Speculation is rife that Newcastle United want Marc Overmars at the club.
The 48-year-old is Ajax’s director of football and according to De Telegraaf in the Netherlands, Newcastle want him at St James’s Park.
With Overmars having spent nine years with the Dutch giants in this role – and starting his playing career in Amsterdam – he is clearly very much devoted to them.
But the Magpies could still stand a chance, based on his comments about the North-East giants back in 2016.
The former Arsenal winger fired his old club to an FA Cup final win over Newcastle back in 1998 as Arsene Wenger’s side clinched a double.
And here’s Overmars’s memories of the clash at Wembley, speaking to the Gunners’ official website five years ago.
He said: “When the first half ended and we had to go to the tunnel, all the Newcastle fans were beside our dressing room so I thought they would throw things at me but it didn’t happen.
“It was unbelievable for me to see how much respect they had for our team and they also stood up and applauded us after the match as well. That made Newcastle also a special club for me because the support of their team, how they did that even though they couldn’t beat us that day, made me have so much respect for them.”
Special
By virtue of the fact that Overmars described Newcastle as a ‘special club’, you could argue that United have a decent chance of luring him away from the Dutch capital.
That’s because they’re still a special club whose supporters are just as loyal and as brilliant now as they were 23 years ago, when the Dutchman, by his own admission, expected missiles to be lobbed at him and his Arsenal colleagues.
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