Football Season Guide

Valerenga looked in all sorts of trouble last season, with the Oslo side hovering perilously close to the edge at the foot of the table for most of the spring fixtures. Even halfway through they were on the wrong side of the dotted line. The club needed a boost and got it when it was announced that Ronny Deila would be taking over as head coach from the 2017 season, with Kjetil Rekdal moving to the boardroom. It had definitely gone stale under Rekdal. He'd taken Valerenga as far as he could and they were going absolutely nowhere. In fact the only way they were going if anywhere was down and that would have been a disastrous relegation in terms of financial structure and balancing the spreadsheets. With a new stadium to finalise a drop down from the top tier of Norwegian football would have been a desperate situation for all involved. But with Deila waiting in the wings Valerenga showed the class that their side undoubtedly possess on their day and climbed steadily during the autumn fixtures to finish a rather healthy looking 10th. But having finished 6th and 7th in previous seasons, it was clear that Valerenga were on a slide again, and Deila has a job to restructure and re-motivate a team that needs a bit of an energy boost if they are going to have anything to shout about in 2017. The loss of young midfielder Sander Berge is a real blow. There are plenty of promising youth players at the club, but Berge was the cream of the crop; a future Norway international in the making. The fact that the Norwegian top flight lost him to the Belgian one shows the current plight of Norwegian football. The Eliteserien can't afford many other demoralising transfers like this. You can argue that Valerenga have not yet replaced him and the midfield as it stands looks paper thin as a result. Christian Grindheim and Daniel Fredheim Holm will have important parts to play again, but they've been tried and tested for a number of seasons now without really taking the club much further than mid-table. At least Ghayas Zahid is still around. He was Valerenga's top goalscorer with eight goals last season, and despite this tally not being much for a top scorer, his vision, creativity, pace and flair was essential for Valerenga digging themselves out of trouble last season. He will be crucial to their attacking play yet again. At the back Kjetil Waehler has retired, and was rightly given a legendary send off last season. His dubious disciplinary record had a lot to do with being 40 years of age, but his dedication and commitment was absolutely fantastic. It can be easily argued that he was their best defender last season and he leaves a gap to fill for sure. A lot is expected of young defender Markus Nakkim, Jonatan Tollas Nation needing to have a good season at the back as does Robert Lundstrom. It just looks a little bit short there at the moment, especially with another experienced defender Simon Larsen returning to Start in the league below. Up front Valerenga welcome Bard Finne, the wonderkid at Brann who has had stints at Cologne and Heidenheim before signing for one of the Bergen side's fiercest rivals. That's going to hurt - but only if he proves himself a decent attacking partner to Mohammed Abdellaoue who must be considered the spearhead of the strike force this season. It remains to be seen if he can be prolific enough for taking the club where they so dearly want to go. Valerenga have not troubled the top five since finishing runners-up in 2010. That's an awful long time for a club that still likes to see themselves as ambitious and one of Norwegian football's finest. But Deila will have his work cut out if he is to get this team firing towards a top five finish again. Years of mediocrity has blunted the side, and there are still just too many players from the previous lacklustre seasons still relied upon to consider them any sort of contenders for a medal and even the top five. A top half finish really shouldn't be beyond a club of their stature, but they'll certainly need to hit the ground running if that's going to be achieved.