Almere City FC

Last season, their first Eredivisie campaign ever, ended up being a success for Almere City as the minnows of Dutch football offered themselves an unexpected salvation, finishing 13th, 4 points above the bottom 3. Truth be said, they went through several hard times during the season, losing 5 out of the initial 6 games and going winless in the final 12 fixtures between February and May, but they were tough to beat and 13 draws overall are testament to that. The management held onto coach Alex Pastoor, the architect of their promotion, until the very end and this proved to be decisive. Almere eventually closed the campaign holding the next-to-worst attack of the league with just 33 goals scored, only 3 more than bottom-placed Vitesse, but displaying a rather solid defence as they even conceded 2 goals less than Ajax. The next season will see a new man at the helm as Pastoor opted to quit and was replaced by 39-year-old Hedwiges Maduro, his deputy, who had a short-lived experience as Ajax head coach ad interim in 2023. Almere City summer was a busy one as they had to trim an otherwise bloated squad down, while losing several protagonists of the past campaign. Undoubtedly, Koopmeiners’ return to his parent club represents very bad news for them. The AZ loanee served 10 assists in the season and he will be missed as none of the new arrivals in the midfield, Carbonell and Balboa, seem to be as productive. At the back, they lost starting centre-back Van Bruggen, who left for Denmark, and they may have his replacement in 22-year-old Barbet, who did quite well last season. They also hired a proper left-back, Zagaritis, after adapting right-backs or the French himself in the role. However, the attack is the area where they changed the most with starting wingers Cathline and Van La Parra leaving together with strikers Kitala and Van Duiven. So far, they only hired experienced striker Guillaume, who can provide valid cover for Hansen.