Ajax sporting director Gerry Hamstra has admitted frustration losing Antony and Lisandro Martinez to Manchester United this past summer market.

Hamstra is far from happy at the way United conducted their business, which left their manager Alfred Schreuder short.

He told De Telegraaf: "Manchester United's timing was so bad. The last few days [of the window] became even more hectic after Ajax had already gone through a major rebuild of the squad following the departure of lots of top-class players.

"It was so difficult to leave our manager with such a void. We all think we lost too many first-team players who always start. We had a summer with totally different expectations.

"We wanted to keep the group together as much as possible to be able to perform well in the Champions League and to carry on being successful.

"That's what we talked about with Alfred. Of course we knew there were a few snags.

"But no one had foreseen that our players would be bought for such huge sums of money."

Hamstra added: "I understand Schreuder's anger, very much so. I have been a manager myself, so I know how annoying it is when your best player leaves at the very last minute.

"We did not want this, we wanted to keep Antony."