Football Season Guide

Back to the Eerste Divisie after 2 complicated Eredivisie campaigns, last season Volendam achieved promotion, their 11th, back to the first flight of the Dutch football at the first time of asking. Truth be said, they had started their campaign in the worst possible way, losing the initial 3 games. However, from that moment on, they started an unstoppable march which brought them up to the top of the table in week 20, a place they would not quit until the end. Volendam attack is what really made the difference, as they scored 87 goals, 13 more than the runners up, Excelsior Rotterdam, while their defence conceded too much, 48 goals, more than 5 other teams. Coach Rick Kruys, at his first season in charge, was confirmed at the helm for the new season. He is at his first experience as a head coach in the Eredivisie. During the transfer campaign, Volendam were very active in terms of squad clean-up as they let 14 players go, mostly back-ups, while not many were signed yet. Firstly, they renewed the goalkeeping department with back-ups Lauwers and Ngom leaving, while they hired two non-entities at this level, Vlak and Steur. At the back, they saw no major player departing, while they signed promising 19-year-old centre-back Ugwu, who made his name at Jong Ajax in the past campaign and could represent an alternative to starting Mbuyamba and Amevor. Starting midfielder Jacobs left for pastures new and they hired Yah, one of the few positives in disastrous Jong Utrecht last season. The bad news comes from the attack, where they lost starting winger Ould-Chikh, capable of 5 goals and outstanding 20 assists overall. To replace him, they signed Kokçu, returning to the Netherlands after a forgettable experience in Finnish football. They retained the likes of experienced, read aging, Veerman and Muhren, 44 goals and 18 assists overall last season, though. Have mostly a young team, not considering the attack, and must add experience to the squad.