While you and I were on vacation, PSV’s preparation for season 2017/2018 started a couple of weeks ago already. Some news you might have read before, but here’s an as complete as possible update to get everyone aboard.
Transfers
On June 13th, PSV officially announced that Mexican defender and strongholder Héctor Moreno signed a four year contract at AS Roma for only little more than €6.000.000,-. Six days later, PSV announced to have contracted a new Mexican player, namely the talented winger Hirving Lozano. Technical Manager Brands said to have been working on this transfer for six months and that it needed some creativity to get ‘El Chucky’ sign a contract in Eindhoven until 2023. (Lozano then flew back to Russia where he played for the Confederations Cup with Mexico and scored this fantastic goal.
Third Mexican in this topic, Andrés Guardado, has signed a contract at Real Betis Sevílla and will not be back on the pitch in Eindhoven. The much respected and important vice-captain will leave quite a gap at the current selection, but also in the hearts of much of PSV’s supporters. A tribute page was created by PSV to show appreciation for the work this amigo has done while he has been playing for the club.
Derrick Luckassen is a talented product from AZ’s youth education, contracted to fill in the blanks Moreno left after his departure. Lukassen denied a more lucrative offer from national champions Feyenoord and preferred Eindhoven over Rotterdam, a choice he calls ’emotionally driven’ and ‘supported by family and my business managers’. This signing means strong competition for Jordy de Wijs, a strong defender who came back from a loan period at Excelsior in Rotterdam, hoping to fulfil his promise as PSV’s homegrown talent.
PSV is very eager trying to contract Marco van Ginkel from Chelsea, after having had him on loan for two successful periods. The Brits, however, aren’t in any hurry and TM Brands is in the opposite state in order to get the selection ready for the early start of the European football season of PSV, this year starting on July 27th at the Philips Stadium in Eindhoven.
Adam Maher and Marcel Ritzmaier came back from loan periods and are meant to find a new club long before the closing of the transfer window. Siem de Jong, Oleksandr Zinchenko didn’t get a new hiring contract and went back to their employers (Newcastle United and Manchester City, resp.), while Rai Vloet and Menno Koch failed to deliver their promise as PSV Youth Education products and were sold to NAC Breda. Stand-in keeper Remko Pasveer signed a contract in Arnhem to try his luck and play for prizes with Vitesse, while Hidde Jurjus is rent out to Roda JC for a year. He wants to put into practice what he learned at PSV last year and come back as a serious candidate for the basic eleven, next season.
Brazilian talent Mauro Júnior will be coming from Desportivo Brasil and signed a contract until 2022. He started the season’s preparation by scoring a goal during a match with PSV Under 21. You can watch the resume here. He will be part of that selection and will play in the Jupiler League and get used to Eindhoven and the Dutch style of playing football.
Three talents officially added to A-selection
PSV has said to focus more on their own educated youth and made serious work of that, just before Phillip Cocu became head coach back in 2014. After years of hard work from Art Langeler, who only just handed over the job to Pascal Jansen for the next step in a year-long process, the first results now start to emerge. Youngsters Sam Lammers (20), Pablo Rosario (20) and the Belgian youth international Dante Rigo (18) were rewarded for their hard work and officially added to the A-selection. Six other talents have also joined the selection that went on training camp in Switzerland, in order to let them get a good taste of what’s ahead of them: Yannick van Osch, Damien van Bruggen, Bram van Vlerken, Cody Gakpo, Kenneth Paal and Icelandic international Albert Guðmundsson.
Coaches and Technical Staff
Phillip Cocu remains head coach, Chris van der Weerden and Ruud Brood remain assistants and Luc Nilis (strikers and free-kicks) and Boudewijn Zenden (wingers) will continue their work as specialties trainers for the A-selection. Ruud van Nistelrooij is added to the technical staff for one day per week, while Dennis Haar came over from AZ, where he was assistant to John van den Brom in the Eredivisie, to become head coach of PSV’s U21. Last season’s U21 coach, Pascal Jansen, moved on the be head of Education, Mark van Bommel takes over the role as head coach from Geert Brusselers, for the U19.
New outfits
A new season means new outfits, and PSV and sponsor Energie Direct made quite an effort to create the idea that PSV is the ultimate club for every man, woman and child. The home kit is based on the shirt from 1994, in which the famous Brazilian striker Ronaldo Luis Nazário de Lima, a.k.a. “O Fenômeno”, made his debut for the Eindhoven selection. The away kit is dark grey with fluorescent yellow, both shirts are available at the fan store at the Philips Stadium, or online.
