Football Season Guide

Rosenborg are in the midst of their longest title drought in a long time as they begin 2022 with another rebuild in sight and title chances looking rather grim for them. Their experiment with renowned coach Age Heraide and a lots of former international players coming at the twilight of their careers emphatically failed last season, with the team miles off the pace at the top of the standings despite having the biggest wage budget. Naturally, Heraide decided to leave at the end of the season and, after failing to get chief target Kjetil Knutsen, the club opted for controversial Kjetil Rekda, who just won promotion with HamKam in the second division. The outspoken former pundit and international player was certainly a left-wing choice and there are still more questions than answers with this Rosenborg squad, ten days before the start of the season. They bid goodbye to a fair chunk of their regular starters from last season, including their regular centre-back pairing, the promising Emil Ceide and main striker Dino Islamovic. In terms of new additions, RBK have focused on youngsters coming on loan and some rather unknown players with little experience. Some of them in Victor Jensen, Bryan Fiabema and Tobias Börkeeiet certainly have high upside but whether they are ready to play for the biggest club in the country every weeks remains a bit uncertain. As a whole, the squad looks quite a bit weaker than the one that finished 15 points behind champions Bodø/Glimt last season and Rekdal will need to have a profound, and quick impact, for this side to really move closer to the top and be in a title contention. The odds for that are certainly not looking too great and the fans may have to prepare for readjusting their expectations for a while.