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Today this page will take you through the month of July, when PSV strengthened their squad with the signings of goalkeeper Andreas Isaksson and defender Erik Pieters. Huub Stevens took charge of his first training session as coach of PSV and of friendlies at Gestel, Vaassen and VVV-Venlo.
Transfers
PSV captured the signature of 26-year-old Swedish goalkeeper Andreas Isaksson, The Sweden international faced the serious challenge of filling the void left by the departure of Gomes to Tottenham Hotspur. Isaksson joined PSV from Manchester City on a four-year deal. Anton Scheutjens was appointed as assistant goalkeeping coach. On 11 July it was announced that PSV had secured the services of defender Erik Pieters from FC Utrecht. The 19-year-old put pen to paper on a four-year contract. Adrie van Kraaij was appointed as the club's director of player recruitment, succeeding Stan Valckx. Ruud Boffin made a move to MVV and FC Omniworld signed Género Zeefuik on a season-long loan deal. On 21 July, Ajax signed Ismail Aissati from PSV on a four-year contract. The PSV board had made the midfielder several offers of an improved contract extension, but Aissati preferred to continue his career in Amsterdam. And PSV terminated the contract with the Spanish defender Pepe Plá by mutual consent. José Plá Molla joined PSV midway the 2005/06 season, but only played matches for the PSV reserves and pre-season friendlies with the first team.
First training session
On Monday 14 July, the first-team squad reported back for pre-season training. Hundreds of fans turned up at de Herdgang training centre to see Huub Stevens take charge of his first training session as coach of PSV and put new signings Nordin Amrabat, Jérémie Bréchet, Andreas Isaksson, Reimond Manco, Erik Pieters and Francisco 'Maza' Rodriguez through their paces. The PSV players who represented their club at the 2008 Beijing Olympics would only train in Eindhoven for a few days. Rob van Gijzel, the new mayor of Eindhoven, came to De Herdgang on 16 July to give them a rousing send-off.
Friendly matches
Danny Koevermans and Danko Lazovic were on target as Huub Stevens' first game in charge of PSV ended in an 11-1 friendly win over local amateurs v.v. Gestel on Saturday, July 19, with the two strikers each netting a hat trick. PSV continued their pre-season preparations with a 5-1 friendly win over amateurs SV Vaassen one week later. The game was abandoned after 75 minutes due to persistent rain. Zonneveld, Väyrynen, Lazovic, Koevermans and Afellay had scored goals when a thunder storm swept across the Sports Park De Kouwenberg. PSV travelled to Venlo to face VVV-Venlo in the Herman Teeuwen Memorial contest, the third pre-season friendly in July. PSV were held to a 1-1 draw, with the hosts lifting the Cup after beating PSV on penalties.
Miscellaneous
PSV unveiled their new home kit for the 2008/09 season and fans queued up in large numbers in front of the PSV FANstore on 5 July to snap up the new look kit. 10 July saw the introduction of the new TV channel called Eredivisie Live, accessible to everyone with a digital set-up box. The new channel started broadcasting on 29 August, with PSV TV presenting a daily update. The Dutch Olympic team took part in a tournament in Hongkong as preparation for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. They beat their Belgian
