Bosz settles in Eindhoven: the ten moments that brought PSV its 25th national title | Football

“If Ajax calls? Then I will talk.” Bosz joined in April last year Rondo with an open application for the head coach of Ajax. Because he knows technical director Sven Mislintat from his time at VfB Stuttgart, a return to Amsterdam seems to be in the works. But Mislintat decides differently: Ajax goes for Maurice Steijn and gives PSV the chance to sign Bosz.

While Steijn – like Mislintat – is out after a few months, Bosz brings in the Eindhoven team no time to his hand. In contrast to his predecessor Ruud van Nistelrooij, Bosz promotes attacking football, which also proves effective. The Apeldoorn, who has long been known as a non-prize winner, wins the Johan Cruijff Shield and the national title with PSV.

With retroactive effect, Mislintat and the often departed policy makers of Ajax will sometimes scratch their heads.

“We have tried everything to keep him here. Now we are going to make plans without him,” Bosz said a day after the departure of Xavi Simons. PSV sees its best player – and top scorer in the Eredivisie – leave for next to nothing in mid-July due to a clause to Paris Saint-Germain, which leases him to RB Leipzig.

PSV has already brought in a replacement in Noa Lang for around 12 million euros. There is skepticism among PSV fans because of the dribbler’s Ajax past. He disappears after his performance in the Johan Cruijff Scale against Feyenoord (0-1 win). Lang dribbles, creates chances and scores in De Kuip, as he also does in the Eredivisie and Champions League preliminary rounds in the following weeks.

The fact that ‘Noano’ gets injured later in the season is a blow for PSV. Yet in his limited number of appearances he has ensured that Simons is no longer talked about in Eindhoven. And that still seemed unthinkable in the summer.

With an uncle who played for the club and Feyenoord fans in the family, Jerdy Schouten seemed destined to play for the club from South Rotterdam. But despite the fervent wish of Arne Slot – who continues to text Schouten asking if he wants to come – the Bologna midfielder appears not to be feasible. The more financially powerful PSV strikes for around 12 million euros.

Schouten has the most impact of all PSV’s summer signings. He immediately conquers a starting spot under Bosz, who is crazy about Schouten. ‘The washing machine’, his nickname acquired in Italy, is not about goals or assists. But Schouten is the one who starts almost every PSV attack. Whether as a midfielder or as a central defender: Schouten controls the PSV game.

If PSV have eliminated Sturm Graz in the preliminary rounds of the Champions League, Rangers FC will be the next opponent. From that moment on, Eindhoven is only about one thing: revenge. A year earlier, things went painfully wrong against Rangers in Eindhoven. PSV lost 0-1 to Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s team and missed out on the group stage of the billion dollar ball.

This time PSV – after a draw in Scotland – is not in trouble for a moment. Partly thanks to two goals from star Ismael Saibari, the team won 5-1. After five years, PSV is back in the group stage of the Champions League, can look forward to matches against Sevilla, Arsenal and RC Lens and will receive an enormous (financial) boost.

After nine league matches (and nine wins), PSV already has a sixteen-point lead over Ajax when the Amsterdam rival comes to Eindhoven. The home team is the big favourite, but Ajax is better before half time. Due to several misses in front of an open goal by Brian Brobbey, it is only 1-2 for the Amsterdam team at half time.

After the break, PSV shows itself to be a potential national champion. Bosz’s team outplays the team of occasional coach Hedwiges Maduro and wins 5-2, partly thanks to a hat trick from the returning Hirving Lozano. With a difference of nineteen points, Ajax is no longer a title competitor of PSV after ten matches.

Five days after PSV qualified for the knockout phase of the Champions League against Sevilla (2-3 win), a crucial match awaits in the title battle with reigning national champion Feyenoord. PSV is still clear and travels to De Kuip with a seven-point lead. Feyenoord hopes to reduce the gap to four points.

Bosz comes up with a masterstroke in South Rotterdam. He places midfielder Schouten in the center of the back, giving PSV football control from the start. It is a successful experiment, which Bosz will fall back on in several ‘big’ matches during the course of the season.

PSV wins in De Kuip thanks to goals from Saibari and Olivier Boscagli and leaves Rotterdam South with a ten-point lead. The flat cart is then slowly dusted.

Can the PSV code be cracked after all? The Eindhoven team wins the first seventeen competition matches and can break the record for most consecutive victories since the start of the competition against FC Utrecht. But things go wrong in the cathedral city. FC Utrecht keeps PSV at 1-1.

There is hope in De Kuip that PSV will still collapse, but that does not happen. PSV picks up the thread stoically and wins four of the five Eredivisie matches afterwards. The lead over Feyenoord remains enormous and unbridgeable for the Rotterdam team.

Eighteen goals and ten assists. Luuk de Jong’s figures for the 2022/2023 season are okay, but doubts arise from the supporters about the then 32-year-old striker in the summer. Especially if PSV pays a lot to take over striker Ricardo Pepi from FC Augsburg, the call to put ‘Luuk’ on the bench is growing.

Can De Jong still do it? The striker gives one answer from the minute of play on, in perhaps the best season of his career. He has scored 35 goals (so far) in all competitions, including 8 in the (preliminary round of the) Champions League. Against PEC Zwolle he scored a ‘golden hat trick’ at the end of February and took over the top position on the top scorers list in the Eredivisie from Santiago Giménez.

Pepi proves his worth as a substitute for PSV, including with the winning goal against Sevilla (2-3) and FC Twente (1-0). But he knows his place behind the unleashed De Jong.

PSV is out of the Champions League after the dip against Borussia Dortmund, but still dreams of an undefeated Eredivisie season. Until things go wrong at NEC (3-1) in match 27. Bosz is furious and thinks that his team played “haughty” and “arrogantly”. Schouten does not agree with his trainer. “I think that’s nonsense,” Schouten openly criticizes him afterwards.

The explosion hazard in Eindhoven briefly provides new title hopes in South Rotterdam. Especially when PSV is a stone’s throw from De Kuip – at Excelsior – at 0-0 for three days. But Bosz’s team still wins that game and overtakes AZ in the weekend (5-1), with Schouten in the starting line-up. Explosion danger gone, PSV is back on title track.

PSV unofficially secured the national championship on April 25 thanks to a gala performance against SC Heerenveen (0-8 win) and can complete it at home a week later. One point against Sparta is enough on Sunday, but it will be three.

PSV recovered after the break from a nervous first half and won 4-2. After the match, a big party breaks out in the stadium and in the center of Eindhoven. PSV is national champion again for the first time in six years. And they want to know that in Eindhoven.