13 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.49 at 38, and nobody on the pitch was better.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at PSV this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about PSV and De Graafschap in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. PSV have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Lucko had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ivan Perišić is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Ivan Perišić scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Groningen, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Paul Wanner is the division's best young player this month
At 21 he has spent a month being better than everybody his age in the league, which is a different and harder thing than one good afternoon. PSV will try very hard not to make too much of it.
PSV have gone to Alavés with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. PSV have lost him in all but the paperwork.
64 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Player ratings1 Feb 2027
Paul Wanner, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.82
A mark of 7.82 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
12 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
PSV close the window on a squad of their own making
1 in and 2 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Lutsharel Geertruida and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ivan Perišić is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Juventus did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $34.8M for Teun Koopmeiners, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. PSV have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Mikkel Bro Hansen had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Teun Koopmeiners has just signed for PSV, and for once the answer mattered.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” PSV have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
$34.8M on the table at Juventus. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
8 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Paul Wanner did not need any: 8.21, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
PSV offered $3.3M; Utrecht said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.95 at 37, and nobody on the pitch was better.
11 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
4‑1, and Nacer Kompany took the headlines on an afternoon when everything PSV tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
A brace, and Nacer Kompany takes the afternoon — 9.72
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Nacer Kompany provided it, and the 9.72 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
6 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
The offer from Twente for Sami Ouaissa was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
10 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Ivan Perišić falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Two goals and a mark of 9.16 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and PSV have had the benefit of it.
5 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
The offer went to AZ this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Going 3 down does something to a side, and what it usually does is finish them. Not here. PSV rebuilt the afternoon goal by goal, and AZ had no answer to any of it.
Lutsharel Geertruida was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ivan Perišić is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
9 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Matěj Kovář
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ivan Perišić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Something was said to Yarek Gąsiorowski and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Ivan Perišić is on it.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
2‑0 against HNK Rijeka, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Nacer Kompany was at the centre of the description.
At 37 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.85 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Position 3, 43 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Lutsharel Geertruida and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Ivan Perišić falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Half the programme played, position 3, 43 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
“I watch every PSV game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Suduva runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
In brief
The dugoutNacer Kompany has become a man the manager trusts
14 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
3‑0 against KV Kortrijk, on a night that will be replayed at this club for a generation. Continental reputations are made in single evenings and this was the evening.
9 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
A brace, and Nacer Kompany takes the afternoon — 9.32
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Nacer Kompany provided it, and the 9.32 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
A season average of 7.60 with 20 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Paul Wanner, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.84
A mark of 7.84 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Lutsharel Geertruida was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Ivan Perišić falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
12 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Match21 Nov 2026
Another one collected away from home
8 on the bounce on the road for PSV. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.34 at 37, and nobody on the pitch was better.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at PSV this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody at PSV will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Steven Hateboer on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Sam Lammers falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
4‑1. Nights like this are why clubs spend decades trying to qualify for this competition, and they arrive perhaps twice in that time. Everybody who was in the ground will describe it badly for years.
9 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Two goals and a mark of 9.68 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
33 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Lutsharel Geertruida and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Ivan Perišić falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
7 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.23 at 37, and nobody on the pitch was better.
5 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
Derby days make names, and Nacer Kompany made his against Ajax. 3‑0, bragging rights secured, and one half of town will be tired of hearing about him by Tuesday.
4‑1 against Korona, and a performance that will change how the rest of the competition talks about this club. Reputations in continental football are built in single evenings and this was one.
6 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Score against anybody else and it is a goal. Score against them and it is a story with your name in it for a decade, and PSV supporters have already started telling it.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Paul Wanner did not need any: 7.71, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at PSV this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
Player ratingsKodai Sano scored one and made one — 7.92
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.59 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ivan Perišić is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The fixture the calendar is arranged around. Form goes out of the window, the table is not consulted, and for ninety minutes PSV will be judged on one thing only.
The hardest thing about being 18 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Noah Fernandez did not need any: 7.83, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Lutsharel Geertruida and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 18-year-old it feels ownership of. Noah Fernandez has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Dennis Man was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.45. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Nobody at PSV will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
4‑0 against HNK Rijeka, on a night that will be replayed at this club for a generation. Continental reputations are made in single evenings and this was the evening.
Lutsharel Geertruida was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at PSV this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Ivan Perišić falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad28 Sep 2026
8 new faces, and PSV are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at PSV, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
5‑1 against KV Kortrijk, and a performance that will change how the rest of the competition talks about this club. Reputations in continental football are built in single evenings and this was one.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 94th minute. ADO Den Haag will replay every second of the added time for a week.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.19 at 37, and nobody on the pitch was better.
6 goals in one match, Nacer Kompany on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of PSV and KV Kortrijk.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ivan Perišić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
21 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Nacer Kompany. 2‑0 against Heerenveen, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Steven Hateboer, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
At 37 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.22 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 1 arrived, 9 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Lutsharel Geertruida was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ivan Perišić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Esmir Bajraktarević has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Heerenveen have kept their man, and PSV go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at PSV this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
200 games in these colours. Service of that kind gets rarer every season, and the crowd knows it.
Squad31 Aug 2026
8 new faces, and PSV are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Steven Hateboer after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
The terraces24 Aug 2026
Supporters turn on the $27.0M sale of Ricardo Pepi
He is going to Barcelona, the club has $27.0M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Barcelona waiting with a shirt. Nobody at PSV is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
A brace, and Nacer Kompany takes the afternoon — 9.32
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Nacer Kompany provided it, and the 9.32 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
PSV have gone to Heerenveen with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
$7.9M was the most the club would pay and AZ were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Lutsharel Geertruida and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $41.9M has been paid because Nacer Kompany is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
PSV offered $36.0M; Al-Nassr said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Nacer Kompany is living that version at PSV, and it tends to show in the first month.
PSV have gone to AZ with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at PSV heard it as anything else.
PSV have gone to KV Oostende with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at PSV hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Jerdy Schouten was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.