Football Season Guide

Having started their campaign quite positively, last season for some time Sparta Rotterdam dreamt of obtaining their best finish, a place in the top 5, in almost 40 years. Then, from early February on they basically stopped winning, though, grabbing 3 points only in 1 out of the last 15 games, and had to content themselves with another mediocre 10th place, well above the bottom 3 and well below the top 5. Mediocrity certainly characterized most of their season since they were too limited offensively, they scored 40 goals, only better than the 3 relegated sides, but also conceded too many goals, 62, only better than Heracles Almelo, PEC Zwolle and Fortuna Sittard. On the other hand, playing at home or away made almost no difference for them. Coach Maurice Steijn saw the end of his second stint at the club at the end of the campaign and he was let go, being replaced by Rogier Meijer, whose experience as assistant at Bayer Leverkusen lasted just 1 season after doing wonders at NEC Nijmegen. The summer was not easy for the club as they had to part ways with many of last season’s positive protagonists. First of all, starting goalie Drommel returned to his parent club and was not replaced yet, with Bednarek candidate for the number 1 shirt after hardly playing in the past 3 years. Then, they lost both the starting and the back-up right-backs in Sambo and Bakari with Reith just returning from a positive experience at Almere City. A left-back, Kuipers, arrived to replace departed Van Aanholt, while Verschuren should strengthen a leaky heart of the defence. The midfield was depleted by departures since starting Clement and Kitolano left and De Guzman retired: this is a big blow fort them also because they were not replaced yet. Last but not least, they also lost their top scorer, key striker Lauritsen and Thorisson, returning from a forgettable experience at Telstar, does not seem a valid replacement.