Huntelaar rejects new Ajax deal

Premier League sides on alert as talks stall

Last updated: 28th June 2008

Klaas Jan Huntelaar Holland Euro 2008

Huntelaar: Deal rejected

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Highly-rated Holland striker Klaas Jan Huntelaar has failed to agree a new contract with Ajax.

Huntelaar has been linked with a number of Premier League clubs, including Manchester United and Arsenal, after his goalscoring exploits for the Eredivisie side.

Ajax technical director Danny Blind admitted that contract talks had failed partly because Huntelaar wanted a release clause written into the deal but felt Ajax wanted to set the price too high.

Huge

"When you look at the Ajax salary structure he could get a huge deal," Blind told De Telegraaf.

"But he doesn't want to see a release clause set at 25million euros (£19.75million) in his contract. We didn't want to go any lower."

However, Blind insists the breakdown in talks does not mean Huntelaar will leave the club any time soon.

Negotiations

"We don't want to see Klaas Jan leave us," he said. "The bar is high. We would like to keep our top scorer in Amsterdam. If he doesn't want to sign a new contract, he still has a deal for the next two years."

Blind also holds out hope that Huntelaar might reconsider.

"The negotiations are stalled," he said. "We have agreed on the fact that Ajax will speak with all clubs that come in for Huntelaar.

"If the interested clubs don't want to pay what we ask for, then we hope that we can start new talks with Klaas Jan again."