Football Season Guide

Finishing 9th for this club would have been considered a colossal failure twenty years ago. Nowadays though, it's about as much as they could have realistically hoped for. A season without the threat of relegation was most welcome for this sleeping giant of Spanish football after a torrid decade or so. Quite remarkably, the club has not yet sacked boss Baraja. Their general approach is to do so whenever their unrealistic targets are not met, and failing to make it into Europe this season falls into that category. However, they've opted to keep the former holding midfielder at the helm, and that continuity/stability could help them this season. Defence likely to be a problem, at least for their season opening phase due to injuries sustained by Gaya and Diakhaby, as well as a likely period of rest for Mosquera following his participation at the Olympics. This could result in a slow start with Gaya and Diakhaby not due back for a while yet. The rest of their squad looks average but familiar. They know each other well enough by now. As critical as people can be of this club (and rightly so), they've actually attempted to quash the chaos that typically engulfs them by keeping the same personnel where possible. Therefore, another push for Europe next season is on the agenda. It's unlikely they'll manage it because the squad simply isn't good enough, to be frank. Their transfer business has been underwhelming, to say the least, and what is already at the club is not enough to guarantee European football. It's not unfair to say that their best transfer business was keeping hold of key Georgian GK Giorgi Mamardashvili. This was a necessary to make the club more financially stable though, even if it meant missing out on the likes of Bryan Zaragoza and Carlos Vicente pre-season. However, they're making slow, steady improvements (despite the continuous anti-owner/Peter Lim demonstrations by the fans), and it's not inconceivable that they'll make it into the Conference League if Lady Luck is on their side. They must improve their wing positions, though - they're very weak there.