PSV looking to become affiliate feeder club to Chelsea or other top Premier League clubs

The glory years of Dutch football may be long gone, but as Ajax's journey to the Europa League final this season showed, the Eredivisie can still manufacture some promising young talent — or in the case of youngsters like Bertrand Traoré and Marco van Ginkel, can provide good opportunities for other team’s young talent to emerge.

Traoré was instrumental in getting Ajax to that final while Van Ginkel scored several key goals in PSV’s title win last year. These sorts of mutually beneficial arrangements have also helped Chelsea B Vitesse to their first ever major trophy this season as well as Europa League qualification. Vitesse’s partnership with Chelsea may not be without its critics, but other teams are seeing their success and are looking to get in on that action, too.

PSV CEO Toon Gerbrands, for example, has already had "informal conversations" with a number of teams in England, as well as Bayern Munich, regarding such an arrangement.

"There are sometimes players who we cannot pay, but top clubs can. If a deal is possible, we need to loan and see if there are opportunities to benefit more from a sell on or good development than is the case now."

"During the Champions League matches with Bayern Munich, we talked a lot with the officials at the club. However, Manchester City, Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur are open to this model and there are sometimes informal conversations with these clubs. We can also turn to other top clubs"

-Toon Gerbrands; Source: Eindhovens Dagblad via Inside Futbol

The practice of loaning players isn’t new, nor is the idea of developmental partnerships between teams in different leagues. But as more teams start following the Chelsea Loan Army model, we should be seeing more and more of them pop up. Pioneers of a brave new world!

(Also, sending more players to the Eredivisie isn’t the worst idea, especially if they are to top clubs like PSV, who will be challenging for Europe as well.)