Valentijn Driessen thinks it’s great that PSV’s change of course, ‘despite rolling heads’, takes place without bloodshed and damage to the main characters. Marcel Brands will be general manager of PSV from next season and will succeed Toon Gerbrands, who will leave the club from Eindhoven. The chief of football of The Telegraph finds it striking that PSV stated that everything is going well in the Philips Stadium and that no one is dissatisfied with Gerbrands. “It’s raining compliments.”
“The only reason that the general manager is leaving three years(!) before the end of his contract in 2025 is the availability of the ‘ideal’ successor: Marcel Brands. Gerbrands and the PSV supervisory board say. But, would Gerbrands have made way for the inexperienced Brands if Ajax hadn’t made a gaping hole in everything with PSV in the past three years?” Driessen openly wonders in his column in the newspaper. “Or if PSV had won one or more national titles or KNVB cups since 2018? Or that the club had not been extradited to German trainer Roger Schmidt by Gerbrands and technical director John de Jong?”
“Or if the club had written big black numbers since 2017 instead of a negative result of 16.8 million euros? In addition, the nuance that after three lean black years (0.2 million, 4.6 million and 1.6 million) the corona season ended with 23.2 million euros in the minus. Driessen points out that the deal with Brainport yields ‘only’ six million euros annually. “Would Gerbrands leave after this season if PSV had found a main and shirt sponsor worth ten million euros plus? (…) Now the six million euros from the six companies is their main contribution and otherwise it would serve as extra meat on the bones of PSV.”
“To ask the questions is to answer them. If PSV were to be the top of the Netherlands, no one feels the need or suggests the idea of bringing in the ‘free’ Brands as a great opportunity.” Gerbrands’ contract with PSV will continue until 2025. As a result, the collaboration will end three years earlier. “The supervisory board lacks the unconditional belief that Gerbrands is the right man to get PSV back on track. Otherwise they would never have let him go so easily. After his flying start as general manager in 2014 and four great seasons, things have deteriorated since 2018.”
Brands, 59, worked as technical director at PSV between 2010 and 2018. He then left for Premier League club Everton, where he had to leave in December due to disappointing results. He will be drawing in Eindhoven until 2027. Driessen finds it significant that PSV circles said that more football is welcome in the club management and points to ‘the poor functioning of the current football managers’. “John de Jong put all his cards on Schmidt and – together with Gerbrands – went wet with their German choice.”
Gerbrands was national coach of the volleyball team and led the DSB skating team, before entering the football world at AZ in 2002. Under his leadership, PSV found their way up after a difficult period. “There was a debt of fifty million euros that had to be cleared and PSV had not become a champion for seven years in a row. Together we wanted to win one title every two years. If we become champions this year, we have completely succeeded,” said Gerbrands. , who has celebrated three championships with PSV in the past seven years, recently.
One of the most important jobs for Gerbrands in his last months is finding a new trainer together with technical director John de Jong. Schmidt announced his departure in the summer after two years. PSV is second in the Eredivisie, five points behind Ajax. In the semifinals of the TOTO KNVB Cup, the team plays against Go Ahead Eagles and in the eighth finals of the Conference League, the Israeli Maccabi Tel Aviv is the opponent.