Football Season Guide

Volendam had a run to the play-offs last season, holding down a top-eight spot last season, but were ultimately not good enough when it mattered as NAC Breda easily beat them 4:1 to end the dream of promotion. Now the Oranje embark on a new season with the aim to once again be one of the contenders for a top-half of finish and look to be once again one of the more attractive and pleasing sides to watch. Wim Jonk will be looking to find some new key players though after losing loan stars Samuele Mulattieri and Francesco Antonucci, who were the driving force of the team last season with 18 goals and 12 assists respectively. Another notable loss is that of goalie Nordin Bakker, who established himself in the second half of last season and looked ported good. Robert Muhren is the new man expected to provide the goals, coming off two hot goalscoring seasons with Cambuur, and he is close to a guarantee at this level for at least 15 goals a season. Daryl van Mieghem and Damon Mirani are good new singings too and should give the manager more options to play with. The big question mark in terms of outgoings is whether Mickey van der Den stays put for another season or goes to a new club, having shown really impressive development as a ball-playing centre-back who is dangerous from set-pieces and is a good leader at the tender age of 20. If he remains with the Oranje, they will be hopeful of another run to the play-offs. But as a whole there are more question marks than certainties regarding this Volendam squad and they may struggle to reach the level of performances shown last season.