“In a similar way, PSV seemed to me last year like the perfect next step.”

After his shining performance in the Eurojackpot KNVB Beker final on behalf of AZ, Sven Mijnans was once again linked with a transfer to PSV. The Alkmaar midfielder appeared last year to be making the move to PSV, just like Ruben van Bommel, but the club management in Alkmaar put a stop to it.

PSV was desperate to sign over Mijnans last year, but despite that, AZ held firm and decided to keep Mijnans in-house. In an interview with the magazine Voetbal International, the midfielder from Alkmaar Zaanstreek looks back on that transfer period.

''I’d never experienced anything like that before. My transfer from Sparta to AZ went incredibly smoothly, two and a half years earlier. For me, it was the perfect step at that time. In a similar way, PSV seemed to me last year like the perfect next step,'' Mijnans tells VI.

Also due to a lot of injury woes for captain Jordy Clasie, Mijnans wore the captain’s armband often this season and as a result, according to the midfielder, he ended up with a different role within the team. “Someone who was training talents. That meant I had less opportunity to take the steps I myself still wanted to take. At the same time, I saw good opportunities to start playing a lot at PSV. Also with a view to the World Cup, it seemed like a good time. However you look at it, a national team coach looks more at PSV than at AZ. Sometimes I wonder how it would have gone if I had gone to PSV,” Mijnans said.

For the midfielder, it was therefore still unexpectedly that the transfer to PSV did not go through. ''A few months before that transfer window began, AZ indicated that it wanted to think about whether that would be a good time for a transfer. But in the final phase of that season I played well and my return went up significantly. After that, the attitude of the club management changed'', concludes the 26-year-old Mijnans.