Football Season Guide

Sarpsborg finished last season very much on a high after a sustained run of improved results and performances saw them move out of a potential relegation fight to a very respectable eight-place finish. The way the team transformed and improved after a rocky start was indeed quite eye-catching as Lars Bohinen proved again that he is a very capable manager at this level. Yet, he will not be around to build on that work this year as he decided to step away from the role and Swede Stefan Billborn is the man who takes over. He is a pretty good catch as a new man in charge, having done quite well at Hammarby until leaving last summer, and he is someone that can make this Sarpsborg side more of a force at the top half of the standing. The club also has the money to spend after selling Ibrahima Kone to Lorient in Ligue 1 for €4 million, a sum that dwarfs anything that the Eliteserien clubs usually receive, on the back of Kone's brilliant run of form in the second half of last season. That said, they have been quite slow to really fill the gap left by him and a few other departures and the squad does feel a bit incomplete. Guilermo Molins is a good option to lead the attack as a Kone replacement but there needs to be more depth there and the same applies to midfield. Tobias Heintz is an excellent signing nevertheless as he returns for another spell at the club he made his name. As a whole, the scope for this squad is quite wide and, while they can indeed become one of the dark horses in a battle for European places if they make a good start, there is also a decent chance they get dragged down the standings if some of their big players failed to click immediately.