Football Season Guide

Eindhoven were pretty decent last season without really pulling any trees as they held their own in most of the games but very rarely managed to pull off upset and get results against some of the top sides in the league. Maurice Verberne did install a good structure around the side and the campaign was a progress on the previous one just in terms of points total and position in the standings. The expectations for this year is to be a bit closer to the play-off places and become more of a threat to the sides in the top eight but in fairness it is hard to make the case for it at the moment given the relativity paucity of goalscoring talent in the squad and the general lack of depth in some positions. Verberne will be hoping to bring in a few more youngsters from the academy and make them reliable contributors, just as what happened with Shane van Arle last season, who earned a move to the Juventus academy on the back of it, but there is no guarantee in that. In terms of proven quality players, the likes of Daan Huisman, Sven Simons, Terrence Douglas and Sven Blummel is reassuring and should give the team a certain minimum level of quality in most games. Yet they did lose some integral players like Achraf El Bouchataoui, Colin Seedorf and Joey Sleegers and could well find it hard to sustain their level if there are injury issues. The new additions this simmer include veteran Kevin van Veen, who could be quite prolific if he stays fit and motivated and a couple of solid but pretty unspectacular defenders in Clint Essers and John Neeskens. It is not something to get you too excited and overall the Blues from Eindhoven seem set for another season of mid-table obscurity.