Frank de Boer keen for Tottenham talks after Spurs approach Ajax

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/apr/29/ronald-de-boer-tottenham-approach-ajax-manager

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Frank de Boer has told Ajax, his current employers, that he wants to speak to Tottenham Hotspur at the end of the Dutch season about the possibility of becoming the London club's next manager.

Tottenham have monitored De Boer since last December, when they sacked André Villas-Boas and replaced him with Tim Sherwood who, in turn, is not expected to stay beyond the summer, and it has emerged that they have now made an official approach to the Ajax director of football, Marc Overmars.

Spurs made a move for De Boer during the Dutch league's winter break only for the 43-year-old to make it clear that his future lay at Ajax. Tottenham had made Louis van Gaal their No1 target to replace Sherwood in the summer and they had been encouraged in their pursuit of the Holland manager. But they came to worry that Van Gaal was holding out for a bigger club, namely Manchester United, and they had begun to reassess their options. One of these, though they retain an interest in Southampton's Mauricio Pochettino, was to try again for De Boer. United have now made a play for Van Gaal, after sacking David Moyes last week.

De Boer, who is contracted to Ajax until 2017, had always said that he wanted to remain at the Amsterdam club for many years. He is approaching the end of his fourth season as manager and has just secured a fourth consecutive league title. It had been thought that when he did decide to leave, it would be to push for a move to Barcelona, for whom he also played, or a club of a similar stature.

But De Boer's comments to the media in Holland this week represent a change of tack. "When Tottenham are coming, I want to listen, after 3 May, to what they have to say," De Boer said, referring to the date of their last game of the season, at home to NEC Nijmegen on Saturday. "It is clear that they have to have good plans. I would not leave Ajax for nothing. But Spurs are a club that I feel good about. They play good football.

"They have made their interest clear to Marc Overmars and, after the last match, I am going to think about this possibility. I am going to talk and listen and, after that, I will let my feelings speak."

Ajax have not been immune to criticism this season, despite winning the title and their supporters were furious at the 5-1 cup final thrashing at the hands of unfancied Zwolle. De Boer might wonder what more there is to achieve at the club, beyond winning titles and mere Champions League survival, and there is the perennial frustration of seeing leading players sold.

De Boer has spoken to the Tottenham players, Jan Vertonghen and Christian Eriksen, whom he previously managed at Ajax, about life at White Hart Lane and he says that he is attracted by the notion of building a project.

"I want to add something to a club, something which people can say: 'That's the hand of Frank De Boer,'" he said. "Liverpool is a nice example of that, with what Brendan Rodgers is doing right now."

Sherwood is under contract until 2015 and he has made no secret of his frustration at how Tottenham are actively pursuing his replacement. He has complained about how "the silence is deafening" at boardroom level with regard to any declarations of support for him. With the club on course to finish the season with 72 points, which would equal a Premier League record for them, he believes that he deserves the chance to continue in the role.