Football Season Guide

The past one, as expected, was a very stressing season, had a decent start, but in winter collpased collecting only 1 point from 12 rounds (from the 18th to the 25th), fortunately they managed to recover in time and celebrate the permanence a couple of rounds before the end. Considering the roster available, qualitatively inferior even to most of the relegated teams, coach Marinus Dijkhuizen, confirmed on the bench also for this season, has worked a sort of miracle. There weren't many changes during the summer, but a couple of departures seem to have further weakened the squad: the talented attacking midfielder Marouan Azarkan who, despite the many injuries, has added so much quality to the team, and the young midfielder Peer Koopmeiners. On the contrary, as far as arrivals are concerned, very little has moved, apart from the permanent purchase from Ajax of Kik Pierie, the Norwegian central defender Casper Widell and two promising young players have arrived in Rotterdam, such as midfielder Lennard Hartjes from Feyenoord U21 and right winger Derensili Fernandes from Utrecht U21. The pre-season was quite worrying, a draw with Shakhtar Donetsk and three defeats with the Swiss of Luzern, Dutch second tiers NAC Breda and Heracles Almelo.