Ronald de Boer confessed his love for Cody Gakpo ‘as a football player and as a person’ when discussing his compatriot’s attributes.
The 23-year-old has already grabbed a couple of goals in the Qatar World Cup, securing a share of the spoils against Ecuador before contributing to the Netherlands’ 2-0 win over Senegal.
“Before the season, they could have sold Gakpo to an English club, Leeds United, for a lot of money, but PSV said ‘no, we’ll wait, we’re going to play Champions League’ then they got kicked out by Rangers,” the 52-year-old told Sky Sports.
“And they thought ‘oh, there goes the money’, bad management basically they said because now they lose a lot of money.
“They kicked out the technical director [Nigel de Jong] because of that, not totally.
“Now he must be sitting on his couch thinking ‘Gakpo is worth £80m, probably, so why am I sitting at home?’
“Talking about Gakpo himself, he’s a great youngster. He has speed, dribble but most importantly has a great shot, he’s directly to the goal and he finds the net quite easy.
“What’s less important is that he’s a great person, you can see on the camera, really down to earth and I love him as a football player and as a person.”
At £80m, as the Rangers legend suggested the forward’s price-tag could have risen to, one might reasonably be inclined to rule out Liverpool – despite Marco Timmer reporting the Merseysiders will hold talks with his representatives in the near future (via Liverpool.com) – as a prospective suitor.
Enjoying a phenomenal season in the Dutch top-flight, possessing a long-term contract and being only aged 23, it wouldn’t be entirely surprising if PSV demanded the world for their star man in any of the next two windows.
Critically, they’re in a position to do so and will certainly be able to justify it if Gakpo can continue to deliver on the world’s biggest stage right into the knockouts.
Our priority will remain the addition of new midfielders as we look to address our ageing department and cover for the potential exits of James Milner, Naby Keita and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain in 2023.
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