de Rood-Witten

The amount of young talent at the club is astonishing. You are well and truly set for the future and considering you're reaping the rewards even now, I look forward to seeing what the future holds if these young players are given the opportunity to progress year-upon-year, as I expect they will.

As promised the home kit hasn’t changed a bit so everyone who bought one last year can keep wearing it, the away and third kits are a bit of a nod to the past. The away kit is pretty similar to PSV’s kit from 2015, but their third kit is a bizarre throwback to their 1998 season. Nothing like the late 90’s to stir up some nostalgia, hopefully the design will fuel some kit sales.

The third kit has a strong resemblance to the Juventus kit - I quite like it.

Very nice kits, fits into the club's historical values.

MLS is a good subject, even if the team sucks! Of course, the fact that I have season tickets for Montréal Impact has nothing to do with the fact I think the chosen team sucks...

and I just realized I wrote the reply in the wrong story... sorry. but I must admit the graphics presenting the kits is something I'd like to be able to do myself!

As usual Mark van Bommel would need to drag his team through some friendlies without a number of his senior and Jong PSV players. International duties and vacation would occupy most of his team, so fielding a full roster and playing well would be hard for the start of the pre-season.

Since it seems that the Football Gods hate PSV now, Antônio Carlos would be injured yet again. Antônio Carlos would twist his ankle while playing for the Netherlands and be ruled out for 3-6 weeks, at least it didn’t happen in the middle of the season. Antônio Carlos couldn’t be alone so the Gods struck down Jaap Danso as well with knee ligament damage that would keep him out for (2) weeks. If this continues there won’t be a team left to start the season.

Friendly (A) : Atalanta 0 - PSV 1
Friendly (A) : SC Freiburg 0 - PSV 5
Friendly (A) : Bayer Leverkusen 0 - PSV 2
Friendly (A) : Levante 0 - PSV 6



Things were starting to get nasty in PSV’s clubhouse and hosting Ajax was not something van Bommel wanted to deal with at the moment. With PSG leading a pack of teams chasing Antonio Marin, the media was vicious and the rumors spilled out through social media. Things seemed to get much worse and Marin sat out the KNVB Super Cup, many took this as proof he was about to be sold.

“No. No comment.” snapped van Bommel when asked if he could confirm Marin was being sold.

Johan Bastyanus took his place at RW and based on last year it wouldn’t hurt PSV too much, and a deflated Ajax roster wouldn’t give Frank de Boer much help in his first full season. Erik de Wit (19) is looking like a star in goal, but de Boer’s Ajax side is looking old and in need of some youth talent. They have uber-prospect Paul Goossens (17) waiting on their U-19 roster, but he won’t be ready for a few years and wouldn’t be able to help today.

Ajax was back in their 4-1-2-3 formation to frustrate PSV, but it did little to help them score. It was obvious that de Boer was hoping for a quick counter attack as PSV piled up shots and made de Wit work hard until César Montes headed in a corner at 35’ from former Ajax wonderkid Ryan Gravenberch. It wouldn’t be a De Topper Derby without some bizarre circumstances, at least they went in PSV’s favor. Around 54’ in Wim de Boom pulled up lame and started grabbing his calf, it looked like an injury van Bommel could do without, and he managed to hobble to the sidelines while PSV waited for a sub to come on. The PSV attack went ahead without him and Ivanildo Wennemars got around Nicolás Tagliafico on the right and sent a soaring cross in to the far side of the box for Prince Diomandé to head in. Up 2-0 it was now clear Ajax wasn’t going to win or pull even with a lucky goal. Maximiliano Romero would make it 3-0 at 71’ and Ajax would only manage a single shot all game.



Ajax did their best but 3-0 seemed like they got off easy. The injury to de Boom would turn out to be a calf strain that would hold him out for (4) weeks and open the door for Garrinchinha to play for the first squad. Beating Ajax would barely hold back the torrent of criticism over the Marin situation, the transfer window would be unusually tense in Eindhoven.

With only two real departures from the first team, and both of them were seen coming a mile away, this window was all about maintaining as much of the current roster as possible. It seemed like all of the best teams in Europe, and even some of the lesser teams, came calling with an array of bizarre and insulting offers. PSV’s entire starting roster and a few second team players were the subject of transfer bids or rumors, and Toon Gerbrands probably wanted to unplug the phone.

