Kenneth Perez is harsh on Ajax player: 'It is cringe-inducing to watch'

If it were up to Willem Vissers, Ajax coach Míchel Sánchez would do his press conferences in Spanish from now on, with an interpreter alongside him. The De Volkskrant journalist said this on Monday evening on Voetbalpraat on ESPN.

Míchel has often been giving his press conferences in English lately. Vissers, however, says he finds that 'very difficult'. "The man can't help it. He comes from Spain and barely speaks English. It has improved compared with a month ago, though."

"But if I sit there for a quarter of an hour, I go mad. I've also deliberately stopped asking questions, because I sort of clam up. I simply can't listen to it. If you don't speak English, you should have an interpreter there."

"What company does that, then? You're a big multinational and you bring in someone who doesn't speak the language at all. Also the language that the other people in the country, English, do speak. And then you try to explain things there, what journalists are asking."

"I couldn't make head nor tail of those answers. The players also say they understand it all, but it turns out they don't. Because they no longer know what they have to do. I do think he is a good coach, but I do find it laborious," the journalist said.

Perez agrees. "This is just toe-curling to sit and watch. I was watching it yesterday as well," the analyst said.

"And another thing: if you don't have a command of the language, you can't really explain properly to journalists what you really mean. So do it in your mother tongue, because then you can really get to the heart of it. This is just not enjoyable to watch. In that case, you'd be better off not holding the press conferences," Perez concluded.