With a 10th place finish Valerenga definitely flattered to deceive this season, and in the end they were grateful that they managed to pull away from the relegation scrap. The Oslo side were in the bottom six all season, and were desperately flirting with the drop for some time. But the announcement of Ronny Deila as the new permanent head coach from next year seemed to give them a lift and there was also a nice and tidy finish to the season with a 2-0 win against Viking in Stavanger ending Kjetil Rekdal's reign on the touchline with the outspoken coach taking up a new role at the club from next season. But there is still major improvement needed for Valerenga to be a force in Norwegian football again, and the question is whether the finances are there for the on-field investment the club is crying out for.
Having set their sights on a top five finish this season before a ball had been kicked, Valerenga soon found themselves on the back foot. Four defeats in their first four league games sent them rocketing to the foot of the table, with even Start ahead of them at that point and, while a 4-0 win against Tromso looked to have stopped the rot, they were brought down to earth again with a solid bang the week after crashing to a 4-0 defeat of their own at the hands of Molde at Aker Stadion. Results have been pretty inconsistent all through the season and it was only a four game unbeaten run at the end of the campaign that saw them pull away from the teams down at the bottom of the table desperately searching for a way out of the relegation mire. The club paid dearly for their sluggish start and, with Rekdal dropping captain Grindheim early on for poor form, all did not seem very well at the club. But the two patched things up pretty quickly and Grindheim once again proved to be pivotal in the centre of the park. While Ghayas Zahid was as lively as every going forward, proving to be Valerenga's biggest asset in the final third, it's tempting to give the player of the season award to outgoing defender Kjetil Waehler, who at 40 years of age has decided to hang up his boots. His performances were always sturdy and the fact that he missed nine games was mostly due to the fact that he picked up ten bookings in the 30 league games, probably the only real indication that his legs are going and that Valerenga will have to look elsewhere for a central defender next season.
It will be interesting to see where the club goes under Ronny Deila next season and what sort of shape the playing squad will be in before the new campaign kicks off. There will surely be some outgoings, both voluntary and involuntary, but the recruitment needs to be spot on. Waehler has left and so has Simon Larsen who decided to join relegated Start next year. So there's a huge gaping whole in the defence for a start. But hopes and expectations will be high again next season under a manager with proven recent pedigree both in Norwegian football with Stromsgodset and with Celtic in Scotland, and it is too early to predict whether this optimism is unwarranted or not. The last thing Valerenga supporters need is another false dawn.
