Swansea City made a £9m bid to bring Amin Younes to the Liberty Stadium but the winger wanted to stay with Ajax rather than move to the Premier League.
Few expected that Amin Younes would still be an Ajax player by the time the January transfer window shut.
Sky Sports claimed that Swansea City had made a £9 million bid for the German international winger, while Serie A title challengers Napoli were keen to give Younes the chance to play his part in the club’s quest for a first scudetto since 1990.
But Younes opted to stay put instead for, according to FourFourTwo, personal reasons. Perhaps he felt that moving to a new league just a few months before the World Cup would be too much of a risk as he aims to force his way into Joachim Low’s 23 man squad.
In hindsight, however, Younes might have just ended his ambitious dreams of a seat on the plane to Russia by turning down Swansea to stay at Ajax.
The former Kaiserslautern favourite has fallen out of favour since Erik Ten Haag was appointed as Ajax’s new boss three months ago and has not started a single Eredivisie game since returning from injury in early February.
In his absence, the brilliant Justin Kluivert has established himself on the left of Ajax’s three-pronged attack and it seems that the frustration is boiling over for Younes.
Surely a January move to an improving Swansea side who are climbing away from the relegation zone would have impressed Low more than losing his place and being banned by Ajax.