Michael van Gerwen has decided Switzerland can wait. The Dutchman is swerving the Swiss Darts Trophy in Basel this Friday – and no, it’s not because he’s suddenly developed a fear of Toblerone. Instead, the three-time world champ is binning off the Euro Tour event to concentrate on something far less glamorous: clawing his way into the Players Championship Finals in Minehead this November.
Now, the words Van Gerwen and qualification crisis don’t usually belong in the same sentence, but here we are. To get into Minehead, you need to be in the top 64 on the Players Championship Order of Merit. MVG, incredibly, is sat down in 103rd, banking just £10,500 from the floor events this season. For a man who once treated darts titles like supermarket loyalty points, that’s a fairly grim return.
Vincent van der Voort – former pro, close mate, and occasional Van Gerwen translator – has spelt out the plan. He said:
“That’s where the focus is now. In those five more tournaments he is going to play, he has to make up that 10,000 pounds. Everything will have to give way for that. With that intention he has to go (next week) to those three Pro Tours as well. Not that it’s ‘just’ a floor tournament. There must be rock-solid performances now. So you can’t be satisfied if you haven’t almost made up that 10,000-pound deficit already.”
In other words: stop faffing around in Europe, get your head down, and win some matches before ITV have to explain why Minehead is missing such a massive attraction for the first time in his career. That’s about as unthinkable as Phil Taylor auditioning for Love Island.
The stats aren’t flattering. In twelve Players Championship events this year, Van Gerwen has exited in the first round eight times. That’s not just a bad patch – that’s relegation form. His most recent floor outing ended in a 6-2 battering from Callan Rydz – not exactly a highlight reel moment. Yes, he bounced back with a shiny World Series of Darts win over Luke Littler, but then managed to undo the goodwill by berating himself at the Hungarian Darts Trophy.
After a scratchy win over Matthew Dennant, MVG admitted: “When you’re playing c*** you have to face yourself. When things aren’t good you always have to be honest, and I’m an honest guy. Especially when you want to play well and then you don’t, it gets harder. You’re frustrated for no reason because there was no reason to panic or to be miserable with myself, do you know what I mean? But this wasn’t a good performance. Simple as that. I think this crowd deserved more.”
So, Mighty Mike will now turn to Leicester’s triple-header of ProTour events, knowing the maths is brutally simple: find that missing £10,000, or spend November watching the Players Championship Finals from his sofa. Switzerland, it seems, can survive this weekend without him.
—–ENDS—–
Images: PDC
