Toon after a pair of PSV players – left-back Pieters and striker Toivonen?
Posted on August 8th, 2011 | 39 Comments |
This week could be a busy one when it comes to transfer speculation if Alan Pardew’s aims to bring in two players before the Arsenal game are realised.
Typically, it’s the Daily Mail who get things started with speculation firstly that Jose Enrique will be leaving for Liverpool in a £5.5m pound deal and that he will be replaced with PSV Eindhoven’s Erik Pieters.
I normally treat pretty much anything I read in The Mail with doubt – not to mention scorn – but they were correct with their early speculation about Obertan, so maybe they just have their fingers on the pulse when it comes to Toon transfers just now.
Apparently Pardew flew out to Holland in a plane solely powered by hot air to check on the 23 year-old left back as Pieters is recovering from a pre-season injury to his knee. Pardew watched PSV Eindhoven lose to AZ Alkmaar where Pieters came on as a substitute for the second half.
Pieters began his senior career at Utrecht, scoring 2 goals in 51 games for them, and moved to PSV in 2008 where he’s notched up 75 appearances. He also had 10 games for the Dutch national side under his belt.
He moved to PSV for a reported €2.5m (£2.2), so I’d guess he’d be somewhere in the £4m-£5m region now, which should be covered by what we get for Enrique. Incidentally The Mail’s £5.5m estimate for Enrique is somewhat short of the £10m that has been bandied around previously, so we’ll just have to wait and see what he’s actually worth to Liverpool.
Apparently, while he was in Holland, Alan Pardew took the chance to look at Swedish striker Ola Toivonen who also plays for PSV. The 25 year-old Swede has 62 goals in 178 games and 34 in 75 for PSV. He also has 2 in 10 appearances for Sweden.
Toivonen moved to PSV from Sweden’s Malmö FF in 2009 for a fee variously thought to be either €3.5m and €4.5m, so he might just fall into the sort of price range that Ashley would pay for a striker.
Here’s a video of Toivonen knocking in some goals during the 2009/2010 season:
Usual caution is advised, as with all speculation, but The Mail seems to have picked a few correct ones recently.
Hugh he moved to PSV nt PSG.
Sorry