Players’ manager puts pressure on PSV!

Spiderman

On January 30, PSV won the crucial match against Ajax, 2-0. But behind closed doors an bomb exploded in Eindhoven which was smoldering already for some time. On that day, the harmony within the provincial club disappeared.

Center stage in this Greek drama was midfielder Mendez. In December he talked to PSV management. His mother was very ill and he missed her. He wanted to spend more time with her and requested a transfer back to Equador.

PSV didn’t want to see him go but understood his situation. When Equadorian top club Barcelona called, PSV asked 1 million dollar for him. All seemed hunky dory but at long last Barca couldn’t pay the fee and the transfer was off. Then, in January, a Mexican club came past with the 1 mio dollars in cash. Mendez wanted to go, but general manager Jan Reker stopped the deal. The 1 mio dollar transfer sum was a social fee for a club from Equador.

This was the start of another clash between Reker and Vlado Lemic, one of Europe’s most important players’ managers and also Mendez manager. General Manager Reker started to question the position and politics of Lemic within PSV and since then, Reker and Lemic are at war.

Lemic is a very important factor in PSV’s success in the last years. The manager/consultant has wonderful connections in international football.

He is a close friend of Mijatovic, Real Madrid’s technical director and through his mate Zahavi he has an entry at Chelsea’s owner Abramovich. The warm relationship PSV has with Chelsea is thanks to Lemic.

The Serb has become PSV’s prefered agent. He uses his international network to find decent players for the Dutch champs and he helps to bring players away. He was involved in both Robben’s and Kezman’s transfer to Chelsea.

If Lemic would limit himself to that role, there wouldn’t have been problems, but the Serb is also manager to a number of players, like Mendez, Lazovic, goalie Gomes and young talent Jonathan Reis. And Lemic defends his players’ interests.

This doubel role has some weird side-effects. Sometimes he sits next to PSV’s management in the morning to help clinch a new player and a couple of hours later he sits across from PSV’s management to discuss some issues for his own players.

Technical director Stan Valckx confirms this, but also emphasizes that he doesn’t think that’s a problem. “We’re very able to distinguish these situations.”

Reker doesn’t like it though. He feels it’s unhealthy and a disaster waiting to happen. Reker feels Lemic has too much power in Eindhoven and he wants out of the deadlock. Reker wants PSV to be independent. The relationship with Lemic has gone below zero. Reker won’t confirm the following in public but he does feel Lemic uses Gomes in public as a weapon in the battle for power.

Last December, Gomes suddenly opened fire on Reker in a Voetbal International interview. This week, the Brazilian spiderman did it again. Why the goalie allows Lemic to use him is not clear. In December Reker was totally surprised by the attack. This time, the PSV manager decided to keep his mouth shut.

In the next few weeks, we’ll learn how this game will be played out. Jan Reker is already damaged goods, but it’s unthinkable that PSV will sacrifice him. If Reker wins this war, however, Lemic will have to go and than PSV will have to prove it can achieve successes without the Serb.

source: www.ad.nl

And in this corner: heavyweight Jan Reker!