Ajax manager Erik ten Hag has confirmed that Moroccan superstar Hakim Ziyech is set to join Premier League club Chelsea at the end of the season, admitting that he expects the midfield gem to leave “one or two years earlier”.
The latest reports on Wednesday claimed that Eredivisie champions Ajax and Frank Lampard’s Blues reached a verbal agreement on a €45million (£38m) transfer for Ziyech.
The 26-year-old attacker Ziyech came on from the bench during Wednesday’s 3-0 win against KNVB Beker at Vitesse and Ten Hag provided an update on his talismanic winger.
While speaking to reporters after the game the 50-year-old manager was asked whether Ziyech would remain at the club for a long time but with the links to Chelsea. Ten Hag told Fox Sports after the game, that he expected Ziyech to move sooner than now but is still glad to have the midfielder until the end of the campaign, “Ziyech to Chelsea? A transfer was coming, we expected it to happen, I actually already expected this one or two years earlier. And each time it was: ‘Wow, he stayed again’. We are just happy that we will still have him until the end of the season.”
Since making his Eredivisie debut back in the 2012-13 campaign, Ziyech has been involved in 166 goals for the Dutch giants scoring 79 goals and notching up a further 87 assists.
Ten Hag then finally concluded that Ziyech is almost certain to leave Ajax for Chelsea, “I am not surprised by the news about Ziyech. I know that our players are very popular with the big clubs in Europe. That is just great. I have known for a long time what Hakim wants. He has a picture in mind. He knows exactly which clubs he finds interesting and which ones are not. Chelsea is a fantastic club. When it is final, I am very happy for Hakim, and I am very proud of him.”
