Football Season Guide

Since Rahmen left a couple of years back, this club has struggled. Criticism was naturally levelled toward his replacement, unproven boss Zaric, but even the more experience Uli Forte replacing him midway through last season struggled to get the best out of this group. Truth be told, it would have surprised nobody if they got relegated last season. In other words, Winti are walking a tightrope - and nothing seen from them in the transfer market pre-season suggests otherwise. I understand them selling Baroan, who clearly didn't want to be there anymore, but replacing him Beyer, a player who has failed at this level before seems incredibly risky for a team that simply doesn't score enough goals in general. Keep in mind that Bajrami returned to FC Zurich when his loan spell ended too. They've also lost some really experienced players pre-season. I know Lekaj didn't play much anymore but his experience at the back was important for the younger players like Luthi. Losing Schattin at LB leaves them reliant on Diaby, which is not at all ideal. Losing Frei to retirement was a huge blow - and it cannot be long before Zuffi follows suit. At present, the only thing going in their favour is that their pitch quality is generally so poor that opposing teams cannot play well on it. They've added no quality to their squad, they've lost good depth and experience, and they're showing no signs of doing anything differently from what they did last season, which would have gotten them relegated in another campaign. Unless they have a mysterious ace up their sleeves, Winti are going to be in the relegation battle - and they might not come out of it alive.