Football Season Guide

Needed a win at the end of last season to ensure they avoided relegation at the expense of Muangthong United. It was tight, though - they really didn't come close to scoring enough last season with only Nakhon Ratchasima (who got relegated) having scored less than they did. The signs weren't encouraging pre-season that they'd managed to figure out a long-term solution either. Indeed, they suffered a bit of an insult to injury when boss Ekalak Thong-am left pre-season to take over at 3rd division(!) Nakhon Si United. Their new boss is Rattathee Uathanapaisan. They made some significant personnel losses ahead of this campaign, especially in Mr Consistency himself at LB, Otton. Baggio should be a big loss but his contributions varied a lot last season so they may be ok. Although less talented, it's debatable that they'll miss Chatthong more in attack, who also moved on. Whichever way you look at it though, the spine of their team has effectively gone since last season, no matter whether Baggio was what he should be or not. Romeu, Otton, Chatthong - hard to replace - so it's a big risk for them this season. Lots of Brazilians have arrived as would-be replacements, which feels more optimistic than shrewd as few of them have any experience of playing in Thailand. Gustavo Apis does though, and so does arguably their biggest pre-season recruit, Alberto Gouvea. He arrives as the best player of Rasisalai United from last season. They have added some locals as part of their rotation system but there simply isn't enough players in this squad that are proven at Thai League One level. Unless some of their newbies step up to the plate, then their place in the division could be in question. A slow start looks likely for them. Anything beyond that is a bit of a coin toss.