It has been a disastrous season, started with the goal of improving the good eleventh place achieved the previous year, they have completely fallen short of expectations and after five seasons are forced to greet Eredivisie.
The season was constantly negative, despite the change on the bench that took place in April. Adrie Poldervaart left a team sterile in attack (had scored only one goal in the last 600 minutes!), more experienced Ricardo Moniz, who switched from 4 to a 3-man defense, did a little bit better in this respect but not regarding the results.
Despite two wins in the last two games, Excelsior was involved in the promotion/relegation playoffs where they were surprisingly eliminated by RKC Waalwijk (8th in Eerste Divisie!).
That the season would not have been positive had already been understood in September when they were immediately eliminated from KNVB cup at the hands of NEC (an Erste Divisie team).
If the attack was not very productive, the defensive sector did even worse suffering 79 goals in 34 matches, the second worst defense in the league.
Difficult to find positive notes in such a season. Only at times were seen the qualities of Icelandic striker Omarsson and midfielder Ali Messaoud (team best scorers with 7 goals). Left-back Lorenzo Burnet was very limited by continuous injuries, while expert Luigi Bruins was disappointing as was captain Ryan Koolwijk, who rarely managed to drag the team.
