Football Season Guide

There's been a strong push on younger players pre-season with the likes of Turping, Isaiah Okafor (Noah's brother), Tobias Okafor (no relation to Noah), and Vukelic all joining to initially feature at U21 level. However, youngsters like Tsawa and Di Giusto, who both featured in the first-team toward the end of last season, have now officially been promoted to the first-team. Astoundingly, so has teenage sensation Dylan Munroe, a winger who is only 15 years of age at the start of this campaign. In general, it's perceived that FC Zurich have done well in the transfer market. Not only with building for the future, either - they've brought in the likes of Tosic, Chouiar, Leidner, Gomez, and Goure, Perea to contribute now. They've not taken many risks there, either - a number of them are on loan, or at the very least can be sold for some profit if things don't work out well. They've let go players that haven't been in their plans, for the most part. Guerrero was out of favour, Boranijasevic didn't suit their current style, Santini was ageing, Rohner's end product wasn't good enough etc. Other than LB Dante, whom it's rumoured was priced too high for them to turn his loan move permanent, they've not lost anybody that they'll lament losing. They've brought in two LBs to combat their weakest area whilst seemingly lining up Tobias Okafor for that position in the long run, a new striker to help them with their chance conversion issues, and a more creative alternative to Rohner is Chouiar. They've had a good transfer window, already have a settled squad, and have frankly brought in a manager (Moniz) that is too good for this level, as he proved with superb tactical showings toward the end of the 23/24 season. Only real issue is that Rodrigo Conceição is injured until early September but they should be ok, given their reinforcements. Expectations are high for this team, and they should be - they've got some fantastic talents on the rise, a very solid nucleus, won't concede many goals, and will attack in a more convincing fashion given their reinforcements. If they can keep everybody fit (especially Marchesano) and not lose Okita, Matthew, Conde, and Katic, then they're going to have a very good campaign. A title push is not out of the question, although winning it would most likely be a stretch.