‘Officially announced’ – Ajax ‘really serious’ about transfer for Spurs man

Eredivisie side Ajax have ‘officially announced’ their interest to Spurs in winger Steven Bergwijn, according to a Dutch journalist.

The Holland international scored his first goal of the season in last Wednesday’s 2-1 victory over West Ham in the Carabao Cup quarter-finals and also provided the assist for Lucas Moura’s winner.

Bergwijn has struggled for form and consistency since he moved to Tottenham in 2020 but the 24-year-old was one of the few players at the club not to contract coronavirus recently and looks to have used his time on the training pitch wisely under the Italian manager.

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However, the Netherlands international went back to sitting on the bench for Spurs in their 3-0 victory over Crystal Palace on Boxing Day.

And De Telegraaf journalist Mike Verweij thinks Bergwijn is keen to join Ajax – who are very interested in the former PSV winger – despite Antonio Conte’s recent complimentary comments.

“We do not have to attach too much value to Conte’s words. In the coming games we will see if he gets more playing time and then you can see if they really want to continue with him,” Verweij said on De Telegraaf’s podcast.

“Ajax are really serious about him. The interest has been officially announced to Spurs.

“Bergwijn has been polled by Ajax twice before. The first time when he still played for PSV, and then last summer. Twice, however, Ajax did not go through. The chance that Bergwijn will come to Ajax depends very much on Ajax. He is no longer waiting for Ajax.”

Spurs boss Conte said recently that he believes Bergwijn has benefitted from the recent Covid-19 outbreak in his squad.

“I think these two weeks that we had many players with Covid helped me and helped Steven Bergwijn to understand very well what I want from him and what I want from the other 11 players we had in training,” Conte explained.

“Don’t forget, for many days we trained with only 11 or 12 players. On one hand, it was very difficult. On the other hand, we exploited this situation to improve the players.

“We prepared to play the games with these players. For sure, Steven should have played against Leicester, against Brighton, the games that were postponed.

“With him and also other players, we tried to exploit the period when we were only 11 or 12 players, to improve these players.

“Now Steven is a player totally involved into what I want, into what I ask from my players. Don’t forget that I like to have a plan and I like to give options to my players.

“Every single player has to know what I want during the game offensively and defensively.”