Football Season Guide

Luzern are coming off a rather underwhelming season as they finished 5th but even this was enough for them to qualify for European football. However, they were knocked out by Croatian side Osijek in the Europa League qualifiers which was a big blow before the start of the season. The Blues had outside hopes of finishing 2nd going into the second half of the previous season but they fell apart and finished 5th, while finishing three points higher would have seen them finish 3d and claim an automatic place in the group stage of the Europa league. Luzern have been frustrating their fans quite a bit over the last twelve months, as they are capable of playing some truly stellar football on their day but have had far too many off days and had a mediocre finish as a consequence. However, with the side achieving their target for the 2016/17 season, Markus Babbel was allowed to keep his job and the former German international is now set for the final year of his current contract - he has been at the club for nearly three years now but no real progress has been made, with Luzern being pretty much where they were before he took over. This time around, the Blues parted ways with four regulars in Ricardo Costa, Markus Neumayr, Nicolas Haas and Marco Schneuwly, who all played important roles last season, but have also made proven signings in Olivier Custodio, Nicolas Schindeholtz and Christian Schwegler. However, it is quite clear that they have not signed a proven like-for-like replacement for Schneuwly so they will be hoping for either new signing Il Gwan Jong or Cedric Itten, who has had his loan stay from Basel extended by another year, to step up. While not exactly declining in terms of quality in their squad, Luzern definitely do not seem like they have made a step up and seem set to maintain their usual level which means finishing between 3rd and 5th.