Dutch legend René van der Gijp has questioned why Ajax paid a bumper transfer fee to land Calvin Bassey after his disappointing performance in the Champions League defeat to Napoli.
Bassey penned a five-year-deal with the Amsterdam club, leaving Rangers for a club record breaking fee of £19.5million, which could raise to just under £23m should he impress in the Eredivise and Champions League. However he has endured a sluggish start to life in the Netherlands with critics queuing up to take pot shots at the Nigeria international. The pile on from pundits initially started following the 6-1 thrashing at the hands of the Serie A leaders.
However, the noise has only ramped up after Ajax' s hopes of reaching the the knockout round were effectively ended by a second consecutive Group A defeat to Napoli, while Liverpool were running riot at Ibrox to move six points clear of the Dutch champions. Fingers were pointed once again at Bassey as Luciano Spalletti's men ran out 4-2 winners.
Former Netherlands international Van der Gijp admitted he can't believe that the club agreed to fork out up to £23m for the 22-year-old to replace Lisandro Martínez, who left for Manchester United. He compared the signing of Bassey to 19-year-old Ajax recruit Francisco Conceição - signed as a project for the future when he arrived from Porto.
He told Voetbal Primeur: “If you spend €24m for Bassey, you must have seen him all year, right? €24m, how high do you set the bar? They spend € 5m for Francisco Conceição, fine, but €24m for Bassey. No.”
However, former Chelsea defender Khalid Boulahrouz defended Bassey amid comparisons to Martinez. He said: "It's not really fair. Then we compare Bassey, who has just arrived, with a Martínez who is leaving at his peak.
"He's in that spot, but Martínez was a typical defender and I think that was the nice thing about Daley Blind. He could attack relaxed and everything that happened in his back, he had Martínez for that."
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