Football Season Guide

Haugesund's run as a top-flight side, lasting 15 years, was in great peril last season as they were consistently one of the worst teams in the league and spent quite a lot of the year in the bottom two. Still, they conjured up three big wins in the final four games to escape automatic relegation and then prevail over Moss in the play-off with a 2:0 aggregate win to ensure another season of Eliteserien football for the coastal side. They remain a deeply underwhelming and rather excitement-free side that aims to do just about about to conjure up around 35 points and keep themselves afloat. It is not something to get too enthusiastic about but they have to operate within the limits of their resources and the fanbase understand that quite well. Young coach Sacheev Manoharan starts his first full season as a full-time manager and will look to silence the numerous doubters and make this team more stable and confident in mid-table, rather than just scrapping for their life. They grabbed a striker with good profile and pedigree in Runar Espejord from champions Bodø/Glimt but the main challenge for him is staying fit and he is not someone who can be relied upon to be available and score goals right away. Youngsters like Troy Nyhammner, Mikkel Hope and Sander Innvær all got their chance to play quite a lot last season and will be expected to grow more into their roles and become more important players this season. The squad lost three important performers from last season in national team goalie Egil Selvik, Sebastian Tounekti and Andreas Bertelsen and if they are indeed no new additions from now on until the summer, it could be a pretty challenging start of the season for the Seagulls as they battle teams with more firepower and deeper benches.