please log in to view this image Is it past 12? Yep, the market is finally closed. The exodus is complete. September 3d has arrived and silence dominates the football markets. As the dust settles, the agents, players, technical directors and managers can finally get some sleep. When the day breaks and reality kicks back in, the league is left with teams in shambles; talents and creativity have to be found in what remains in the Eredivisie. And it isnât much, I can tell you that. Here is an overview of all the major transfers this summer(every transfer above one million euros): Kevin Strootman: PSV -> AS Roma 16.5m ⬠Wilfried Bony: Vitesse -> Swansea City 13.9m ⬠Christian Eriksen: Ajax -> Tottenham Hotspur 13.5m ⬠Jozy Altidore: AZ Alkmaar -> Sunderland 10m ⬠Dries Mertens: PSV -> Napoli 9.7m ⬠Marco van Ginkel: Vitesse -> Chelsea 9.4m ⬠Jeremain Lens: PSV -> Dynamo Kiev 9m ⬠Nacer Chadli: FC Twente -> Tottenham Hotspur 8.15m ⬠Toby Alderweireld: Ajax -> Atletico Madrid 7m ⬠Filip Djuricic: SC Heerenveen -> Benfica 6m ⬠Leroy Fer: FC Twente -> Norwich City 5.5m ⬠Erik Pieters: PSV -> Stoke City 3.6m ⬠Virgil van Dijk: FC Groningen -> Celtic 3m ⬠Marcelo: PSV -> Hannover 96 2.75m ⬠Derk Boerrigter: Ajax -> Celtic 2.5m ⬠Sanharib Malki: Roda JC -> Kasimpasa 1.5m ⬠Leandro Bacuna: FC Groningen -> Aston Villa 1m ⬠Figures from Transfermarkt.com and Dutch media. please log in to view this image Strootman's transfer to AS Roma was the biggest this summer. Add all the transfers up and you get a staggering 111.3 million euros in profit for the entire Eredivisie. There was only one league in the world that made more profit than the Dutch league: the Brazilian Série A which made a 183 million profit, with a bit of help from Neymar(57m) and Shakhtar Donetsk which spent 60 million on four players from Brazil. But still, a 111 million euros. We couldâve got Gareth Bale and barely a yearâs salary with that! That may all sound great but the league is now deprived of any developed talent and the few that are remaining are already looking for options in the winter transfer period, like Tadic, Toivonen and Finnbogason. This season Ajax, PSV and FC Twente are falling back on their youth academy hoping that new talent will stand up and develop. Now with the last generation out of the way the youngsters can rise up again and gain experience, progress and hopefully by the end of the season, the Eredivisie will have produced another generation of prospects and sensations. But judging from the first five rounds, the quality of the players has obviously dropped, though some exciting players have come in on loans this summer. The main worry is that with a new broadcast contract with Fox Sports and the hundreds of millions of euros coming in through transfers, the clubs will drop their ambitions in favour of the money. Johan Cruijff himself stated that he wants to bring Ajax to a level that they can win the Europa League or Champions League again. Selling Eriksen and Alderweireld wonât do them any good and even though the money is helpful, an international title will be out of the equation for the next five, maybe ten years. Same goes for PSV and Feyenoord. The clubs are not willing to spend and the fans are the victims as always. They watch the news, jealous of the clubs in England, Italy and Spain who can spend hundreds of millions without repercussions from the UEFA or FA. Whilst we count our euros(grateful the clubs are not going bust but get to play their matches for another couple of seasons), Real Madrid can spend 99 million euros on Bale, Arsenal splash out 45 million on Ãzil, and Napoli pay 37 million for HiguaÃn, just to name a few. The Dutch clubs canât wait for FFP to go into full effect. They hope they can finally compete with the big leagues like in the old days once the UEFA implements it in full. And to be frank, I hope Iâll still be alive when that day comes, because that might take decades. please log in to view this image Erwin and Ronald Koeman cheering for the money Fox throws at them!
I guess its all down to population, language and more importantly TV Coverage. Holland isnt the greatest pull for TV etc (no disrespect) Perhaps a Super European League will be formed in years to come. Although the Premier League is probably the most watched league in the world, and hence the massive revenue, Plus the Premier league attracts the bigger attendances also.
