Waasland-Beveren had another average season, but they showed tremendous promise early in the campaign and for very long looked like serious contenders for a top six finish. However, the fact that during the winter months their best players were bought by much richer clubs and their successful coach Philippe Clement was tempted to take charge of Genk didn’t allow them to achieve something really big and the games in 2018 were difficult for the crippled Lions.
Waasland ended the regular season with the second best scoring record, only champions Club Brugge had stronger attack, and it was this aggressive and direct forward approach that made coach Clement so famous.
Despite the fact that the team’s main striker Gano was sold after just 3 rounds, in them he scored 4 goals, Waasland found a new hero in Thelin, who signed with the club on the same day and went on to become the joint top goalscorer of the league.
Without being hugely successful the Lions managed to record 7 wins before the winter break and this kept them very close to the top six. The autumn was the time during which playmaker Morioka was causing havoc against all teams he faced and the Japanese was arguably the best player in the league in these months. Captain Seck was also organising the team very well from the centre of the park, while Camacho was the team’s best defender. Unfortunately for Waasland after the turn of the year all of these three key figures left the club, but the exodus began at the start of December when Clement was offered to take charge of Genk and tempted by the prospect he resigned.
The inexperienced Vermant was given the job during the winter break and he started 2018 with a six-game unbeaten run, defying the fact that players kept leaving, but as only two of these matches brought wins come round 27 Waasland were still sitting three points behind the sixth spot. This was when the team’s steam ended and they finished the regular season suffering three consecutive defeats and as a result collapsing to a deceivingly low table position.
Play-off II was used to experiment with the squad and test youngsters for future seasons, but the bad results and the heavy 0:8 defeat vs. Zulte in round 8 saw coach Vermant sacked as the Lions decided to look for a new manager over the summer.
