Joey Veerman thought it was “very unfortunate” that it was canceled again. The PSV midfielder would have liked to make a transfer abroad this summer and when the British Brentford FC reported the Premier League. A summer earlier there were also clubs with interest, he had been playing in Eindhoven for three and a half years. “Then there will come a time when you want to make the step,” he said in September For NOS cameras.
Brentford also had “a nice amount” for Veerman, he thought. Allegedly about 30 million euros, generous for a football player of almost 27, at a time when most clubs prefer to spend their millions on players six or seven years younger. But PSV had rejected the proposal because it was not possible to find a replacement so shortly before the market closing. “Apparently they don’t need it,” Veerman said about the millions offered.
The fact that PSV can reject such a bid says a lot about the good financial health in which the Eindhoven club is currently. A few years ago, PSV Veerman was probably lost in such a situation, says financial director Jaap van Baar, Monday at presentation of results about the previous season.
He refers to the winter at the end of 2022, when PSV was much less financially. Within a month, the club lost that transfer period Cody Gakpo and Noni Madueke, the two greatest talents of the moment. “Then we were at a point that we could not sell no,” said Van Baar. “There just had to take place a sale.”
Now the situation is very different, he says. Only a few years ago, PSV spoke hopeful about 100 million turnover, now with more than 170 million euros almost double is in sight, partly due to the income after participation in the extensive Champions League. The equity, the financial cushion that companies can use in the event of setbacks, rose from more than 40 million to 48 million euros last year, also the highest level in history.
Conservative
The fact that PSV nevertheless saw the profit by 2 million was a choice, Van Baar explains. The club decided to invest 7 million in the development of training complex De Herdgang and 10 million in the renovation of the stands on the north side of the Philips stadium. PSV also chose to pay off the debts from Coronatijd, 18.8 million euros, early in one go.
The fact that those resources are there is, in addition to the sporting success, the merit of the conservative way in which PSV has been estimating for a number of years. For a long time the club worked with plans for two years, so that the setbacks only saw relatively late. If they subsequently presented itself in years that the club did not qualify for the Champions League, that could become problematic.
General manager Marcel Brands remembers a play-off match against AS Monaco, summer 2022. If PSV were to lose that, the club seemed on its way to an operational loss of more than 15 million euros that season, with a win it was ‘only’ 10 million. “That feeling, that risk, that stress, you don’t want that anymore,” he says.
Nowadays PSV makes plans for the next five years, and the expenditure pattern also has to be correct if the club has to settle for the Europa League. If it goes well, the club can always spend extra money, as happened in the summer of 2023, when PSV had almost certainly qualified for the Champions League and the selection then strengthened with midfielder Jerdy Schouten and winger Hirving Lozano.
Negative transfer result
Since then, PSV no longer just sells, it turned out at the beginning of last season. The club then received bids on defender Oscar Boscagli and goalkeeper Walter Benitez, two players working on their last contract year. The club did not decide to sell: the sporting (and therefore financial) benefits of keeping the group together that won the national title the previous year were estimated higher than the amount that PSV missed by losing two players transfer -free.
That choice led PSV to end the previous season with a negative transfer result, one of the few setbacks in the eyes of financial director of Baar. Like almost every club, PSV also starts every season with a good minute: in accounting, the club smears the paid transfer fees about the contract duration of players. On someone who cost 20 million, and who signed for five years, the club then writes down 4 million euros each season.
It means that clubs have to sell players almost every season, to cover the costs for purchases from previous years. At PSV that was not possible due to the few outgoing transfers: last year 21 million euros arrived, mainly due to the sale of Jordan Teze and Matteo Dams. The result is a gap of 9.5 million euros. The fact that PSV nevertheless achieved a profit is due to the premiums from the Champions League, in which the club achieved the last sixteen.
Whether this will succeed again is very doubtful for the time being. PSV had one of the most conceivable drawings in the Champions League, and immediately lost the first match against Union Saint-Gilloise, one of the few opponents against which a victory was possible. But even if early elimination threatens, then that is no reasonable reason to worry. By selling Malik Tillman, Noa Lang and Johan Bakayoko, PSV is already sure of a positive transfer result and (very likely) operational profit.
Financially the season has already passed after just two months of playing football. But, Van Baar nods in the direction of the turf, “In the end we all do this to perform there.” Managing Director Brands then responds. “We prefer that we become champions without a win and get the last sixteen [in de Champions League]then we end up with a profit of 10 million. “
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