Feeder Clubs Revisited

By: Matt | April 24th, 2008

Pigs at trough I mentioned a few weeks ago that Marco van Basten had met with Arsene Wenger about the possibility of being a feeder club for Arsenal. I was pretty ambivalent about such a deal, for the benefits would not come without a cost. Now, at PSV we can see more clearly some of the cost involved of tending someone else’s garden.

PSV won the title this year on the strength of a defense. They did not allow goals, which was good because they were not in any hurry to score them. Now, this backbone of the team is in jeopardy. Gomes has recently declared his displeasure with PSV’s management, claiming they have failed to deliver on promises made when he signed his extension. He won the title for them, and he thinks he is entitled to his own personal caddy. His “goalkeeper coach” has not been given a similar extension. Gomes is talking crazy about wanting out. Should anybody with any clout move for him, it may happen.

That is a situation PSV could control, or at least manage better. They can give Gomes his caddy and probably keep him around another year or two. The problem (which may in fact be the real problem) is that PSV’s best two defenders are loaners from Chelsea. Just as Alex was snatched away, Alcides and Slobodan Rajkovic may or may not return to Eindhoven next year. Chelsea may want them or want to cash in on their assets to buy a better Carvalho. PSV can only publicly beg and plead that the players be returned. OK, so the article says PSV “hopes” they be loaned again, but if you hope in one hand and spit in the other, any guesses which will fill up first?

What does this mean for Ajax? I dunno. But PSV’s best defensive unit may disappear this summer without any return on their investment. Sure, they won a title, but losing your two best defenders with no money in exchange with which to buy replacements is no way to get ahead. I can see an Ajax side led by Fran Merida winning a title next year only for the core of the midfield to be whisked away to replace Cesc after he moves to Barca. If this “feeder club” arrangement is meant to make Ajax competitive in Europe again, I cannot see how it would do so in the long-term. And, at the end of the day, all you have is the long-term. I think we are better off tending our own garden, even if that means “big club” status remains out of our reach.

Maybe a league merger with Belgium is a better idea? Ajax-Anderlecht-Standard-PSV-Feyenoord. Just a thought…