Football Season Guide

Emmen are back in the second division after three exciting years in the Eredivisie, with the team finding the challenge too tough this time against bigger and more resourceful clubs. They gave it all until the end and at least avoided automatic relegation after some great wins in the final few weeks, but a loss to NAC Breda in the play-offs meant that the Red and Whites are relegated. Dick Lukkien has been a great servant for the club in recent years and he remains as a coach this season as the task is to get back at the first time of asking. As usual after relegation, a big chunk of the squad is moving on to new clubs and there is certainly going to be a drastic overhaul ahead of the new season. Two of the more talented players in the squad in Peruvian pair Sergio Pena and Miguel Araujo are still with the club but it is very much a question mark if they are retained beyond August. The biggest loss of the summer so far is of veteran striker and talisman Michael de Leeuw, who scored 13 goals last season and at times put the team on his back. A few others that have been part of the journey in recent years in Caner Cavlan and Nick Bakker are also leaving and will be tough to replace. But Lukkien has been busy adding good players to the squad and the likes of Lorenzo Burnet, Peter van Ooijen, Jeff Hardveld and Jeroen Veldmate are all proven at the high end of this division and should make Emmen a force to be reckoned with. Jeremy Hilterman, who has done well with Utrecht U21s last year, is primed to be the main striker and, if he can carry the responsibility, this Emmen side looks like the favourite for the title at the moment.