Football Season Guide

Umraniyespor was promoted to Super Lig for the first time in the club’s history. After 5-consecutive top-10 finished in the 1. Lig, Umraniyespor was finally able to secure direct promotion by finishing 2nd. The controversial decision was made to continue with the young manager Recep Ucar who has no experience in the Super Lig. Unfortunately, he will not have a competitive squad to work with either. It is never easy for any club to survive the first season in Super Lig but it is much harder to do with a squad that doesn’t match the quality of Super Lig. Most of the squad from the last season left Umraniyespor as last year’s squad was already not good enough to compete in the Super Lig. Many of the older players were released while the mid-aged rotational players were sent back to the clubs playing in the lower divisions. Many new signings were made both from the Super Lig clubs and also foreign leagues. The most significant of those are fast winger Geraldo, central midfielders Avounou and Sackey, and attacker Bettaieb. These players will be the core of the Umraniyespor squad next season and manager Ucar will need all to perform well. The quality of the defence is another question as 37 years old Kirintili from Alanyaspor was signed as the goalkeeper. He was one of the best keepers in the league years ago but he is far away from those years. Alyyson was signed in the central defence but he was playing for 1. Lig side Bandirmaspor so it is not certain if he will be good enough for Super Lig level.