Football Season Guide

After a disastrous start, only 3 points collected from the first 8 games, Utrecht managed to climb the league table and finish the regular season in 7th place. They qualified for the playoffs (for access to the Conference League), won the semi-final, but surprisingly were defeated 1-2 at home by Go Ahead Eagles in the final. Much of the credit for this turnaround goes to coach Ron Jans who took over the team in the 5th round (in the first 3 rounds the Danish Michael Silberbauer was on the bench and in the 4th round Rob Penders was on an interim basis) and, after a settling-in period, managed to get the best out of the players at his disposal. Also important was the arrival in January of striker Sam Lammers, who scored 10 goals in a very disappointing attack (only 49 goals scored in 34 games). Given this problem in attack and that Lammers returned from his loan at Rangers, during the summer transfer window the club took steps to strengthen the sector with the purchase of Noah Ohio from Standard Liege, Miguel Rodríguez on loan from Celta, David Min, who did very well last season at Waalwijk and the fast winger Yoann Cathline. In other roles, the arrival of the American attacking midfielder Paxten Aaronson, on loan from Eintracht Frankfurt, and the reliable defender Siebe Horemans are of some importance. As for departures, the most painful is that of defender Ryan Flamingo, one of the best surprises of the last Eredivisie, who moved to PSV Eindhoven, but also that of winger Othmane Boussaid and midfielder Oscar Fraulo.