Football Season Guide

Eliteserien
Norway
Eliteserien
2019
Viking
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Viking

In


Runar Hove (def) - Florö SK, Tord Johnsen Salte (def) - Olympique Lyon, Samúel Fridjónsson (mid) - Valerenga (loan), Johnny Furdal (mid) - Nest Sotra, Ylldren Ibrahimaj (mid) - Mjondalen,

Out


Julian Ryerson (def) - Union Berlin, Steffen Ernemann (mid) - Sogndal, Stian Michalsen (mid) - Arendal, Tore André Söras (mid) - KFUM, Aniekpeno Udoh (att) - Ljungskile, Claes Kronberg (def) - released

It didn't take long for Viking to be back in the big time after comprehensively winning the OBOS ligaen last year after their humiliating Eliteserien demotion in 2017. Two seasons ago Ian Burchnall really had his hands tied at the cash strapped club as they spiralled towards relegation very early on. It was an awful season for the Stavanger club, and while they made it back to the top tier at the first time of asking, there are still doubts about their ability to cement themselves as one of Norway's biggest clubs again. Viking have had very little success on the pitch for a long time now, and off the pitch it has been even worse. Financially they are still operating on a shoestring and Bjarne Berntsen has had to produce some shrewd deals to get them back in the Eliteserien after just one year away. But the backbone of the squad is still the same as suffered relegation two years ago, and whether they are good enough to have learned the lessons from that disastrous campaign remains to be seen.

Target


For the club it's important to re-establish themselves in the top tier of Norwegian football again, and whether that means a couple of edgy campaigns in the bottom half of the table then so be it. But the supporters will definitely hope they produce something similar to what Brann did when they suffered the humiliation of second tier football for a year in 2015. Unfortunately finances at the Stavanger and Bergen are still very chalk and cheese, and Viking will do ever so well to get a top half finish this season. Even that looks a bit of a stretch at the moment. Prediction: 12th