Football Season Guide

Lausanne won promotion to the top flight at the end of the 2015/16 season and started their previous campaign in incredible fashion, having been 2nd in the table with ten games played. However, it was as good as it got for Fabio Celestini's men as they ended up surviving in the league mostly thanks to the points they accumulated early on - their form in the remainder of the season was shocking. Les Bleus are not too far away from going a full year without a win at home, with their most recent home victory coming in early October last year. Meanwhile, they have won only four of their last 26 games in the league, a record bettered even by Vaduz, who ended up being relegated last season. Given all this, it is not difficult to see why the board had to hold a meeting midway through the previous spring season and discuss the future of Fabio Celestini but their manager and club legend has been given a vote of confidence. There were also rumours of Celestini leaving at the end of the season to take a job in France but he remains at the helm going into the new season. Lausanne have had a bit of a squad clear-out during the summer and got rid of several fringe players but also saw regulars such as Nassim Ben Khalifa, Olivier Custodio and Marcus Diniz depart. However, they have also signed some proven quality in Alain Rochat and Gonzalo Zarate, while also making a rather risky signing in Valeri Bozhinov, whose talent is unquestioned but hindered by his well-documented love of nightlife. If the Bulgarian finds the motivation to be professional during his time in Switzerland, he could prove to be a key player for les Bleus but this is a rather big "if". Regardless of how Bozhinov does, there is little doubt that Lausanne have not improved significantly in terms of talent present in their squad and the big question now is whether the summer break will do them any good. As demonstrated early in the previous season, they are a side capable of playing some truly good football but they could be in for a season of struggle if they fail to get back to that level.