at half-time.
Some would call it a ‘mercy killing’.
Arsenal looked at Ajax defender Josip Sutalo
“(Ajax paid) 23 million (euros). Well, I wouldn’t even pay three million for him,” club legend Wim Kieft tells Veronica Inside. “It just has to do with quality.”
Or a lack thereof, perhaps.
It certainly seems a long time since Sutalo was courting interest from Arsenal. The player himself confirming that The Gunners had been fluttering their eyelashes in his direction before settling down with Jurrien Timber instead.
Sutalo, ironically enough, ended up taking Timber’s place at Ajax. One of many ill-advised Sven Mislintat signings. And many at the Johan Cryuff Arena would probably be tempted to chose a crocked, ACL-afflicted Timber over a fully fit Sutalo these days.
The worst of a bad bunch at Ajax
“I have seen (Sutalo make) passes that made me think ‘this is really not possible’,” Marciano Vink, who won a UEFA Cup with Ajax in the 1990s, explains to ESPN.
“An Ajax central defender should be comfortable on the ball and should be able to defend with space in behind. These are two aspects that he has not mastered.”
Arsenal, of course, have a struggling £20 million centre-half of their own. Jakub Kiwior facing plenty of speculation over his own future after a difficult 12 months in London. Kiwior was hooked at the break during the 2-1 reverse at Fulham and scored a decisive own goal in the FA Cup third round defeat to Liverpool in his most recent outing.
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