A new season of Dutch top flight football begins on Friday with Volendam v Vitesse. Here's a look at the division through my perspective as we head towards match day 1.
It's only right to start with last seasons irrepressible champions Feyenoord. The Rotterdam club celebrated a league triumph for the first time since 2017 and after initially wondering if the club would get ripped apart following the success I actually think they are in just as good, if not better shape to replicate last seasons triumph and retain the title. Captain, Orcun Kokcu is the highest profile departure, leaving for Benfica, Danilo moves to Rangers, Sebastian Szymanski and Oussama Idrissi's loans come to an end. However, the incomings, at least on paper looks promising. Ayase Ueda, joining from Cercle Brugge, is highly touted after an impressive looking campaign in Belgium. Midfielder, Ramiz Zerrouki signs from Twente for over €7M. Thomas Beelen and Thomas van den Belt arrive after promotion from the second tier with Zwolle and youngsters Antef Tsoungui and Yankuba Minteh join from Premier League clubs Brighton and Newcastle. Tsoungui permanently and Minteh on loan. But in my opinion, the most exciting of the singing is Calvin Stengs. His career has stalled a little since leaving AZ for Nice in 2021 and he spent last season on loan at Antwerp. Can he rediscover the promise that led to him getting the move from Alkmaar to Ligue 1 now he's back playing under Arne Slot's tutorage? Which leads me onto the manager. Surely the most important aspect to consider when discussing Feyenoord is that they managed to hold onto the highly thought of Slot with a mooted move to Tottenham not coming to fruition. With Slot staying put, the incomings I've touched upon and with players of the calibre of Geertruida, Hartman, Wieffer, Timber and Gimenez still, as I write, at the club I don't see any reason to see why Feyenoord can't retain the title.
PSV ended last season as runners up after pulling away from Ajax in the closing stages of the season. This time around they'll be managed by Peter Bosz who returns to the Eredivisie after leaving Ajax in 2017 to replace Ruud van Nistelrooy. Bosz' three jobs since departing Amsterdam, at Dortmund, Leverkusen and Lyon have all resulted in a sacking and he comes back to the Netherlands with a lessened reputation than when he left it. The jury is out. He has a talented squad in Eindhoven, Noa Lang returns to the league after a successful trio of seasons at Club Brugge and young USA forward Ricardo Pepi joins after reaching double figures for goals last season in a shocking Groningen side. He'll compete with Luuk de Jong for a starting berth. Also at Bosz' disposal are impressive midfielders Ibrahim Sangare, Guus Til and Joey Veerman. The latter two will be hoping to find a way into the Dutch squad for the Euros. Wideman Johan Bakayoko will be hoping to kick on after a promising 2022/23 season and could be the next that PSV look to cash in on after fetching in a nice sum for Noni Madueke and Cody Gakpo recently. The big question mark about PSV will be how they cope without wonder kid Xavi Simons who returns to PSG after a stellar campaign where he scored 19 and assisted 8. In conclusion, I see PSV as the closest challengers to Feyenoord.
Onto Ajax. To say the Amsterdam club are in a transitional period would be an understatement. To me it looks more firefighting. Changes right through the club structure, from the boardroom to the pitch. Sven Mislintat is the man charged with overseeing the present situation and he has appointed former Sparta Rotterdam manager Maurice Steijn to guide what looks an underwhelming Ajax squad. Steijn took Sparta to a sixth place finish last season but his move to Ajax has taken many aback. In truth, I don't expect him to see the season out. He joins at a time where Ajax are losing key personnel from the squad. Jurrien Timber leaves for Arsenal. Dusan Tadic comes to an agreement with the club that enables him to move to Fenerbahce citing reasons such as lack of quality in the squad for him wanting out. Mohammed Kudus and Edson Alvarez are also expected to leave before season start. There's been more too, Bassey leaves after one season, Stekelenburg retires. Branco van den Boomen, one of my favourites, rejoins the club on a free transfer from Toulouse and highly rated youngsters Carlos Forbs and Benjamin Tahirovic join from Man City and Roma. Last season, falling out of the Champions League spots into third was a disaster, this season I worry they may fall another place back.
The reason for that concern is that for as much as Ajax look misfunctional, AZ are a well oiled machine. The conveyor belt of talent continues in Alkmaar. Usually I'd have concern about a team losing players of the quality of Tijjani Reijnders and Milos Kerkez but AZ never deviate from the plan. Replacements are already in the building. David Moller Wolfe comes in from Brann in Norway. Portuguese pair Alexandre Penetra and Tiago Dantas arrive. Son of Mark, Ruben van Bommel joins from MVV. The jong AZ team continue to provide exceptional talent and the pathway in place at Alkmaar is second to none in the Netherlands currently. Another batch of youngsters will be promoted to the first team squad this season. I think AZ can break up the big three this season.
On the next rung down of the ladder we come to the teams that'll be hopeful of landing a continental playoff place come the end of the season. Twente and Utrecht will both be confident of replicating last seasons top eight finishes. At Twente, Joseph Oosting comes in as manager after a successful stint at RKC Waalwijk. He replaces veteran manager Ron Jans. Jans' Twente side of last season was built around an unbelievable defensive record, the best in the divison, conceding just 27 goals in 34 matches. There have been some departures, I've already mentioned Ramiz Zerrouki joining Feyenoord. Julio Pleguezuelo moves back to England with Plymouth Argyle and left back Anass Salah-Eddine goes back to Ajax after a productive loan. Vaclav Cerny gets a deserved move to the Bundesliga with Wolfsburg. His replacement is Naci Unuvar on a loan from Ajax, he has a great record with the Ajax youth teams all the way up to Jong Ajax level but a loan at Trabzonspor last season didn't work out, this season is a big one for him to see figure out what level his senior career will be played at. In Utrecht, more of the same is the order of the day. Young Danish manager Michael Silberbauer is at the helm, prolific striker Anastasios Douvikas remains at the club despite rumoured interest from Serie A, Zidane Iqbal is an interesting addition from Man Utd with fans of the Red Devils airing their frustration at the low transfer fee on social media platforms. I think it's likely that Sparta Rotterdam slip down towards mid table. They punched well above expectations in 22/23 but with Steijn departing it'd take something extra special to replicate this time around. Jeroen Rijsdijk steps up from assistant to lead the club. Heerenveen are another club in danger of a slide this season, losing flying full back Milan van Ewijk to Coventry and the loan of regular goalscorer Sydney van Hooijdonk coming to an end will make this season more difficult than last for The Super Frisians.
From the mid table clubs I like the look of NEC to make a step forward a compete for European playoff places. Young manager Rogier Meijer impresses, I wouldn't be surprised if he's on some of the larger clubs shopping lists if they make a mid season change. Talented youngsters, right back Bart van Rooij and midfielder Dirk Proper are joined by Ajax loanees left Youri Baas and forward Sontje Hansen. Add in veterans Jasper Cillessen and Lasse Schone and for my money you've got one of the most interesting teams in the league.
At the end of last season we waved farewell to Emmen, Cambuur and the terribly bad Groningen. The trio have been replaced by Heracles, Zwolle and Amsterdam neighbours Almere City. Of the three, Heracles would appear to best placed to achieve survival. They scored over 103 goals in 38 matches last season. Zwolle's squad had been picked at after finishing level on points with Heracles and scoring just four goals less.
Hopefully this write up whets the appetite a little for the new Dutch season. To my knowledge, matches are still available to watch on Mola TV.
All shares and engagement welcome.