Well Fox sports compensated it a bit but the venues of Feyenoord, Ajax, PSV, Twente, Heerenveen and Vitesse are similar to those in the EPL, maybe no Emirates or Old Trafford but still good enough. Ajax even pulls off a 50k average attendance a season. But I agree with you the population is a big factor maybe 3 and a half times smaller but that hasn't stopped us in the past. A Super European League could do the trick as Dutch clubs have huge difficulty adjusting to European football level in the start of the season.
tiz a pity tbh I remember when ajax were one of the main boys in European football always a pleasure 2watch.......................one interesting fact on you price list mind is, how the fk did spurs get that fella for that price, when Swansea had 2 shell out more for a lesser player. ps you know you national team is in trouble when you got a player in the Swansea ranks getting in your team..........no dig at Swansea but Holland always had the top end players at every top end club throughout Europe.....now they at mid table prem types
Eriksen had one year left on his contract, which is basically a 50% discount. DJG wont be going to the WC as Sneijder and Strootman will be going. Van Gaal is experimenting.
that sounds better dude, no offence 2 Swansea like but I expect players 2b from all the TOP clubs when playing for Holland are the times a changing?..
Nah, just waiting for the new generation to stand up. Transition period mate. Strootman is the first of them to join a big club, others will follow in due time.
Good, interesting read and it makes one more interested in the Eredivisie now. One minor point...you talk of profit, when it might be more appropriate to say 'income'........unless the assumption is that the sales in both the Netherlands and Brazil are all home-grown talent that have not been previously bought? Looking at the news today and how England are looking to better develop the national team, it will be interesting to see in a few years whether Holland will be better off for this clear-out that gives room for new international players to develop......or else, whether the players transferred out will be able to contribute more to the national team from their new experiences in foreign clubs. (although, I am not sure how many of those transferred out are Holland qualified!)
A very interesting and informative post. With PSG and Monaco and some Russian clubs also splashing the cash you have to question how effective FFP will be and have some of the smarter clubs already found ways around it? However, I thought the same as FFB and checked. Only 8 of the 17 are home grown Dutch players with the other 9 acquired one way or another by Dutch clubs before being on sold. The gross sale proceeds were 123m Euros so for a profit of 111.3m Euros that means the Dutch sides only spent 11.7m on acquiring/developing the players. I've had a quick look and can't really see what was paid when palyers were bought. In fact it looks like some of the Belgian players just nipped across the border and signed at no cost. I suppose another question is what will the Dutch sides do in terms of using the money? If they haven't paid much in fees for them then does the money go back into developing the squads or do they run at losses so the fees are needed to reduce and manage accumulated debts? Pretty much like our lower league clubs have done over the years. less so now with more and more foreign players purchased and good young British players snapped up for peanuts by the big clubs, put into development squads and then dropped when expensive foreign imports are brought in.
I meant profit in terms as gains on season, minus expenditures = gross profit. Which is for the Eredivisie a 111.3m euros, which excludes all internal transfers. When it comes to contribution I think most of the young national players have done quite well, with the exception of Marco van Ginkel, he made a bad decision going to Chelsea. He will never get a first eleven position in the team any time soon and therefore will miss the WC in Brazil. Fer, Sneijder, Bruma, Janmaat, Stekelenburg and Strootman all opted for playing time instead of going to a bigger club. Smart choice in my opinion.
Dries Mertens costed nothing, came through the youth academy of AGOVV. Bony was bought in 2010 for a mere 3.7 million euro from Sparta Prague and Eriksen was bought when he was 17 from Odense for about 1 million, Altidore for 1.5 million euro from Villarreal, Alderweireld was also free, from the Ajax youth academy. Hope this answers your question. Ajax have reportedly around 75-80 million in the bank according to RTLZ, my guess is, is that they are going to use that money to get Ajax off the stock exchange somewhere this season. PSV still has to repay 20 million euros in loans and Feyenoord and FC Twente are financially still very weak and need to strengthen their position in the next couple of years. Twente is still paying the debts for their new stadium and its expansion whilst Feyenoord is still recovering from the 2009 crisis. I guess what is left over will be pumped into the academies to develop more home grown talents. Ajax has spent over 6 million euro last year buying youth talents from Romania, Serbia, Danmark and Belgium for mostly U19 players.
Thanks Cove. On the back of that I guess Ajax are already farming produce that will allow them to harvest a lot more money in the years to come, or if they can retain the talent, enable them to challenge for European honours as you described in an earlier post. The big issue will be whether or not they can pay the wages offered by the other big European clubs at that time. If FFP kicks in and these clubs have to manage their books much more tightly then Ajax could be in a position of real strength.