The biggest story of the window was Antonio Marin. After flying under the radar for a year and generating a little bit of interest the year before things really got out of hand. PSG were first to launch a serious bid, though if you ask Gerbrands he might dispute the seriousness of it, a £35.5M bid with a buy back price of £119M ended with Gerbrands abruptly hanging up on General Manager Antero Henrique. Apparently this would become a running theme, the addition of the buy back clause tipped PSV to the true value of Marin. Inside sources report that Marin became rather upset that the transfer bid was rejected and refused to accept a reasonable price over £44M, Gerbrands and van Bommel had decided they wouldn’t let him go for less than £100M as he was under contract until 2025. PSG were in a better place than all of the other teams with bids well below the £100M mark as Arsenal eventually went up to £62M while Monaco (£34M), Chelsea (£44.5M), and Olympique Marseille (£19.5M) rounded out the teams to be laughed off the phone. Eventually Antero Henrique went to the £100M mark and the Marin-PSV relationship had turned so toxic that they let him go. The emergence of Roberto Loor took away the sting on the field, but the fan base was sad and furious that their hero was leaving.



With Marin gone the vultures started to pick at the rest of the squad, but van Bommel and Gerbrands were dead set on rejecting any and all bids unless someone wanted to pay a Neymar level transfer fee. As it turned out, everyone wanted to pay a laughable amount for all of PSV’s best players. As with Marin, the tiny transfer fee with a sizeable buy back clause constantly tipped PSV to the true value of their players.

Jack Butland, shot stopping God, garnered interest from Chelsea and Spurs but didn’t garner nearly the offers one would expect. Chelsea was laughed off the phone with a £19M bid that eventually ended up at £32M to be closer to Spurs’ £34.5M. PSG’s Antero Henrique is not a stupid man so while he was trying to pry away Marin he was also trying to save some money and get Johan Bastyanus (£19.5M transfer, £66M buy back) as a consolation prize. PSG, Borussia Dortmund, Arsenal, Bayern Munich, and Chelsea were all lining up for his services with the highest offer going to Bayern Munich (£83M) to pip PSG’s final offer (£71M) before breaking the bank on Marin. The incredible success of PSV’s defense did not go unnoticed as teams all across Europe tried to demolish van Bommel’s roster.

Literally everyone aside from Antônio Carlos in both the first and second squad were being hunted with Boudewijn Dembélé and Danilo Boldewijn the primary targets. PSG was once again the instigator here with an initial £24M offer for Dembélé that set off an all-too-familiar chain of events for Gerbrands as Dembélé became upset and demanded to be sold for £24M. PSG managed to get to £65M before turning their attention to Boldewijn (£12.5 transfer fee, £42M buy back) while managing to create even more havoc. Boldewijn became upset enough to hand in a transfer request twice with both of them being rejected. Dembélé was the most popular target with Borussia Dortmund, Manchester City, Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester United, Schalke, and Real Madrid all coming after him. Los Blancos were the high bidder at £89M, but with (4) years left on his contract there was no rush to cash in. Philippe Wiltord (Manchester City, £22M), Ivanildo Wennemars (Real Madrid, £14M / £45M Buy Back), and Wim Havekotte (Real Madrid, £13M / £41M Buy Back) closed out the rush on PSV defenders. Jaap Danso was the final player to get the tiny bid / high buy back treatment when Bayer Leverkusen tried to get him for £16.5M and sell him back for £53M. Sources within the organization report that at this point Gerbrands and van Bommel unplugged all of their office phones and destroyed their mobile phones.

Senior Transfers (Out)
Bruno Henrique (LW, Torino) £10M
Pelayo Morilla (CAM, Sevilla) £15M
Bruno Viana (CD, Barcelona) £19M
Antonio Marin (RW, PSG) £100M

Senior Transfers (In)
None

Final Transfer List (Impact Signings)
Ruud Wensselijn (CAM, FC Volendam - Netherlands) £1.0M
Thorsten Draxler (CM, FC Liefering - German) £1.5M
Levent Yilmaz (ST, Galatasaray - Turkey) £3.5M

As usual, Gerbrands and van Bommel would work on some low cost signings to build the future of the club. With £100M burning a hole in their pocket they resisted the urge to spend big and looked at the example Roberto Loor has set after being signed during the 2018-19 season for only £600,000 out of Ecuador. Levent Yilmaz looks like he could be on Loor’s level and might still be a steal at £3.5M if PSV’s staff can work their magic.

