Flying Kiwis: Ryan Thomas + PSV Eindhoven
It was close to a year ago that Ryan Thomas put pen to paper on a new contract with PEC Zwolle. He’d been pondering leaving after a solid season but the club was desperate to keep him. The PECers aren’t a big time club, they do what they do through clever transfers and by developing young guys – both at once in the case of Ryan Thomas – and they’re realistic about where they stand. They weren’t going to hold him back and they couldn’t really afford to either. So the arrangement was made that he’d sign for two more years but they’d sell him after the first season when they could still get a decent transfer fee for the bloke.
In effect, Ryan Thomas gambled on himself. And PEC Zwolle, a club that often finds itself relying on transfer fees to pay the bills, gambled on him too. Then for the first half of the 2017-18 season Ryan Thomas was absolutely immaculate, one of the finest players in the Eredivisie, whipping passes all around the park as the PECers had themselves in the top four at Christmas. Then they got a bit useless after the winter break and the hype died down. Still, Ryan Thomas had put together an excellent season in midfield and that transfer value was soaring.
Only problem was that Thommo had some conditions. He wanted to move in order to progress his career but only to a club where he’d have a realistic chance of playing games. He wasn’t going anywhere just to sit on the bench. Also it was a matter of finding a club where his style of play would suit. Then the birth of his first child made him understandably hesitant to pick up and move the family overseas. That’s limiting the options a fair bit and, after a brief rumour about Belgium, talk swiftly seemed to settle on a preferred move to one of the big three clubs in the Eredivisie: PSV, Ajax or Feyenoord.
Right up until the eve of the new season it was all quiet on the Thommo front. His good relationship with PEC Zwolle meant there’d be no hard feelings if the right move didn’t come along so he kept up appearances all through preseason. But we now know that things were bubbling under the surface. With the season opener only a day away, against Marco Rojas’ sc Heerenveen by the way (SCH won 3-2, Marco was a second-half sub), Zwolle figured that the absence of arguably their best player would only stir the pot so the decision was made by the three parties (PSV, PEC and RT) to announce the transfer agreement before the medical could be completed.
Thomas is joining on a four year contract. He’s currently 23 years old and has already played 123 times in the Eredivisie. The rise has been so swift and so incredible that it’s easy to forget how much further he could yet take this thing. But Thommo’s never let that out of his sight. This is all part of the plan for him and, step by step, he keeps actualising it. Take a second and acknowledge the life lesson on offer there.
With PSV he’s going to get everything he wanted. They’re defending champs of the Eredivisie and are a two-legged qualifier later in the month away from making the Champions League group stages. Still in a division in which he’s comfortable but at a much higher level, with greater expectations, and the opportunity to play continentally.
Having said that, he’s also joining a club which is in a slight bit of transition at the moment, though that might be a good thing for Thommo getting his games in. Ex-manager Phillip Cocu walked away unexpectedly after five seasons and three league titles with the club and joined Fenerbahçe while the club’s Technical director Marcel Brands was snapped up by Everton. Mark van Bommel will be the new gaffer.
And while Thommo is the sixth new signing for PSV this summer, it’s been more about consolidation than strengthening the squad. They were firm-willed in retaining Mexican playmaker Hirving Lozano but the big dollars came in for fullbacks Santiago Arias and Joshua Brenet. Plus Nicolas Isimat-Mirin is expected to confirm his departure soon with the centre-back likely on his way to Turkey. Then there’s the biggest blow with Chelsea loanee Marco van Ginkel unable to make the permanent move after a knee injury last month that might cause him to miss the whole season.
Van Ginkel had spent most of the last three campaigns with PSV and even captained them last time out. He’s the bloke that Ryan Thomas is stepping in to replace. Central midfielders Jorrit Hendrix and Bart Ramselaar are his biggest rivals there, youngster Pablo Rosario has also gotten a lot of chances in preseason. There are no guarantees when you move to a new club and Thomas might need to work his way in off the bench but with a European campaign to juggle as well, he’ll get his opportunities. It sounds like MVB is looking to implement a more controlled, possession based style of play after Cocu’s more energetic pressing methods, which should suit a silky passer like Thomas – MVB is already on record as saying he fits the method he’s trying to instil, so that’s a nice start.
PSV’s other signings were mostly all in defence. They grabbed a new keeper as depth as well as bringing in two new fullbacks (one being the impressive Denzel Dumfries, who was a teammate of Marco Rojas’ last season). Also a couple central defenders have turned up to add depth – Nick Viergever from Ajax and then Thommo’s old Aussie teammate from the PEC Zwolle days: Trent Sainsbury. A brilliant World Cup from him and he’s also in line for his first taste of Champions League footy. Also can’t sleep on getting Luuk de Jong (their best striker) and Jeroen Zoet (a Dutch international keeper) to re-sign. It’s sort of anticipated that this’ll be the end of their business but van Bommel hasn’t ruled anything else out yet, with the Dutch window open until the end of August.
They had also been linked with young Mexican midfielder Erick Gutiérrez (a veteran of the 2015 U20 World Cup in New Zealand) but it sounds like the asking price might have been an issue. Now that they’ve signed Ryan Thomas, it’s possible that ship has sailed – a cheaper option who has already proven himself in the Dutch league making for a comfortable alternative.
That he happens to hail from Aotearoa is just a pleasant bonus for us folks who have a stake in such things.
(For those of you who care about such things, the deal is understood to be in the €3-4 million range, which is somewhere between NZ$5-7m. But who's really bothered about the fine print?)
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