Football Season Guide

Getafe spent just one season down in Spain's second division before winning promotion back to the top flight via play-off victories over Huesca and Tenerife. This, then, is a club which knows all about the top division and about how to succeed in it but that doesn't mean they have too many players who were there when Getafe got relegated at the end of the 2015/16 season. In fact, of the 27 players currently on the capital city side's books, 18 have been signed this past summer, meaning that many of the relegated players and many of the promotion winners have moved on elsewhere. In their place, Getafe have sought experience and they have acquired several men who know what La Liga is all about, so much so that they have the oldest squad in the whole of the 2017/18 La Liga. They appear, therefore, well prepared to mount a bid for survival, although a lack of youth and energy could prove telling towards the end of the season. While this squad is experienced, the Getafe coach is not. Jose Bordalas will feel he should have been standing in a La Liga dugout last year, having won the 2015/16 second division title in charge of Alaves. However, the Basque club decided his brand of football was too negative to succeed in the top flight so they got rid of him before they made the step up to the elite. Bordalas was then brought in to help put Getafe on the right track after they'd started last season poorly and he installed that same inglorious but effective style which led the Madrid side back to La Liga. Unlike Alaves, Getafe have kept Bordalas on but he has never coached a La Liga match before so only time will tell if he and his defensive 4-2-3-1 formation are ready for this division. If they are not, then Getafe could be in big trouble.