A huge departure! £100,000,000 is more than enough to invest in some real quality, to find a replace for Marin AND look to strengthen the rest of the squad. I think this piece of business could be a blessing in disguise, despite the loss of a key player.

PSV would head into this game with a great start to the Eredivisie already in the books. A 5-0 win over ADO Den Haag where they didn’t allow a shot would mark their 60th straight unbeaten game in the Eredivisie, Rinus Bakayoko would also put Maximiliano Romero on notice with two goals and the Player of the Match award.

Even with Pep Guardiola off to Atletico Madrid and Maurizio Sarri taking his place this game wouldn’t be a joke, just last like year this would be a solid test of PSV’s strength outside of the Dutch league. The PSV defense would be essentially facing a firing squad with Kevin de Bruyne managing the midfield behind Kylian Mbappé, Leroy Sané, and Gabriel Jesus.

“They have some good players” smirked van Bommel when asked about the challenge they would face.

The game would basically be a home game for Manchester City with the game being played at St. Mary’s Stadium in Southampton. PSV’s fans would be out in force, but the team would still be deep in hostile territory. With so many skilled players and Sarri using the dreaded 4-1-2-3 formation van Bommel took to a more balanced approach to avoid a potentially deadly counter attack. Even on the road, and even though he never left the bench, Jeroen Zoet was treated to some boos from the visiting fans, even after everything PSV has accomplished the fans haven’t forgotten his final days in Eindhoven.

Just 11’ into the game Prince Diomandé would put Manchester City behind on a surprising goal that would announce himself as a world class player. Taking a short forward pass from Johan Bastyanus after drawing in the central defenders Diomandé would fire a shot with his left foot from the left of the goal at an acute angle to cross the goal and put it in the side netting. Ederson was left falling on his rear as he moved to his right, sadly for him it wouldn’t be the end of his troubles. In a bout of Déjà vu on an almost identical pass from Bastyanus to Diomandé, the shot would hit the right goal post and bounce out the find Ederson’s calf and bounce back in with stoppage time in the first half winding down.

The game was very level with PSV grinding things out, but Manchester City just couldn’t connect on their attack. Bastyanus would score at 78’ to close out the scoring for the day and help assert PSV as a potential European power. PSV would head back to the league for a while and wait for the Champions League draw in a few weeks.


The first Champions League draw would put PSV in a difficult position, but they have been in groups like this before and emerged victorious.

Group B : Juventus, PSV, Bayer Leverkusen, Beşiktaş
Group E : Real Madrid, Liverpool, Schalke, Ajax

There isn’t really anything for fans to complain about here as this year produced a very even draw across all groups. It’s hard to make an argument for a Group of Death, Ajax’s group might be the closest, so fans can’t look at any other group and think they would be much better off. Juventus is going to be a brutal test of PSV’s strength and Bayer Leverkusen are the last team to beat PSV so there is always going to be some danger facing them. The media have completely counted out Beşiktaş but even van Bommel will tell you that they have the ability to spoil the party if things get tight with Juventus or Bayer Leverkusen. PSV are expected to advance, but odds on them winning the group are not great.


The relative difficulty of the Champions League draw would look like an impossible task compared to the KNVB Cup draw. Rijnsburgse Boys, a Keuken Kampieon Division side, are likely an exceedingly easy opponent. It is highly doubtful that van Bommel will lose very much sleep over this fixture.



The league season was only (3) games in and van Bommel was already starting to look stressed. The Eredivisie wasn’t presenting much resistance with PSV winning 5-0 over PEC Zwolle and 4-0 over Fortuna Sittard. The stress was being generated by more injuries and transfer drama, and if last season was any indication they weren’t going to end. Johan Bastyanus, heir to Antonio Marin’s throne, would break his arm in training before the Fortuna Sittard game and be ruled out for (6) weeks. As if breaking his arm wasn’t bad enough he would have the gall to turn in a transfer request. The RW position, once the strength of the team, was suddenly in tatters as Roberto Loor would injure his knee 13’ into the Fortuna Sittard game and be out for a week. The only good news for van Bommel was the hot start Garrinchinha was having in Wim de Boom’s place, even with de Boom coming back to full training it would be tough for him to win back his spot in the first team.

