Newcastle defender Sven Botman has unfortunately been left out of the Netherlands World Cup squad by Louis van Gaal.
The 71-year-old has overlooked the £35m man in favour of Virgil van Dijk, Stefan de Vrij, Matthijs de Ligt and Nathan Ake as he prepares for his final tournament before handing the reins to Ronald Koeman.
It is harsh on Botman given the fact Newcastle sit third in the Premier League – an achievement he has played a big part in – although we believe something he did in September contributed to his exclusion more than anything.
Botman chose Newcastle over Netherlands
Well, the 22-year-old strangely decided to ignore a call-up to the Netherlands Under-21 squad back in September in favour of staying on Tyneside.
It was said that Botman wanted to stay at St James’ Park to continue working under Eddie Howe, and speed up his acclimatisation period following a move from Lille.
It did not go down too well with Erwin van de Looi, manager of the Oranje Under-21 side, who told VI that he was “disappointed” with Botman.
VI then released a story shortly after that international break, claiming that the Newcastle No.4’s actions could cost him a place on the plane to Qatar.
Now, Botman has officially missed out, and we can only put it down to what he did in September, as he has been superb for Newcastle in the Premier League so far.
No side has kept more clean sheets in the Premier League this season than Newcastle’s six shutouts, while the Magpies have also conceded the fewest goals with just 11 shipped in 14 games.
In truth, Botman did not need to stay and impress Howe – the fact Newcastle pushed hard to beat AC Milan to his signature, and spent £35m on his services, means he was always unlikely to spend much time on the bench.
Newcastle could benefit from Botman exclusion
In our view, Botman could now perform even more impressively for Newcastle after his World Cup snub.
The Badhoevedorp-born defender will be eager to prove Van Gaal wrong, and there would be no better way to do that than to fire Newcastle back into the Champions League.
If Botman continues performing the way he is, the Magpies look guaranteed to be playing in Europe next season.
If that does end up happening, Koeman surely won’t be able to ignore Botman when he names his first Netherlands squad after replacing Van Gaal.
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