Football Season Guide

Had a superb campaign last year. Won the Thai League One title, and did so by ten points despite competing on multiple fronts. They also cruised to a Thai FA Cup victory, and progressed into the latter stages of the Asian Champions League. More of the same is expected this season too. In truth, this club easily has two or three squads of players to call upon. They've loaned some out that they don't really need, and have added enough players to not skip a beat when playing every few days. They did lose some big players pre-season, although most were expected to go. Suphanat Mueanta is a particularly galling loss, not only because of his quality in attack, but also because he is Thai and having too many foreigners is the biggest battle that regularly confronts Buriram United. Myeong-seok Ko from defence left too. It looked like an avoidable sale. They will miss him as he was very solid for them last season. However, they've naturally added some great quality players like Pelae and Radakovic to be new CBs so it shouldn't be in issue in due course. Pulled off a superb transfer by signing the star wide player of Lamphun Warriors, Anan Yodsangwal. He should be invaluable to them, not only because of the quality he showed last season but also because he is Thai, and top-drawer Thai players aren't so easy to come by in this division. It was important to bolster their WB positions as they often had problems with availability last season. As well as Anan Yodsangwal, they've also lured Navarro and Caju, which should be good additions to their ranks. Instead of over-relying on Causic in midfield all the time, they've brought in Darlan Mendes, Savicevic, and even Paulo Henrique. The latter is likely to play further forward in more of a Robert Zulj role as they seek to improve their creative precision in the final third. The cherry on the cake was managing to bring in both Tudorie and Schimmer as their strikers for the season, both of which should be too good for this level - soon Bissoli will be nothing more than a memory. This squad has no weak points. The only potential problem they could have is fielding a well-balanced enough team when the foreigner restrictions are taken into consideration. Make no mistake, though - this team will win the title again, and most other competitions they're in too. They're simply too good for the rest.