What a surprise to wake up to! 48 hours ago, Borussia Dortmund’s final offer for Said El Mala was firmly rejected by FC Köln. Florian Plettenberg reported that BVB were already hard at work looking for backup signings, and expected action soon. I certainly didn’t expect Ole Book to work this quickly!
Early this morning, not one but two major signings broke. The first is for 27-year-old PSV Eindhoven midfielder Joey Veerman. BVB and PSV have agreed to a fee of €21.5 million.
Veerman is a central midfielder most notable for his passing. He will likely offer an upgrade over Marcel Sabitzer, who now sees his role at the club under even more threat. With 8 goals and 14 assists last season in the Eredivisie he has real offensive upside too.
The second signing of the morning is not technically complete, but it should be soon. Plettenberg is reporting that Dortmund have agreed to personal terms with Giannis Konstantelias, a talented Greek attacking midfielder at PAOK. The 23-year-old is already in Dortmund while BVB and PAOK work out the final details of the transfer.
Konstantelias scored eight goals and two assists last season. While those numbers don’t pop off the page necessarily, PAOK fans seem absolutely apoplectic that he’s leaving, which seems to be a good sign to me:
If these two transfers get over the line (and there’s no reason to expect they won’t) then this is looking like a kick-ass summer. I am incredibly excited to see what the season has in store for BVB.
