Heracles Almelo finished a decent campaign on the 10th spot on the Eredivisie league table. There have been ups and downs and there was a lack of consistency throughout the season, but the Almelo side has never been in danger of ending up in the battle to avoid relegation. Heracles came within touching distance of qualifying for the play-offs for a place in the Europa League at some point, but this turned out to be a bridge too far in the end, mainly caused by their inconsistency.
The season was started off in great fashion with a 2-1 comeback victory over Ajax on home soil in the first match of the campaign. Brandley Kuwas absolutely stood out in the first several matches of the season, but he picked up a knee injury at some point, which saw the results of Heracles Almelo deteriorate as the first half of the season went on. The Almelo side claimed most of the points on home soil, which is in fact the case almost every season, as playing on artificial grass is an advantage.
Coach John Stegeman has announced that he will leave the club to become the new coach of Go Ahead Eagles. He had been working at Heracles Almelo for ten years, six years as an assistant-coach and four years as the head coach. The German coach Frank Wormuth will be his successor.
Several players will leave the club as well. Experienced goalkeeper Bram Castro will return to Belgium, while it looks unlikely that Kuwas will play in Almelo for another season. He has been the key player this season by taking care of several assists and scoring quite some goals himself as well. A positive thing is that it could well be that Heracles will not loose as many players as they did at the end of the last two seasons, because there were less players that stood out this season.
