Football Season Guide

AIK will start the 2017 season aiming to finally end a run of four top three finishes and win their first Allsvenskan since 2009. Last season saw the club go through a transition of coaches with Andreas Alm being replaced by Richard Norling who starts his first full campaign in his second spell in charge. The off-season has seen the highest turnover of players amongst a top team with a number of important players leaving. The strike partnership which shot them into second place last term have both moved on. Young star Alexander Isak has moved to German giants Borussia Dortmund in a multi-million euro move, while Chinedu Obasi has joined a number of big name name players in moving to China. Midfield regista Ebenezer Ofori is also now in Germany while starting goalkeeper Patrick Carlgren has made the short trip to Denmark. Trying to replace such important players for the club will be a hard task and judging by the Swedish Cup run which was stopped at the quarter final stage, there is still a lot of work to be done. That is a shame as AIK are notoriously slow starters and have lost ground on major title rivals on every occasion in the last few years. Norling will hope some of Alm’s purchases from last season will start to pay dividends this year, especially in attack. More of the responsibility for scoring goals will fall on Denni Avdic and Eero Markkanen who failed to impress as understudies to Isak and Obasi last term. Bosnian striker Sulejman Krpic and Henok Goitom make up the four strikers in the squad meaning the coach has plenty of options. Aside from Goitom, who returns to the club after a year in the wilderness, midfielders Simon Thern and Kristoffer Olsson are the two major signings. Thern has spent three unsuccessful years in the Netherlands since being signed from Malmo and already appears to have been given the Ofori role from last season. The main concern for AIK will be at the back where an aging defence has not really been strengthened that much and in goal Carlgren will be a tough act to follow. Oscar Linner is likely to start, though veteran Kenny Stamatopoulos will be ready if needed after losing his own starting place to the departed Carlgren a few seasons ago. AIK’s home form will again be the cornerstone of the team’s form. Over the last four seasons they have managed one defeat or fewer at the Friend’s Arena on three occasions. Aside from the league AIK will of course want to put in a good showing in the Europa League qualification rounds, though they will find it very tough to get into the group stage.