The game against Heracles Almelo would turn into a bizarre affair marked by goals scored at the extreme ends of halves. Diomandé and Loor (back from his knee injury) would score at 3’ and 5’ respectively to give PSV a 2-0 lead they would sit on until the half. Diomandé would add another at 49’ and then Mees Hoedemakers would score the first goal of the season on PSV (going all the way back to the start of the preseason) at 81’ with the game pretty much decided. Heracles Almelo looked to escort PSV out with a respectable 3-1 loss when as shass from Antônio Carlos hit Dario Van Den Buijs’ foot and deflected into the goal at 90’+2 to make things worse. Just two minutes later Romero scored just before the final whistle to pile on the late game misery.

Excellent start to the new season, besides the injury news. The Champions League group is manageable considering what you have got through in the past and your recent triumphs in the competition.

The Champions League group opener for PSV would come with some minor drama after PSV continued their dominant run of form in the Eredivisie with a 5-0 home win against NAC Breda. The drama is starting to build from fans and the media after Garrinchinha continued his stellar start to the season, he notched his 5th goal of the year in the NAC Breda win and the general opinion is that he should be swapped with Wim de Boom and start for the first team. The game against Beşiktaş would do little to change anyone’s opinion on that.

Opening the group on the road in Turkey would not be ideal, Beşiktaş might not be an elite team but the home atmosphere was rather hostile to the visitors. A flare in the stands delayed the start of the game a bit, but overall the home crowd was making PSV know they weren’t going to make it easy for them. Just 14’ into the game, after just making it back from a previous injury, de Boom went down with what would later be revealed to be a tight achilles. Jahir Hurtado came on for de Boom, but PSV didn’t miss a beat and went on to totally outclass the hosts.

PSV’s defense was outright dominant and Beşiktaş had little in the way of an attack, the only player who didn’t have a great game was de Boom as he got to see his replacement make (3) key passes on the way to an easy group win. The points and +4 goal differential would be a great first step in defending their title.



The second De Topper Derby of the year would have a very different feel than the first mostly because Ajax has had a less than stellar start to their season. Frank de Boer would also be dealing with some pressure after PSV followed up a 1-0 win at Willem II with a brutal 12-0 beating of Rijnsburgse Boys in the KNVB Cup. The incredible explosion of goals was only tempered by Ryan Gravenberch getting injured after the game, an ankle injury would keep him out about (11) and force him to miss this game.

“I’m really disappointed to miss out” said Gravenberch about his injury “I was really looking to play against my old club.”

Unfortunately for de Boer his Ajax squad just had nothing today. If you had to judge the roster rebuild on this game it would look like a total failure, the side looked lost and PSV were ruthless. Ajax didn’t manage to take a single shot in the first half while PSV rushed out to a 4-0 lead. They would manage to tighten up after the half, stopping PSV from scoring again, but they only managed a single shot that didn’t even trouble Wallenius olde Heuvel. In the end it was just a comprehensive victory that put PSV (8) points in 1st above FC Groningen.



Three cup games in short succession would have PSV trying to catch their breath, and a rematch with Bayer Leverkusen would end the month for van Bommel. Hopes were high that the hosts could improve on the narrow 2-0 victory during the preseason, but few expected and outright blowout. There was already some concern in the PSV camp with two injury subs starting, Jahir Hurtado and Zico would get the nod with Wim de Boom and Ryan Gravenberch unable to man the CAM and DLP roles. Two of the most critical pivot points on the field would be a concern on offense, but Hurtado would step up and ease van Bommel’s fears.

Maximiliano Romero, Prince Diomandé, and Hurtado would team up to form a triangle of scoring that would haunt Bayer Leverkusen all game. By 38’ PSV would be up 3-0 with Romero scoring once and Diomandé twice, Hurtado was instrumental in all three goals with a direct assist on Romero’s. Bayern Leverkusen had a solid chance to get on the scoreboard at 41’ when Fiete Arp made his way through on a killer long ball but his shot hit the post.

The highlight of the second half would be van Bommel’s face when Zico pulled up limping and had to be carted off the field at 68’, he clearly hasn’t gotten over all the injuries from last year. It wouldn’t matter too much as Romero would get his second goal of the game and close it out 5-0 to snag 1st in the group and pull well ahead of Juventus on goal differential.

Some very solid results! The Ajax result is awesome in itself!

Some huge victories AND clean-sheets retained in each. Flawless.

The difference in quality between PSV and Ajax is now startling