Football Season Guide

Returning to the first flight of Dutch football after a 47-year-long absence, last season Telstar were considered by most pundits as pure relegation fodder. Against all expectations, though, they managed to avoid the fall, finishing 14th, 5 points above the playout zone. Truth be said, their campaign started almost disastrously since they lost 4 out of the initial 6 games played and, during the season, they never really managed to keep the bottom 3 at some distance. Nevertheless, on their day Telstar were capable of beating any opponents and the 2 wins over title-winning PSV are testament to that. Salvation was eventually reached in the final weeks, as they pulled out a fundamental 4-week unbeaten run, characterized by wins over Sparta Rotterdam, Volendam and Heracles Almelo. With 49 goals scored and 55 conceded, Telstar did not excel in any area and were only slightly better at home than away. At the end of a season, coach Correia decided to set an end to such a memorable experience and left for pastures new. This way, Telstar management decided to trust the reins of the team to 49-year-old Henk Brugge, at his first full experience as head coach after only momentarily heading Heerenveen ad interim in 2025. Living on a very very short budget, Telstar must build their squad mostly counting on free agents or loanees and this transfer campaign was no exception. First and foremost, the defence was literally dismantled since they lost all 4 centre-backs at disposal, Offerhaus, Koswal, Bakker and Malone. 25-year-old Soualhia is the sole centre-back to have been signed but he has never played at this level while just-arrived aging left-back Peersman could also act in the role. In the midfield, they lost starting Noslin and starting attacking midfielder Van de Kamp and his deputy Mertens. In came a group of youngsters like Rust, Ahmed and Shenkman. Moreover, two back-up strikers left in van Duijn and Thorisson, both returned to their parent clubs, and were not replaced. On the other hand, they signed a rapid winger in Mendes.