New transfer policy is the secret behind record number of Dutch players in Premier League

Dutch football academies have relied on the Premier League to maintain their status as elite promoters of European talent.

England’s top flight has never been so rich in stars from the Netherlands and a change in Eredivisie policy is the reason why.

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Premier League champions Liverpool currently have a quartet of Oranje players in addition to their Dutch coach Arne Slot.

Captain Virgil van Dijk heads a list that includes Ryan Gravenberch, Cody Gakpo and Jeremie Frimpong – the latter who, ironically, came through the academy in England with Manchester City.

City themselves now have Tijjani Reijnders, who has used the most players under Pep Guardiola since his arrival in the summer.

Tottenham have brought together Xavi Simons and Micky van de Ven at club level, with Jurrien Timber a key figure at north London rivals Arsenal.

Manchester United have Mattijs de Ligt and Joshua Zirkzee, while Chelsea were also in the mix, bringing in Joel Hato from Ajax.

Even newly promoted Sunderland made a double change of Dutch players with Lutsharel Geertruida and Brian Brobbey.

European football journalist Andy Brassell has stated that Dutch clubs are conscious of training young talent to make them suitable for the Premier League.

The renowned Ajax system, known for its “TIPS” (technique, insight, personality, speed) model, can now add physicality to that list.

“Ajax have been known for developing versatile and adaptable players for almost 50 years,” Brassell told The Pitch Prospect.com.

“But what they’re also good at, and what they’ve done really well in recent years, is developing more physical players.”

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Why is Dutch football developing more physical players?

“That’s because over the years Dutch football has reacted to the current financial hierarchy of European football and thought we needed to develop players we could sell,” Brassell continued.

“Who are the richest clubs? Premier League clubs. So we need players, they think.”

“Bryan Roy told me this, and Frank de Boer told me this separately, that you need players who are physically ready to play.

“They need to be physically ready to tackle first-team football quicker because sales mean we have to replace first-team players with young players sooner than we would ideally like.”

“Also, if we’re allowed to sell these players, who do we want to sell them to? We want to sell them to Premier League teams.”

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Portuguese football is heading in the same direction

In addition to the influx of Dutch stars, the Portugal-England pipeline has been an important part of the transfer market over the last decade.

One of Benfica or Sporting (and sometimes both) allows for an expensive exit to the Premier League almost every year, either directly or via a club in between with sell-out clauses.

Arsenal’s capture of Viktor Gyokes followed Wolves’ Bruno Fernandes in 2019/20, Matheus Nunes [now City] 2022-23, Pedro Porro to Tottenham Hotspur 2023-24 and Manuel Ugarte [to Paris Saint-Germain; now Man United].

Benfica, in turn, persuaded Burnley to approve a club-record signing for Florentino Luis in August, following the transfers of players such as Enzo Fernández, Darwin Núñez and Rúben Dias.

Brassell told The Pitch Prospect: “Portuguese football is also going in that direction because it is a second tier league where they have to sell to survive and what they have to do is sell one or two big players.”

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“They are not looking to sell players to Serie A and La Liga because these clubs don’t have the money.

“They want to bring players to the market who not only have the traditional Dutch technical skills that you would expect in 50 years of history.

“They want players who are physically capable of quickly gaining a foothold in the Premier League.

“Tijjani Reijnders is another really good example of that. Someone who is not 1.90 meters tall, but someone who is strong and powerful and can handle a lot of running.

“You can see how quickly he got used to the Premier League.

“This is an example of the type of players that Dutch football is producing today and wants to produce, even if you arrive at Ajax, which is one of the most famous academies, if not the most famous academy in the world.”

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Record number of Dutch players in the Premier League

13 of Dutch coach Ronald Koeman’s 25-man squad for the September international break are based in the Premier League.

In total there is a record number of 36 Dutch players at Premier League clubs.

“It will be even easier if they all play in the Manchester and Liverpool area. Then we just have to go there,” Koeman joked recently.