Earnest Stewart of PSV and Marcel Brands of PSV during the Dutch Keuken Kampioen Divisie match between Jong PSV and FC Emmen at PSV Campus De Herdg...
Earnest Stewart of PSV and Marcel Brands of PSV during the Dutch Keuken Kampioen Divisie match between Jong PSV and FC Emmen at PSV Campus De Herdg...
Ange Postecoglou, when trying to explain Tottenham Hotspur’s baffling inconsistency both in the Premier League and in Europe, highlighted one potential reason.
Ahead of Thursday’s trip to AFC Bournemouth, Tottenham’s last 11 results across all competitions reads five wins, two draws and five defeats.
That 4-0 hammering of Manchester City – Dejan Kulusevski and James Maddison tearing Pep Guardiola’s team apart – sits between a shock home loss by Ipswich Town and an insipid draw with Fulham.
Tottenham have also hammered Manchester United and Aston Villa this season – scoring seven goals in the process – while slipping up at Crystal Palace and throwing away a 2-0 lead at Brighton.
So even Derren Brown may struggle to predict which face Tottenham will show at the Vitality Stadium on Thursday evening.
Postecoglou, speaking around a month ago, accepted that his Spurs team is one lacking in ‘leadership and maturity’.
In hindsight, then, perhaps a footballer like Ivan Perisic could have come in pretty handy. Not just on the pitch but off it.
Ivan Perisic of PSV shoots at goal during the Dutch Eredivisie match between PSV and FC Groningen at Philips Stadion on November 23, 2024 in Eindho...
Photo by Broer van den Boom/BSR Agency/Getty Images
Ivan Perisic makes huge PSV impact after Tottenham Hotspur release
Tottenham released the veteran Croatian back in June.
Perhaps Spurs felt that Perisic – now 35 years of age – was finished in the professional game after suffering an ACL injury which could have ended the careers of many his age.
But count out Perisic at your peril. Because, seven months after he left North London alongside Eric Dier, Ryan Sessegnon and Japhet Tanganga, the former Inter Milan, Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund winger continues to roll back the years at reigning Dutch champions PSV Eindhoven.
“We signed Ivan at the time that Hirving Lozano got injured,” explains Earnest Stewart, PSV’s sporting director*.* “At the end of the transfer window, you often see that contracts are terminated at the last minute.
“A whole list came out of that and there was actually only one name that we thought; ‘Well, he is definitely welcome’. Then, we contacted Perisic.”
That, meanwhile, is a decision which appears more inspired every time Perisic takes to the pitch in those red and white stripes.
A stunning left-footed volley in a thrilling clash with bitter rivals Ajax was a finish beyond most players at PSV, let alone across the entirety of the Eredivisie.
For Stewart, however, it is the way Perisic carries himself on the training pitch and in his personal life that makes the Serie A and Bundesliga winner such an inspiration to PSV’s next generation.
Perisic remains ‘an incredible professional’ at Dutch champions
“Let me say, Ivan is an incredible professional,” Stewart adds when pressed on whether Perisic would be in line for a new contract at the Philips Stadium.
“I have rarely seen anything like it. With the way he deals with his sport and what he does on his days off, he is a great example for all young professionals.”
Perisic initially made an emotional return to boyhood club Hajduk Split when leaving Spurs at the end of the 2023/24 campaign.
A dream homecoming football quickly turned sour, however. The World Cup finalist left Hajduk after just 12 games with Perisic opening up on a brutal fall-out with Gennaro Gattuso; the ever-combustable Italian who, if not for some rather unsavoury comments he made earlier in his career, might have got the Tottenham gig following the sacking of Jose Mourinho.
TBR understands, meanwhile, that Tottenham are scouting Malik Tillman – Perisic’s PSV teammate – ahead of the January transfer window.
Striker Ricardo Pepi is on the radars of Liverpool and Manchester City.