Dutch authorities in transfer mix-up as Everton agree personal terms for Mohammed Kudus signing
Ajax won’t be able to sign a replacement for Everton-linked Mohammed Kudus after Wednesday night due to an error by the Dutch authorities, according to the Daily Mail.
The newspaper reported via their website on 31 August that Kudus, 22, has gone on strike at Ajax in a bid to force through a move to Goodison Park after agreeing personal terms with the Blues.
It is understood that Ajax are refusing to play ball and allow the Ghana midfielder to leave as they only have a matter of hours to find a replacement.
The Mail claims that while clubs in England and across the rest of Europe have until 11pm on Thursday (1 September) to sign new players, Eredivisie teams have 24 hours less “after the authorities there made an error”.
Kudus is said to have failed to turn up to training on Wednesday to try and seal his Goodison switch.
Major issue
If Ajax don’t want to sell Kudus and are going to be unable to sign a replacement for him before 11pm in the Netherlands on Wednesday night, it doesn’t look as though Everton will get this deal done.
However, do they need to?
With Idrissa Gueye looking as though he’s on his way back to Merseyside from Paris Saint-Germain, Frank Lampard should have enough options in his midfield.
Tom Davies, Amadou Onana, Abdoulaye Doucoure, Allan, Alex Iwobi, Andre Gomes and the incoming Gueye should all be at Lampard’s disposal and while some of those options aren’t great, at least they are options.
Kudus might not be better than all of them and from what we can see, he wouldn’t be a stand-out player by any means at Goodison Park.
He is, however, versatile and can play in attacking roles as well as in the centre of the park and he’s ever played a couple of games as a striker for Ajax when he’s come off the bench this season.
But he’s just not someone who we feel is good enough for Everton and if he’s going on strike to try and force a move, is he the kind of player we really want?