Despite maintaining their domestic dominance under Urs Fischer, Basel opted for a managerial change last summer, with their reasoning being that they were looking to improve their fading European fortunes.
Their new boss Raphael Wicky has certainly delivered European success, as Basel made the knock-out round of the Champions League after making it through a group including Manchester United, CSKA Moscow and Benfica and recording some memorable results on the way.
However, their domestic results were also the polar opposite of their results under Fischer, as they struggled in the league throughout the campaign, eventually finishing well behind new champions Young Boys. To make things worse, they also failed to defend the Swiss Cup trophy after being beaten by the Berners in the semi-finals.
Despite the lack of domestic results, Basel's board were quick to make it clear that Fischer will remain in charge next season and stated that they were always aware that a transition period would have to take place.
It is quite clear that Basel have developed a bit of a pattern under Wicky, as they did well in games in which they had the chance to play on the break, which was frequently the case in Europe, but rarely domestically. When faced with packed defences, which was a case quite frequently in the Super League, the Red-Blues were out of ideas more often than not, which was their ultimate undoing in the title race.
Wicky's goal over the summer will be to find a way to solve this problem. With the resources that Basel have and with their rookie manager certainly showing some promise, the Red-Blues will certainly fancy themselves to make it 9 domestic wins in 10 next season.
