Football Season Guide

Viking were excellent last season and really pushed themselves to new heights throughout, keeping pace with the brilliant top two of Brann and Bodø/Glimt right until the final few weeks. They were even within a chance of getting that second place in a last-day showdown with Brann but mustered only a draw and thus have the Europa League to contend with. It was still a hugely successful season and a return to the sort of form that has been par for the course for the last four or five years after the aberration of 2023. Now the Stavanger side will aim to establish themselves as the one true contender for Bodø/Glimt at the top end of the standings and this is certainly a lofty aim that may well prove a bridge too far. Yert Bjarte Aarsholm and the management of the club do not lack for ambition and will be determined to make this team even better this year. They dipped into the market to bring in defensive additions in Kristoffer Klaesson, Andreas Bærtelsen and Martin Ove Roseth, and the squad looks deeper and better covered than last year. Stull, they lost their best defender in Sondre Longss and a reliable striker in Lars-Jorgen Salvesen and they will not be easy to replace. Zlatko Tripic had another excellent season last year and remains the spiritual leader of the squad but he is approaching 33 years now and it os not yet clear how much more the manager can rely on him to be fit and productive. The midfield is the one area where the team feels at least one or two players shoer of the required quality but generally it is hard to find too many holes in this squad and they should be there and thereabouts at the top end of the standings.