Football Season Guide

Under the radar, former Liechtenstein hero and current boss Frick is doing good job. He was inches away from getting this club into Europe this season but missed out by a solitary point last season. Unfortunately for Luzern, that gap is unlikely to be bridged this season as this club does not like to spend money, instead favouring raising talented academy graduates, with which they generally do very well. This season, the focus has to be on their defence. Beka has suffered another foot injury, and Lofgren hasn't been training lately because of a hernia problem, hence the arrival of Bajrami on loan from SL Benfica - he won't need long at all to settle in it, having previously played for Young Boys Bern. Still, with Bung Meng Freimann very much hot property at the moment, they may find their CB position problematic, at least at the start of their campaign. Bajrami has been their only arrival thus far, and the alarm bells should be ringing because of it, bearing in mind that they lost key midfielder Beloko and regular midfielder Stanković pre-season. Unless they address that position soon, they're going to lose their control of games, and lose their capacity to frustrate opponents, which would be incredibly counterproductive. The alarm bells should also be ringing in attack. The decision to sell Klidje made sense; he is too inconsistent to be worth what they were offered by Hibernian so that's logical enough. Ironically though, they've lost Villiger to injury until at least October due to knee ligament damage sustained in a pre-season friendly against Neuchatel Xamax, leaving them with just Grbic up front, who has not convinced in his second spell. They may have to attempt moving midfielder Spadanuda up front on a more permanent basis unless a better solution presents itself. There is more to come from the likes of Karweina but it is not likely to be enough. Unless Luzern have some hidden gems in their academy then they're likely to find this campaign tough. They have high hopes for Vasovic, Walker, Toggenburger (battling injury at present), and Fernandes but it's not enough to replace what they've lost. A tough season most likely awaits, barring a flurry of late transfer activity.