Gent started the season as main title-favourites as they had the biggest squad in the league and lots of talent in their ranks. However, major chaos was caused by the Board with 3 managers sacked inside the opening 14 games! As a result Gent had difficult campaign and only in the last day of the season they were able to secure place in Europe.
Back-to-back unlucky narrow defeats in the first 2 games saw Thorup sacked after only 2 rounds, decision that really angered some of the players who liked the coach. The chaos reigned in the squad in these early months of the season as the replacement, coach Boloni, stayed in charge for just 3 games, with 2 defeats in those seeing him sacked too. Then it came time for De Decker to take charge, with his reign only 9 rounds, come November he was also sacked.
Only then the title-winning ex-Gent coach Hein Vanhaezebrouck was appointed and shockingly for many he stayed in charge for the rest of the season. Under Vanhaezebrouck Gent secured positive finish to 2020.
However, the early turmoil and many narrow defeats after frustrating individual errors in defence meant that Gent were well outside the top 8 come 2021. Still the results from January onwards were much more stable and, despite the many draws, Gent accumulated enough points to know that if they win away against Zulte Waregem in the last round of the regular season they will make the top 8. Gent left no doubt with 7:2 victory in this match and the result inspired them to have excellent post-season too.
By that point Yaremchuk was firing at all cylinders and the aggressive striker was very successful in 2021 after sleeping for most of the opening 15 games. Together with his countryman Bezus he was the main reason why Gent won all of their last 4 play-off games and after edging Mechelen 2:1 away in the last round they leapfrogged their hosts to claim the last available European visa.
Coach Vanhaezebrouck is expected to trim the squad in the summer months, but he also will be looking to add quality new signings in defence as Gent will need much better stability if next season they want to be title-contenders.
