Football Season Guide

AZ certainly felt a sense of under-achievement at the end of the past campaign as they battled with Twente for a top 3 finish almost until the end but eventually failed to achieve qualification for highly-missed Champions League football. Truth be said, AZ will have to blame themselves for the way things went. Their season had started brilliantly and, until the end of October, they were actually PSV main contenders for the top of the table. Then, they faced a black-out, also helped by injuries, and in mid-January Coach Pascal Jansen was unexpectedly let go. Maarten Martens, the new man in charge, needed time before getting positive results but eventually things got going and, despite heavy back-to-back defeats in early April, AZ closed the season running. Not enough, though. With the 4th-best attack and the 4th-best defence, AZ could not expect more. Martens will now be at his first season in full charge but he will have to make do with a rather renewed squad. In fact, they lost 4 starters from the past season and at least 2 may be missed. Aussie Ryan, who had been hired during a shortage of goalkeepers, was let go without much thinking but newly-arrived Zoet, coming from a forgettable experience at Spezia, should provide a valid alternative. In the midfield, De Wit, who spent most of his professional career at the club, was also let go: he had started the season badly but eventually turned out to be the second-best scorer of the team and AZ may end up regretting his departure. However, Koopmeiners’ return after a spell on loan might make up for De Wit’s exit. Things may be different when it comes to right-back Sugawara and Eredivisie top scorer Pavlidis. The former should be replaced by Maikuma, also a Japanese but who is still a non-entity for European football, while 22-year-old Parrott, who did well at Excelsior last season but is still lacking some experience, is expected to make the fans forget the Greek striker.