With a new football season upon is, we’re all waiting for Xavi’s first squad announcement. The transfer period is behind us so lets take a look at the four top teams in our competition.
Obviously, we start with the champs.
The Eredivisie is back and PSV walk in with the title, Peter Bosz in the dugout until 2028, and a summer that sold the crown jewels without looking like a fire sale. That is the story. Not “crisis.” Not “Ajax will be fine.” Eindhoven cashed Saibari and Veerman, spent in the domestic market, and kept the same three men who have actually run the club.
**1. Who came in**
The expensive deals were Dutch, or Dutch-trained. Kodai Sano from NEC (~€15m) and Sven Mijnans from AZ (~€13m) are the midfield answers to the hole Veerman and Saibari left. Sami Ouaissa followed from NEC (~€9m). Feyenoord expected to be able to grab him if Hadj Moussa would depart, but he didn’t. Deadline day added Sam Lammers from Twente — a homecoming, two years, cheap — plus Mikkel Bro Hansen from Bodø/Glimt and Ayoni Santos from Sparta.
Behind that: Matěj Kovář made last season’s loan from Leverkusen permanent; Filip Kostić arrived free from Juventus, a veteran left-sided runner Bosz actually asked for; Lutsharel Geertruida is back in the Netherlands on loan from Leipzig, trying to reinventing himself while remaining on the Xavi radar. Youth names (Smolenaars, Merién) got first-team paper.
It is not a Galáctico window. It is Stewart buying players who already know the league’s tempo, then hanging a 33-year-old wing-back on the end for width.
**2. Who left**
The ledger is ugly if you only read names. Ismael Saibari went to Bayern for about €50m (plus add-ons). Joey Veerman to Dortmund for ~€22m. Couhaib Driouech to Celta (~€7–8m). Joël van den Berg to Celtic. Joël Drommel to Twente. Myron Boadu left on a free. Anass Salah-Eddine’s Roma loan ended. Isaac Babadi went to Sparta on loan. Who, by the way, impressed immediately scoring 30 seconds after coming up the pitch.
That is two midfield identities gone in one summer. Veerman was the metronome; Saibari was the one who could run box to box at Champions League speed. Replacing *feel* with Sano and Mijnans is the season’s bet.
Yes, totally different players, so Bosz will have to tweak the tactics. The master passer (Veerman) for a dynamic runner (Sano). Up front, Pepi still looks first choice. Lammers and Pléa are the queue. Three strikers is a Bosz headache, not a fan one.
**3. How Bosz wants them to play**
Do not expect a personality transplant. High press, ball-dominant, full-backs stepping into midfield, forwards who hunt. 4-3-3 is still the home shape; he has already muttered about a back three when the week demands it. But the service to the forwards will have to change, with Veerman no longer there with his game intelligence and passing skills.
We do need to mention Ruben van Bommel (yes the son of Mark van Bommel). Not a new signing, but as he hardly played last season, we could easily see him as a new boy. And boy did he have an impact. And I didn’t mean ironically, re: his collision at the PSV-Ajax game. Much talked about in the Netherlands, but the overall concensus is: “he didn’t mean it”, and “it should have been a red”.
The unsolved line from last season: **45 Eredivisie goals against**, a clown number for a champion. The press wins games and gifts transitions. Kostić and Geertruida are supposed to put a body on that. If the new midfield cannot control the second ball, you will see the same 4–3 scorelines PSV fans pretend to enjoy.
**4. The office, for once, is not on fire**
This is the quiet story and the one Ajax would kill for. Marcel Brands is general director through mid-2029. Bosz is signed to 2028. The day after deadline day, Earnest Stewart extended as director of football to **2030**. Chairman Robert van der Wallen gets to say the word “continuity” without laughing.
Three titles in the Stewart–Bosz stretch, a cup, two Super Cups, and they still sell players for Bundesliga money instead of burning the model. Stability here does not mean boring. It means the next panic will be about a centre-back, not about who is sitting in the boardroom. If we can call it panic. Geertruida demonstrated against Ajax what his qualities are. And I’m not referring to his wondergoal. Yes he meant it, but yes there was some luck involved.
**So**
PSV are favourites because the structure survived the harvest. The football will look like Bosz football: first to the ball, last to track the runner. If Sano and Mijnans can do the ugly minutes Veerman used to hide in plain sight, the fourth star stays on the table. If not, the 45 goals against come back as a personality trait.
From the news media
Xavi Hernández has already spoken with Virgil van Dijk, and Goal is now reporting that a second meeting is planned to determine Van Dijk’s Oranje future. �
Goal +1
More importantly, NOS independently reported Xavi’s intentions. Catalan journalist Jordi Grau, described by NOS as a good friend of Xavi, says Xavi wants to continue with Van Dijk — but with a tactical condition: Xavi wants him defending forward/aggressively rather than retreating. Grau compared it with Xavi’s handling of Gerard Piqué at Barcelona: experience and status alone won’t guarantee the position if the defender cannot execute Xavi’s defensive approach.
🚨 Meaningful development tonight: Spanish reporting attributed to Diario SPORT now says Xavi Hernández has carried out his first screening for the 2030 World Cup project, and four potential Oranje debutants are described as having a strong chance of being included:
Ruben van Bommel, Goes, Givairo Read and Gjivai Zechiël. Dutch coverage quotes SPORT as saying the chance is large that all four debut in Xavi’s squad. �
Soccernews.nl
Status: 🟠 Strong reported indication — NOT confirmed selection. This is materially stronger than pundits simply recommending Read or Zechiël. However, I still don’t see NOS, VI, AD or KNVB independently confirming that all four have actually received their calls.
There’s another interesting layer: Kees Smit and Luciano Valente are also reportedly “being mentioned around Zeist,” but the wording for them is weaker than for the four above. So I’d currently put Smit and Valente in the 🟡 watch/speculation category rather than treat them as leaked selections. �
Soccernews.nl
The strongest board tonight therefore looks like Van Bommel 🟠 | Goes 🟠 | Read 🟠⬆️ | Zechiël 🟠⬆️, with Valente 🟡 and Smit 🟡 just behind.
This is exactly the kind of youth turnover we’ve been waiting to see evidence of—the important next step is whether one of the major Dutch Oranje reporters independently corroborates
I’m all for bringing in new talents and integrating them into the setup. I hope Xavi can find and develop a CF/striker. I don’t know if he has that focus as Barca teams have a collective goalscoring style rather than one focal point. But we still need the next replacement for Van Persie/Van Nistelrooy etc.
As for VdV, at this point in his career, it is too much to ask him to defend end to end so high up like that. We already saw what happened in that goal Elanga scored. He just can’t track back and run full speed multiple times during a game. Someone else would have to be tasked with that assignment to cover for him. A leftback or a DM.
Anyways, will be eager to what Xavi does with this team. Just hoping for the best.