"I said emotionally: ‘This isn’t Premier League worthy.' At that moment, it genuinely felt like that" - Gian van Veen 'proud' of debut Premier League campaign despite setbacks

The first season of Gian van Veen in the Premier League Darts had everything that can make a top sporting year so volatile. The Dutchman started his debut campaign sensationally, immediately reached multiple nightly finals, and remained firmly in the play-off race for a long time. But a major physical setback and a difficult second half of the season meant his adventure definitively ended on Thursday night in Sheffield.

Van Veen looked back at length on his first months among the absolute elite on the podcast Darts Draait Door. The 24-year-old Dutchman did not spare himself. “A five-and-a-half or maybe a six. I’d say a six-and-a-half,” Van Veen judged his own season. “It hasn’t gone completely the way I maybe hoped it would, but obviously there were a few other things that happened along the way as well. Overall, I don’t think I can be too unhappy.”

The Premier League nevertheless began spectacularly for the player from Poederoijen. Van Veen reached a nightly final in three of the first four match weeks and seemed to slot in effortlessly alongside names like Luke Littler, Luke Humphries, and Michael van Gerwen. Yet a nightly win kept eluding him, and the Dutchman grew increasingly critical of his own level. Especially after the night in Rotterdam, Van Veen was strikingly harsh on himself.

"During Rotterdam Ahoy, after my match, I said emotionally: ‘This isn’t Premier League worthy',” he said. “At that moment, it genuinely felt like that. I don’t think I showed the level of darts I’d hoped for.” With some distance, however, Van Veen can also draw positive conclusions from his debut year. “But the fact I was still in contention for the play-offs going into the penultimate week means I can definitely be proud of that. There are plenty of players who played their first Premier League season and were barely seen afterwards. Luckily, that hasn’t happened to me.”

Where Van Veen initially seemed to slot in effortlessly at the top of the table, his season completely changed due to an attack of kidney stones. The Dutchman had to undergo surgery and even missed an entire night in Berlin as a result.

That absence automatically handed him a 6-0 defeat against Van Gerwen, but according to Van Veen the biggest damage came in the weeks thereafter. “A huge impact, definitely,” he admitted. “Not just because I missed one week. Physically, the week after wasn’t great either, although after that it improved.”

Van Veen does not claim that without those medical problems he would have made the play-offs automatically, but he does realise how much the timing of that physical blow mattered. "I’m not saying I’d definitely have made the play-offs without the operation and the kidney stones, but I’d certainly have been in a much better position. In the old format, if you missed a week you could still recover later. That’s impossible now.”

The Dutchman also notices he was affected longer by the consequences than he initially wanted to admit to himself. “I probably convinced myself it wasn’t affecting me as much as it actually was, and that’s a shame. I wouldn’t say I’m still really suffering from it now, but I do notice I’m not the same player I was a few months ago. At the same time, I feel like that level is starting to come back.”

The busy Premier League schedule also proved a serious challenge for Van Veen. Especially combined with the many ProTour events, Euro Tours, and other commitments, the first half-year felt particularly intense.

"I skipped a few Players Championship events this year. After the operation, and especially during the Premier League, I probably should have skipped even more for my own schedule."

As if the physical problems were not enough, Van Veen also came under scrutiny in Manchester after an incident with Littler. The situation sparked weeks of debate within the darts world and was widely covered on social media.

Van Veen himself now seems to have largely put the matter behind him. “Obviously there was a lot of attention around it,” he said matter-of-factly. “But luckily things have calmed down now.”

According to the Dutchman, the row ultimately had little impact on his performances. “It didn’t really affect my performances, and I also haven’t played him again since then, which probably helps too.”

The relationship between the two players also does not seem to have changed materially. “Not really any differently than before. He’s a perfectly fine guy, but even before all that we never had loads of contact. If I saw him in the corridor, I’d ask how he was doing, and that was about it. So there’s no real drama.”

The difficult second half of the season ultimately led Van Veen to a significant equipment change. He had been struggling with grip issues for some time, regularly splitting his thumb open during last year’s European Championship.

Because he performed excellently then, he did not dare to change his darts. During the Premier League he eventually decided to take the step anyway. “I knew something had to change eventually. But things were going so well,” Van Veen said. “During the Premier League, when things started going worse and after the operation, my confidence dropped. Then I received a new set of darts and thought: this feels like the right moment."

For now, that change seems to bring more calm. “From then on, it was simply a case of putting the old darts away and continuing with the new ones.”