Football Season Guide

Having turned professionals in the 2016/2017 campaign, Jong Utrecht have so far managed to maintain their status, having constantly avoided relegation from the Eerste Divisie. This is certainly not due to their own merits as, in the past decade, they only succeeded going further than the 18th place once, in occasion of the campaign interrupted by the Covid outbreak. The past season was no exception as they avoided the bottom of the table only because Vitesse were deducted 39 points overall for administrative reasons. After all, having won 4 games only, they scored just 31 goals, thus holding, together with Top Oss, by far the worst attack of the league and, having conceded 82 times, the next-to-worst defence. At the end of his second season in charge, coach Ivar van Hinteren, who had been asked to lift the side from the bottom places, was shown the door and replaced by 39-year-old Marc Otten, at his first experience as head coach at this level after acting as deputy to bright Rogier Meijer at NEC Nijmegen in the Eredivisie. Unlike other Eerste Divisie sides, Jong Utrecht did not undergo major changes during the transfer campaign as they lost a few regulars in the midfield and little else, while injecting more fresh blood into the squad from the younger teams. But it has to consider that most of these new signings already participated to disastrous last season. In goal, Dithmer was let go and Gadellaa should thus see more playing time as De Graaf’s back-up. At the back, nobody left but one might expect teenagers left-back Plantinga and centre-back van den Boogaard enjoying some playing time during the campaign. The midfield saw the departure of starting Yah and Yenner together with key attacking midfielder El Arguioui. Van Ommeren already had some taste of Eerste Divisie football but will become more and more a protagonist, while wonders are expected by Sneijder, whose father made history. The attack should benefit from the arrival of Ebite and Sundqvist who, together with Menzo, already familiar to squad, scored 29 goals overall last season.