First prize home to Eindhoven
Last season was unsuccessful for PSV: they didn’t win the national cup, dropped out of the Champions League before winter stoppage and, most importantly, didn’t prolong their title as national champions. This caused them to play qualification games for the Europa League, starting on July 23rd. This means the players had a short vacation and had to start the preparation for season 2017/2018 early this year. Therefor the schedule excludes the usual matches against smaller opponents and first match was on July 8, against RKC Waalwijk, a club sponsored by Mandemakers Keukens which is also a co-sponsor of PSV. Steven Bergwijn scored two goals and made sure the first prize of the season went home to Eindhoven. You can watch the resume of that match here.
Training camp and friendly matches in Switzerland
Following up the early preparation, the selection took off to Verbier in Switzerland, 26 (young) men strong, to go on a training camp. The first friendly match was against FC Sion and was won with 0-1, the resume is online right here. After this game, new signings Hirving Lozano and Derrick Luckassen also arrived and joined the selection to prepare for two more friendly matches. On July 16 at 17:00 PSV will play against Monaco, on July 18 at 19:00, Grasshoppers will be the direct opponent. Both matches should be viewable live on Fox Sports.
Europe League Qualification
The drawing in Lyon connected PSV to the winner of the qualification matches between NK Osijek from Croatia and FC Luzern from Switzerland on July 20th. Exactly one week after that, PSV will start their qualification at home at the Philips Stadium and plays the return on August 3rd. It’s still very unsure with which selection coach Phillip Cocu can come across, and after that, nothing’s even sure until the closing of the international Transfer Window, after the Eredivisie season in August has already kicked off. To thank supporters for their support and make sure the stadium will be sold out, PSV offers all season card holders free entrance tickets, available online through www.psv.nl
New eSporter
PSV presented Tony Kok (22) as new eSporter, who now forms a team with Romal Abdi. Kok (YouTube channel TonyKokNL) has been national champion three times by winning FIFA12, FIFA13 and FIFA14 and is one of the two Dutch representatives at the FIWC Finals in London in August, after winning FIWC Regionals (FIFA Interactive World Cup) in Munich, last season. He is in the top 10 Weekend League almost every week and can simply be named a very talented, professional addition to PSV’s team in the Dutch eDivisie.
Otten Cup with Manchester United, Cruzeiro, PSG and others
Every year, PSV organises an international tournament for the best talents Under 19 at training complex De Herdgang. This year’s teams are: Manchester United, Borussia Mönchengladbach, Estudiantes, RSC Anderlecht, Paris Saint Germain, Cruzeiro, PSV and Internationale, who are replacing FC Barcelona. The Tournament will take place on August 4, 5 and 6, tickets cost €3,- per day or €7,50 for a passe-partout. Children until 12 years get free entrance, all information is available through this link.
Running event for social projects in Eindhoven
On August 31 of 2017, the 104th birthday of PSV, the club organises the first PSV Foundation Fun Run in their existence. Partakers gather money before and during this running event – which leads partially through the Philips Stadium itself – for the PSV Foundation. With this money, the PSV Foundation supports the many social projects they have in the region of Eindhoven. Examples of projects are Geef Racisme de Rode Kaart (give racism the red card), Blind Stands, the Dutch Street Cup, Spieren voor Spieren, PSV Oldstars and hospital visits. All information on the PSV Foundation and FunRun is available through this link.
PSV Women at European Cup Tournament
After years of building up a stronger national competition and preparing for this great European tournament, it’s finally happening: this Sunday, July 16th, the Dutch national women’s team kick off UEFA Women’s Euro 2017 at 18:00h, in a sold out Galgenwaard Stadium in Utrecht. PSV-players Angela Christ and Vanity Lewerissa are part of the Dutch national selection, as well as ex-PSV players Daniëlle van de Donk (Arsenal), Kika van Es (FC Twente) and Sisca Folkertsma (Ajax). Last May, we posted an interview with goalkeeper Angela Christ, and it’s still a good read for everyone who wants to know more about one of PSV Women’s strongholders of the last seasons.
More news in much smaller portions will come up regularly on Eindhoven News, so keep checking back to this website!
For Eindhoven News: Joey
