Dmitry Bulykin: Everyone knows Ajax are an extraordinary club

You’ve been an Ajax player for two days already. How does it feel?

The emotions are purely positive! The situation with my move kept me under pressure until the end of the transfer window. I’m glad I managed to move. But it won’t be until I start playing – in the Eredivisie and the Champions League – that I will truly understand where I actually am.

Early in the summer, PSV wanted to sign you. Why didn’t you end up there?

You should better ask my manager Andrey Golovash. I didn’t take part in all those things. I only arrived for the talks with Ajax, when everything was almost agreed. Until then I just trained with Anderlecht and waited for the outcome of this saga. No, I wasn’t particularly worried: a lot of transfers happen in the last day, I knew it well. On August 29 there emerged the opportunity at Ajax, on August 30 we finally decided to go, on August 31 we got into my car and in two hours we were in Amsterdam.

Is it true you didn’t lose in terms of salary compared to what you had at Anderlecht?

I didn’t.

A month ago some news sites linked you to an Azerbaijani club, Inter Baku.

It was a one hundred percent rumor. Not even close. Perhaps, someone decided to have a laugh and publish a piece of news entitled «Bulykin goes to Azerbaijan».

Could you return to Russia?

This summer is was unlikely. Everyone knew my position that I wanted to play in Europe. Especially as I did have offers from Europe. So I focused on those options.

How would you react if Anzhi called you?

It depends on the situation. For example, on what other offers I would have had at the moment. Still, if I was to choose between Ajax and Anzhi I would perhaps have chosen Ajax.

Even if Anzhi offered twice as much?

Twice? I think I would move to Ajax.

How do your ADO teammates react to you joining Ajax? Do they tease you in their text messages?

No, they don’t – they rather admire such a transfer. Everyone knows that Ajax is an extraordinary club. Any player will be happy if his teammate happens to have a successful transfer. They congratulated me and wished good luck... By the way, ADO didn’t lose too many players this off-season. Gone are the coach, Timothy Derijk, and I. All the other major players stayed, though I thought the losses would be much bigger.

What were you doing all summer at Anderlecht?

I was with the team, doing training. All the guys, the president, the second coach, fitness coach treated me well. They even used to come up to me and go like: «Damn, I can’t understand what’s going on. You’re the second best goalscorer in Holland and you’re not playing. But it’s the head coach’s decision, we can’t do anything about it.» I trained and went to the training camps with the team. The only thing was that did not take part in official games for Anderlecht, I wasn’t included in the squad list. I heard people say it was the coach’s decision [Ariel Jacobs – Sports.ru]. I realized that the reason was beyond sports, decided not go through the hassle and just moved to another club.

Why did the coach take a dislike to you?

The coach didn’t want to see me in the squad. What were the reasons, I don’t know – you should ask him. People told him: «Look, he scores in the friendlies.» But the coach’s stubbornness and unwillingness to talk to me resulted in my departure. I’d like to thank the Anderlecht president, Herman Van Holsbeeck – he was always tried to understand me and found a solution for this situation.

Who signed you three years ago? Was it the coach or the president of Anderlecht?

The president. Maybe he is at odds with the coach, maybe something else. Anyway, you should ask them why I didn’t play.

Will you watch the today’s match between Russia and Macedonia?

I think I’ll watch it on the Internet.

How will you feel?

I will expect a victory.

Will the move to Ajax boost your chances of getting a call from Dick Advocaat?

I do not know. The main thing for me now is to play for Ajax and do it successfully.

A year ago you were going on loan to a very humble Dutch team. If you were told back then that you would start your next season in the Champions League group stage, would you believe it?

In fact, I have offers from teams playing in the Champions League every year. Just those teams were of a slightly lower level. Still, I didn’t expect to find myself in the Champions League with such a big club. It’s great that it all happened this way.

by Yury Dud