Football Season Guide

Waalwijk were one of the more disappointing sides last season as they failed to sustain the heights from the previous couple of campaigns in the top-flight but a terrible start of the campaign last year, with eight losses in a row in the first eight games, left them fighting a losing battle and they were unable to haul themselves to safety despite a late push. Ultimately the decision to stick with well-liked coach Henk Fraser for the entire season and not pulling the plug during the winter months proved costly as what was a pretty decent and capable side managed to get themselves relegated. Now comes the challenging part of trying to piece together a team that can win back promotion at the first attempt. Naturally as one of the team coming form the upper echelon, Waalwijk will be considered a favourite for a promotion spot. However, out of the three relegated teams, they have had the most modest transfer campaign so far by a fair bit and their squad just does not look prepared for the challenges ahead. The one thing going for them is the new coach in Sander Duits, coming over to his former club to take over as a manager after being an assistant to Jopseh Oosting before. He knows the club inside out and knows what it takes to make them successful but it remains to be seen if he will be given the tools to do so. Roy Kuijpers is a good addition on the wings and Jesper Uneken have shown promise with PSV U21s but apart from that all the new signings are mostly for the youth side for now and not ready to be involved. On the other hand, mainstays like Oskar Zawada, Richonell Margaret, Yassin Oukli and Julian Lielevald have all bid goodbye to RKC and their quality will be quite hard to replicate in the season ahead. There is still a good backbone in the squad with players like Liam van Gelderen, Godfried Roemeratoe and a wildcard like Mohamed Ihattaren but it will be a loan and arduous season for the Yellow and Blacks amidst fierce competition at the top.