Ajax target Chelsea's problem player

Daniel Cabot Kerkdijk

• 2 Aug 2023 08:15 BST
• 4 min read

Ian Maatsen is one of the candidates to become Ajax's new left-back. According to Voetbal International, the Amsterdam club has “above average interest” in Chelsea's defender.

The 21-year-old Maatsen has spent each of the last three seasons on loan elsewhere and has been linked with several Premier League clubs this summer.

Maatsen's contract with Chelsea will end next summer and it is reported that it will take around €12 million to buy it out.

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Maatsen has become a problem at Chelsea simply because of his quality. There is a sense that the club should not sell him, but equally he is pushing to earn regular first-team football and could use the stability of a permanent base.

He is not seen as someone ready to feature regularly at Stamford Bridge, leaving him caught in a state of limbo that appears likely to be resolved by a move away.

Meanwhile, the position of left-back is still a big question mark for Ajax head coach Maurice Steijn and director of football affairs Sven Mislintat.

“Owen Wijndal and Anass Salah-Eddine can play there, Jorrel Hato could as well,” Mislintat said recently.

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“At the moment I don't see a clear starting player in this position. It will be important to get Owen back in good shape, because he has shown what he can do at AZ. Last season he had many minor injuries, so it is difficult to reach your level.”

“During preseason we have tried to get him - and also other players - fitter. But I don't see a clear number one and as I said, Hato is also an option. It will be important to get Owen back in good shape, because he has shown what he can do at AZ.”

Ajax on a left-back hunt

Steijn was not very pleased with Wijndal and Salah-Edinne after the 3-0 friendly defeat against Anderlecht.

He hinted at the addition of another defender, with Maatsen now one of the leading candidates for the role.

“We have to do something there,” he admitted. “Hato could play on the left and then we get another central defender, or we get another left-back. I think it would be better in that position. I can then work with those guys, because making players better is my job.”

In the past, Maatsen went through the youth academy of Sparta Rotterdam, PSV and Feyenoord.

He signed with Chelsea in 2018, where he played his only game for the Blues on 25 September, 2019 in the 7-1 win over Grimsby Town in the EFL Cup.

He was successively loaned to Charlton Athletic, Coventry City and Burnley. The latter club is interested in a reunion, but Nottingham Forest and West Ham United are also interested in the arrival of the Dutch youth international.