Football Season Guide

The Godenzonen are coming from a bitter-sweet season, won the league for the 36th time in their history (at the end of a close battle with PSV), but lost the Johan Cruijff Schaal and the final of KNVB Beker both against the Eindhoven side. Moreover, their European campaign was far from triumphant, They topped their Champions League group by winning all six games, but were surprisingly knocked out by Benfica in the round of 16. What is about to begin looks like a season of change and it is difficult to predict what will happen. First of all, Erik Ten Hag left after 5 excellent seasons and was replaced by the less experienced former Hoffenheim and Bruges coach Alfred Schreuder. In addition some very important players left Amsterdam beginning from past season’s top scorer Sebastien Haller, talented midfielder Ryan Gravenberch, the leader of the defense Lisandro Martinez and the two regular full-backs Noussair Mazraoui and Nicolas Tagliafico. So far, their transfer campaign didn’t fill completely the holes left by these players, they were joined by striker Steven Bergwijn from Tottenham, left-backs Owen Wijndal from AZ Alkmaar and Calvin Bassey from Rangers. Given the club's policy, some gaps will certainly be filled by interesting youngsters from the Under 21, but they still miss some players to be truly competitive on several fronts.