A loan, an option, and an exit route for everybody
20:04 on Wednesday night, and Ajax Amsterdam had their third signing of the day. Simon Adingra joins from Sunderland on a season-long loan, with an option to buy attached.
The structure says plenty. A loan with an option gives Ajax a chance to assess the winger without committing serious money up front, while Sunderland keep some control over what happens next. Nobody has burned a bridge here.
On the English side it is a squad issue. Sunderland had just wrapped up the signing of Malick Fofana and needed room in their attacking ranks. Adingra pays the price, or benefits from it, depending on how you look at it.
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Three deals in a single day in Amsterdam
Adingra was not the only new face Ajax confirmed on Wednesday. Thilo Kehrer arrived on loan from AS Monaco in the morning, then Leo Salazar was announced from Espanyol.
Three in a day is the pace of a club rebuilding on the fly. Ajax are also working a quirk in the calendar: the Dutch market stays open for several days after the main European windows shut on Monday night, which hands Eredivisie clubs extra time to move for players who suddenly come free.
That staggered window has long suited Dutch sides, who regularly step in for players pushed out elsewhere at the last minute.
The Ivorian is walking into a league that will actually play him
Adingra lands in a competition far more open than the Premier League, where minutes were getting harder to find. It is the kind of setting where a winger resets a career.
The buy option will tell that story next summer.
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