Wolves were among a numbers of clubs who showed serious interest in Kenneth Taylor. Earlier this month, the midfielder left Ajax for Lazio on a permanent transfer.
On October 24th, ESPN NL covered Wolves, West Ham United and FC Porto’s interest from last summer.
In 2024, the Eredivisie side promised Taylor they’d sanction a sale after the end of last season. Wolves, West Ham and FC Porto all came forward to sign him.
According to ESPN NL, Ajax didn’t cooperate after West Ham and the Portuguese club showed interest. Wolves were willing to pay a high fee but the Netherlands international wasn’t keen on moving to Molineux in the last window.
Fast forward to January and Taylor’s agent Guido Albers appeared as a guest on ESPN NL’s Goedemorgen Eredivisie. Voetbal Primeur have relayed his comments.
The representative made no mention of the Hammers but spoke about transfer efforts from Wolves.
Albers revealed Wolves were the first to make a concrete move with a bid of over €30m.
“It had to happen this summer. The summer started well, and then Wolves came first. They came with a transfer fee of over €30m. The tone was set, so it was clear to Ajax that that amount had to be reached. That haunted me all summer,” he said.
The Premier League side made an approach when Vítor Pereira was in charge at the club. The agent says the 23-year-old held talks with Rob Edwards’ predecessor, but he wasn’t convinced of joining Wolves.
“Kenneth ultimately didn’t think it [Wolves] was the right choice. We had a meeting with the manager, and the story was good, but Kenneth didn’t believe in it himself,” Albers explained.
Wolves rejected, Porto insulted
Former Ajax manager Francesco Farioli was keen on bringing Taylor to FC Porto. However, the Amsterdam club blocked his move to Portugal.
“The benchmark was €30m, so the numbers were different, and therefore the clubs were different as well. Ajax was really pushing for him to go there.” he added.
“Then Farioli came, and he really wanted Kenneth. Ajax categorises Porto as a ‘third-country club,’ so they didn’t want to do business with them for Kenneth. Ajax doesn’t consider them reliable enough. That was all but finalised, Francesco was ready. Porto offered €22m, and that wasn’t enough for Ajax.”
On January 9th, Ajax sold Taylor to Lazio for €16.5m plus bonuses.
