PSV Eindhoven director of football Marcel Brands has revealed he abandoned a plan to sign Davinson Sánchez from Tottenham to sign Southampton’s Armel Bella-Kotchap instead.
The director of football has been speaking to Voetbal International about the work the Eredivisie undertook in the summer transfer window.
PSV brought in 12 new players in the summer as part of something of a rebuild, with the likes of Hirvin Lozano, Noa Lang, Jerdy Schouten and Ricardo Pepi arriving among others.
Armel Bella-Kotchap was one of those that arrived on loan from Southampton, signing on the final day of the summer transfer window after he saw a move back to Germany fail at the last minute.
He’s been unable to make much of an impact since, with just three appearances in the Eredivisie to date and featuring in just 13% of the available minutes in the league so far.
That’s been a disappointing situation for everyone involved, particularly Bella-Kotchap, who had hoped to be playing regularly with PSV in the Eredivisie and Europe this season but has so far missed out on both.
Things could have been very different too, as Brands revealed his focus had initially been on a defender at Tottenham before he turned his attention to the Southampton youngster instead.
“Sánchez was the only one with whom we got the feeling that he did not really want to go,” he said about the former Tottenham man.
“In terms of salary, it seemed feasible, but all the other players we talked to quickly made it clear to their then club that they wanted to go to PSV.
“They thought carefully about making the deal possible, for example by dropping certain conditions,” Brands continued. “Things were different with Sánchez. That’s why we made the choice not to continue with that and loan Armel Bella-Kotchap.”
