Friday, December 24, 2021 at 4:11 PM• Tom Rofekamp • Last update: 16:11

Valentijn Driessen thinks that Feyenoord wants to respond with Joey Veerman to an approaching departure of Orkun Kökçü. The twenty-year-old Turkish international can, according to the football chief of The Telegraph ‘give a decent transfer fee’ for the Rotterdammers. Should Kökçü leave, Feyenoord will have ‘an even better successor’ with Veerman, according to Driessen.

Feyenoord will enter the winter as number three in the Eredivisie. To have a serious chance at the title, the club must ‘always want to improve’, says Driessen. “The standard should always be to keep your best players and get even better ones above that. They now want to do that with Joey Veerman.” Veerman, who is still under contract with sc Heerenveen for two and a half years, would like nothing more than to move to De Kuip.

Driessen does not suspect that the interest in Veerman comes out of nowhere. “I think it also has to do with Kökçü: they can probably receive a decent transfer fee for that at the end of the year. That is a Turkish international and he will participate in the Conference League after the winter. You need a successor and that could be Veerman.” In October, reported Feyenoord Transfermarkt already that AS Roma was very interested in Kökçü; the Italians would even use club icon Francesco Totti to pull the midfielder over the line.

Heerenveen does not intend to let Veerman leave for less than the main prize. “The situation is simple,” said Ferry de Haan, the technical manager of the Frisians, in conversation with General Newspaper. “It is certainly not the case that we have to sell Veerman to keep our heads above water. But Heerenveen is a club that relies on purchases and sales.” Fulco van Kooperen, Veerman’s agent, finds an amount of “around six million euros” plus a resale percentage that is in line with the market. General Newspaper pointed out that Feyenoord does not have six million euros in cash, but also hopes that the amount will be available soon or that Heerenveen is currently satisfied with less through a construction.