Football Season Guide

After the end of the glorious Slot era, during which they constantly battled for the title, AZ have established themselves as one of the few teams eating the crumbs falling off the top 3 (PSV, Ajax and Feyenoord) table. Last season, with coach Maarten Martens at his first season fully in charge, for a moment they seemed about to make a quantum leap, as they won 6 out of the initial 7 games, but it was just an illusion. In fact, they would lose most of the games played between the end of September and early November and, after facing another crisis between mid-March and mid-April, culminated with the KNVB Beker final defeat to Go Ahead Eagles, they needed a final push to make the European playoffs, which granted their qualification to the next Conference League. While they held the second-best defence of the Eredivisie, conceding less than Feyenoord and PSV, AZ were not very prolific offensively due to the troubled season their wingers had, all plagued by injuries. Coach Martens, confirmed at the helm, tried to maintain the squad unaltered over the transfer campaign, provided they will refuse all offers for outstanding attacking midfielder Mijnans, while he can also rely on the boys coming from their successful youth system. The wingers department saw the major changes over the summer, with impressive starter 19-year-old Van Bommel and promising back-up Addai departing to PSV and Como respectively for large amounts of cash. AZ then invested little money on 21-year-old Jensen, who did well at Viborg in the Danish Superliga, while Van Brederode is back after a decent season on loan at Fortuna Dusseldorf. Other than that, they only made one major new signing in Chavez, a left-back who should provide cover for Wolfe, unless the latter quits and De Wit becomes the new starter. Elsewhere, they lost injury-prone back-up centre-back Martins Indi, with centre-back Schouten and goalie Westerveld loaned out. Midfielder Kwakman, back after a stint at Groningen, could find more playing time in the current season.