Ajax have reportedly decided not to sign Sevilla winger Lucas Ocampos whilst the player was flying to the club to complete his medical.
The Eredivisie outfit are on the search for a replacement for Antony, who finally secured his move to Manchester United earlier this week after months of negotiations. And now that the Brazilian has departed for a league-record fee of £86million, Alfred Schreuder is now keen to acquire the services of a right-winger.
Ajax reportedly struck a deal worth £17m with La Liga side Sevilla for Ocampos, who scored nine and assisted six in 42 appearances last season. Talks were going smoothly and the player was set to touch down to complete the move.
But, according to Telegraaf, the higher powers at Ajax pulled the plug on the deal as they felt it was an ‘irresponsible’ piece of business. They decided to ‘veto’ the signing and pointed at the bumper, multi-year contract that he was set to sign as the reason why.
Ocampos was then made to fly back to Seville and wait to hear whether he would be leaving the Spanish side in what remains of the transfer window. He could still end up at Ajax, as they have now reopened talks with Sevilla over a loan move for the forward.
It is reported that after the initial buy deal collapsed, Ajax sent two representatives, Gerry Hamstra and Klaas-Jan Huntelaar out to Spain to apologise to Ocampos for the inconvenience that had been caused, and the club will certainly be hoping that that gesture has acted as a sweetener with time running out this summer.
Ajax were previously interested in re-signing winger Hakim Ziyech, but they ruled against bringing the Morocco international back to the Johan Cruijff Arena. They failed to reach an agreement with Chelsea over the fees that would be involved – leaving the door open for Tottenham to pursue the forward.
Antony will certainly be a difficult player for Ajax to replace, and it remains to be seen whether Ocampos is capable of stepping up to the mark this season. And many Ajax fans will be keeping a close eye on how their former player performs in the Premier League this season, especially given how the significant price tag carries a lot of expectations with it.
Talking about his soon-to-be new signing, Erik ten Hag said of Antony: “Firstly we have to sign him, there is an agreement between the clubs, but the paperwork is not done so I cannot go too deep on that. Offensively we need to strengthen our squad, because we have many games to cover. From now on we go three games a week, every three or four days.
"As you know, offensive players fatigue more quickly because they have to run more at high intensity. We expect that from them with our way of play, so we need more numbers but not only numbers, we need quantity as well as quality."
