Football Season Guide

Excelsior suffered a pretty heart-wrenching relegation in the play-off final last season at the expense of a NAC Breda side that took full advantage of their meltdown in the first leg to hand them a 6:2 loss. Excelsior gave it their all in the second leg and actually went close to forcing extra time but a 4:1 scoreline was not enough to prevent a return to the Eerste Divisie. The new season also brings a managerial change in Kralingen as long-serving coach Mariunus Dijkhuizen is passing the torch and moving on after more than ten years with the Red and Blacks. His assistant, Ruben den Uil, takes over as a manager and will be the youngest one in the league at just 33, with no real experience of leading a team so far. Naturally, as one of the teams coming from the upper division, Excelsior will e considered a favourite for a quick return but they did lose quite a lot of quality over the summer that will be hard to replace, most clearly in goal-getter Troy Parrot, lively winger Couhaib Driouech and in consistent miffeld dynamo Julian Baas. That said, retaining a very potent attacking player like Lance Duijvenstijn and adding the likes of Calvin Raatsie and Django Warmerdam, the Red and Blacks have the skeleton of a pretty strong starting 11. The issue for Den Til is more about the lack of real depth in some areas and how they will cope over the course of a long season. Yet, Excelsior do look capable of a quick return to the Eredivisie as long as they hit the ground running early.