Football Season Guide

PSV are usually expected to be contenders in the Eredivisie - and to bring some silverware home at the end of each campaign, but this was not the case in the past season. In fact, having been eliminated early on from all the other competitions, they only finished 4th in the domestic league, managing to reduce a wide gap from the top 3 in the last weeks, after coach Ernest Faber had taken over from disastrous Mark Van Bommel. In fact, with the former Bayern and Milan player at the helm, they had fallen all the way down to 4th spot in December and they seemed to be heading for worse. Faber needed some time to turn the tide but, unluckily enough, once his boys started performing the season was closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Faber, who was responsible for the junior system, was only in charge of the team for a short spell and, after the end of the campaign, he was sent back to his previous post with Roger Schmidt being given the role. Schmidt did well at Red Bull Salzburg, where he won an Austria Bundesliga title, and at Bayer Leverkusen - a side he led to 3rd and 4th finishes in the German Bundesliga. However, he spent the last 3 years in Chinese and it has to be seen whether he is going to be the right man in the right place. The summer transfer campaign was not a particularly active one for PSV. In fact, they only lost a couple of regulars in centre-back Schwaab, who was already on the verge of quitting the club last season, and left-back Rodriguez, who returned to his parent club after a very short stint in Eindhoven. More remarkable departures are former captain Afellay, who was never really considered in his second stint at the club, and Mitroglou, who returned to Olympique Marseille without leaving his mark in the campaign. PSV did not really invest in new players and only recalled home a bunch of boys they had loaned out last season. Among them, Obispo should provide cover in the heart of the defence, while talented Maxi Romero and Mauro Junior should bolster an attack which could end up losing impressive 20-year-old Malen, capable of 21 goals and 10 assists in the past 2 campaigns. The newly-arrived Max should solve their left-back issues.