Football Season Guide

The past season represents a missed opportunity for Amiens, who finished 7th in the Ligue 2 after an array of mediocre campaigns at the best. In fact, they could have made the promotion playoffs, had they only been capable of turning a few of their too many draws, 17, into wins. Coach Omar Daf, at his first year in charge, had managed to build a very solid team, they held the second best defence of the league, with 36 goals conceded, but they just did not know how to score, Mafouta excepted. With 36 goals scored, they only did better than Ajaccio and Valenciennes but worse than relegated Quevilly and Concarneau. Against all logical expectations, Amiens will not be pushing for promotion in the new season. In fact, the President of the club announced that they would downsize costs and their ambitions and, thus, content themselves with a mere salvation. First of all, they decided to trim an otherwise bloated squad, letting go most of the deadwood. Together with them, a few renown starters also left. This was the case of centre-backs Opoku and Fofana, for instance, whose performances were often below the expectations and weighed too much on the budget as well. This was also the case of starting midfielder Gelin and more might follow, such as attacking midfielder Kakuta, who spent more time on the sidelines than on the pitch last season. While no less than 15 players departed, Amiens were not so active in terms of new signings. Above all, they tried to address the long-standing problem at left-back by getting Vita on loan from Fortuna Sittard, following a more than forgettable season spent on the bench. Moreover, they signed 17-year-old Dao, who showed some good in the Toulouse youth system and may represent an alternative for an attack where aging Carroll is just recovering from a serious knee injury. Other than that, Chibozo and Touho returned from disappointing loans but should not play major roles.