New Crystal Palace boss Frank de Boer is considering a raid on his former club Ajax for Joel Veltman as he targets young talent in the transfer market.

The versatile defender is also being watched by Tottenham and could be available for less than £10million because his contract expires at the end of next season.

De Boer wants to build a more youthful team at Selhurst Park and 25-year-old Veltman fits the profile of player he is looking for.

He played at right-back for Ajax in their Europa League Final defeat by Manchester United last month but also operates at centre-back.

De Boer watched young players such as Christian Eriksen and Toby Alderweireld blossom under his tutelage at Ajax and is ready to put his faith his younger players again at Palace.

Veltman, who has 17 caps for Holland and started their 5-0 win over Luxembourg in World Cup qualifying this month, is on his list of potential summer targets. De Boer gave Veltman his senior debut at Ajax five years ago after promoting him from their academy.

The manager wants to assess the Palace squad when they return for pre-season training on Friday before finalising his transfer plans.

He said this week he is yet to decide whether to make a move to sign Mamadou Sakho permanently from Liverpool but he will strengthen his defensive options.

Tottenham have had Veltman on their radar for at least a year.

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Spurs have signed Jan Vertonghen, and Eriksen from Ajax and have a strong working relationship with the Dutch club.

Ajax have already sold Davy Klaassen to Everton for £23.6m this summer and could lose more of the team that reached the Europa League Final.

Ajax had broken their tradition of bringing through home-grown players under Martin Jol but De Boer gave young prospects a chance in the first team when he took over, and he has outlined his long-term vision to give youngsters in the Palace academy a chance.

“I will give youth the opportunity when they are good enough and will be interested to see how talented the players are,” said De Boer. “It is important for the DNA of the club and gives confidence to the academy because they see they have an opportunity.

“Ajax is famous for their academy but when Martin Jol did not spend much time to see the academy or give players a chance I had the feeling young players wanted to leave because they felt they do not have a chance. It is positive for the academy when they see the club is not only buying players and that they can train with the first team.”

It remains to be seen if Palace have players in their academy with the potential to reach the first team but there are high hopes for teenagers Nya Kirby, Luke Dreher and Kian Flanagan.