Football Season Guide

Another very disappointing season for the Purple and Whites. The 10-year stretch without a trophy was extended. Barely made the top 6. Still able to climb to fourth place in the final standings and with this at least qualified for Europe. Reached the Belgian Cup final too but there lost against city rivals Union. Sacked coach Hasi in early February and in turbulent period after that changed 3 different caretakers. Eventually Taravel guided the team during the play-offs but at the end of the season he was not offered a permanent contract. Portuguese specialist Vitor Bruno was hired instead. His only previous head coaching experience was during the 2024/25 campaign at Porto where he was in charge for just 29 games. Star playmaker De Cat expectedly left this summer. Experienced winger Hazard and the disgruntled bright talents in attack Vazquez and Goto also departed. The last 2 were never given proper chances at the club. Bruno hasn’t done much to strengthen the squad. Ambros and Antman are interesting new signings but they are not seen as needle-movers. The latter is no better than Hazard on the flank. Ambros is definitely not as good as De Cat was on the ball. Bertaccini and Stroeykens could emerge as difference-makers though. Both had injury-ravaged last campaign. Neither very impressive when playing. On paper they can be among the top wingers in the league. That’s if they can stay healthy. Added two quality new centre-backs recently. Both Biancone and Petrot are potential starters. The inability to defend deep hurt the team against the top teams last season. These new signings should help for that. The squad don’t feel stronger than last season, if anything it seems a minor step back has been taken in terms of the talent pool. Yet, Anderlecht’s U21s reached the Junior Champions League final just 2 years ago so emerging Academy products could prove to be the solution, just the lay De Cat shone bright last term.