Football Season Guide

Sevilla’s 2018/19 season was strange. They led the league in weeks eight and 13, but the summer of Europa League qualifying matches eventually took its toll on the fitness and their form fell off a cliff at the start of 2019, leading to Pablo Machin’s sacking. Joaquin Caparros came in, but there wasn’t much improvement. This summer Sevilla have shaken things up as they look to better last year’s sixth place. Former Spain and Real Madrid coach Julen Lopetegui has been hired and renowned sporting director Monchi is back, after a brief stint at Roma. Monchi is known for his transfer market dealings and he has been very busy. In terms of new players for the first-team squad, he’s already hit double figures. There are some really exciting signings too, such as up-and-coming left-back Sergio Reguilon, creative midfielder Oliver Torres and strikers Luuk de Jong and Munas Dabbur. Sevilla’s problem this summer, though, has been selling players. They haven’t moved on all those they’d like to and they have a very bloated squad as the season approaches. It’ll be tough for Lopetegui, or for any coach, to manage this. The strength of this Sevilla side is the sheer level of talent that they’ve acquired, both in this window and in previous ones. However, making it all fit together will be a problem. It’s never easy to incorporate 10 or so signings into a squad straight away, even more so when Lopetegui’s methods are known to take time to fully understand.