Perr Schuurs delivers a crystal-clear assessment of his time at Ajax

Perr Schuurs was under contract at Ajax from 2018 to 2022, spending his entire senior career to date under manager Erik ten Hag. The centre-back, currently a free agent after leaving Torino, told Sunday’s Goedemorgen Eredivisie that he holds his former coach in high regard.

Hans Kraay Jr. asked what kind of manager Ten Hag had been for him. “I had him for several years. I’ve had a few managers, but Ten Hag was the best,” the defender replied without hesitation.

“I wasn’t always in the starting XI, and it’s easy for players to label a manager ‘bad’ when that happens. But Ten Hag was excellent tactically and kept us functioning as a team,” Schuurs explained, recalling the three league titles they won together in 2019, 2021 and 2022.

Schuurs could have moved from Fortuna Sittard to PSV, but the now 26-year-old centre-back felt more at home at Ajax, so he chose Amsterdam.

“I did have an initial chat with PSV,” he recalls. “But my father said, ‘Go and look at Ajax again.’ I spoke with Marc Overmars and Edwin van der Sar, and that immediately struck a chord. It felt different.”

“That feeling after the meeting made me sign, and I’ve never looked back,” says Schuurs, who left the Johan Cruijff ArenA in 2022 with 95 appearances for the club.

Schuurs describes his Ajax spell as “successful”: 95 appearances over three seasons, competing with Matthijs de Ligt and Jurriën Timber, now at Manchester United and Arsenal. “I made mistakes and had good games and bad,” he says. “But I’m convinced I proved myself there.”