“We have just paid too much, we know that,” Marc Overmars bemoaned a few months after Ajax had signed David Neres for €12 million from Sao Paulo.
By then, the winger had displayed promise in his first 12 appearances following his arrival in January 2017, but there was still a lot for the Brazilian to prove given he had been the subject of wild comparisons to Neymar.
It’s fair to say that the club’s opinion of that deal has changed over the last two years, particularly after the club knocked back a €43m bid from Guangzhou Evergrande in January.