Football Season Guide

Go Ahead Eagles undoubtedly were one of the main surprises of the last Eredivisie season. In fact, they reached a top 10 finish for the first time in more than 45 years and even achieved an unexpected qualification to European football via the playoffs. Thanks to a solid defending, they eventually held the 5th-best Eredivisie defence, with 46 goals conceded, Go Ahead proved difficult to beat right from the start of the season and had not it been for some dips in form along the campaign they might have even gone for more. Coach Rene Hake, the architect of their last 2 positive seasons, was confirmed at the helm for the new campaign but he, not so surprisingly, left the club at the beginning of July, in full preseason, after being lured away by Manchester United. And Go Ahead thus hired 39-year-old Paul Simonis as his replacement: the new man at the helm is at his first experience as head coach after working in Heerenveen, Go Ahead and Sparta youth systems. Simonis debut was far from promising as Go Ahead were eliminated by Brann from the Conference League. For sure, Go Ahead lost a few protagonists from the past season over the summer: first and foremost, key midfielder Rommens and Starting attacking midfielder Willumsson were both let go for good cash. The former should be replaced by Twigt, coming from Emmen, who will alternate with Llansana and Linthorst in the middle of the park. The Icelandic, on the other hand, should be replaced by Tengstedt, who did well in his initial 6 months at the club, or newly-arrived 21-year-old Suray. Starting left-back Kuipers also left and he should be replaced by James or versatile Dirksen, coming from Emmen, who can also act at centre-back but is currently injured. With back-up goalie Mulder also gone, they may rely on Plogmann returning from his positive loan at Dordrecht.