Ajax and Manchester United are approaching an agreement on the transfer of Lisandro Martínez. That writes The Telegraph Wednesday night. According to the newspaper, the English club approached an agreement with Ajax in an hour-long meeting about a transfer fee, which will come out close to 55 million euros with bonuses.
Ajax director and former Manchester United player Edwin van der Sar gave the transfer a move in the right direction, writes The Telegraph. Van der Sar has homework to the supervisory board, mainly about payment terms, while the Manchester United management is in consultation with the owners. Both parties expect to put the finishing touches on Thursday.’
Actually, the team from Amsterdam did not want to lose the Argentine defender. ‘The Ajax management and the supervisory board increasingly realized that not agreeing with an amount of (far) above fifty million euros is almost impossible to justify… The supervisory board pointed out that only Premier League- clubs can make bids like Manchester United did. And the fact that the English want to go that far again after next season for a defender of 1 meter 75 is not a matter of course, according to the commissioners.’
‘Martínez personally canceled Arsenal’
In addition, the Ajax leadership appeared to be sensitive to Martinez’s story. The Argentinian had personally canceled Arsenal and wanted Ajax to listen to Manchester United. According to The Telegraph Klaas-Jan Huntelaar and Gerry Hamstra realized that it is of great importance for Ajax to remain an interesting partner in South America. ‘Influential agents consciously choose to house their talents in Amsterdam, because Ajax plays in the group stage of the Champions League almost every year and is the ideal intermediate step to the absolute European top. Blocking transfers of players with Martinez’s palmares and for amounts like now could ensure that the agents pass by the door of Ajax.’
