Football Season Guide

VVV Venlo flamed out last season after showing promise early in the campaign and by the latter stages it was quite clear that the quality was just not there to stay in the play-off race. It felt like a logical decision for Rick Kruys to step aside as a manager at the end of the campaign as he seemed unable to motivate the squad anymore and he is also seemingly quite ambitious and the Venlo club could not match these ambitions. The new season is now about to start with one of the more experienced coaches in John Lammers taking over as a new man in charge. He earned promotion from this division with Heracles just over a year ago but that squad was much stronger than what VVV have at the moment. The immediate aim for Lammers will be to bring a fresh voice and try to make what is a pretty decent but one-dimensional group to be more than a sum of their parts. It looks like a pretty tough challenge for him given that no major additions have been made so far and the squad just does not look ready for competition. Most of the starting 11, barring Levi Smans, who is heading to the Eredivisie, have been retained but the lack of established new additions is a worry. The one new signing expected to be a regular so far is Greek Konstantinos Doumtsios up front but new faces are needed at the back and in midfield too. Lammers will hope to get the most of some decent players like Thijme Verheijen and Pepeijn Doesburg but overall there is just not enough in terms of genuine quality at the moment to make the fans excited and they should get prepared for a pretty turgid campaign yet again.