This newsitem has been supplied by PSV.nl
During the first media briefing of the new season PSV head coach Ronald Koeman said he is expecting more of the same for the Eredivisie next season. It is always hard to make predictions, but I think we have considerably strengthened our squad.”
PSV have started preparations for the 2007/08 campaign with the addition of ten new signings to the first-team squad. As far as Koeman is concerned, no more summer signings will be made. “We will not attract any more new players, unless a first-team regular leaves. At the moment we have a 29-man squad at our disposal. They will all feature in our pre-season plans.”
Koeman did not know about any interest registered in Manuel Da Costa. “There will always be transfer rumour and speculations, but no club has made their interest official. I don’t want him to leave, but there’s a price tag set on the player and you never know if a club are willing to pay for the player. Koeman intends to play attractive football with a 4-3-3 formation, but PSV’s head coach has different options as well. “I would love to play three strikes, but we may also very well field four attackers. Jefferson Farfán and Arouna Koné can operate in all positions across the forward line. We will see during the pre-summer campaign how feasible our plans are”, said Koeman
Ronald Koeman will not announce the name of the new captain before all players have returned from international duty to Eindhoven. Timmy Simons, who was vice-captain last season, is most likely on top of the shortlist, but Koeman also expects Kenneth Perez and Carlos Salcido to play a leading role next season. “We have the right mix of young and experienced players. That’s one of the reason I am a ‘Perez fan’ and I am sure he will add value to PSV. We have a pretty strong side Ismail Aissati has definitely made much progress and I enjoyed Otman Bakkal’s performances during the UEFA European Under-21 championship. Some bright young prospects are developing rapidly and who knows, Jonathan Reis may be granted a place in the starting line-up after the winter break. We will be facing a hectic fixture list and need all of our players.”
At the beginning of this week Ronald Koeman admitted he thought is was very ‘unprofessional’ for Arouna Koné not to turn up for the first training session of pre-season, but things have eventually blown over. “Koné played a match on 13 June and we were not well-informed. He thought he had a few days off left. I have accepted his explanation, but I have had a talk about it with him. Arouna is a very reliable lad. I don’t think it will ever happen again.”
