Itchygon

We managed some good results against the top clubs. We are not that good against the team similar to us in strength though. Hopefully I can give Holmberg som first team football this year. Probably send him out on loan, I got quite a few promising strikers.

This

Before going into the new season I will go through the squad that I have assembled to guide NAC Breda to, hopefully, a top half finish this year.

Goalkeepers


ten Rouwelaar has been in the club for over a decade, which eared him a Testimonial match this year. He's 37 years old and still a solid, if unspectacular player. Kadú is a player who has been on a free for quite a while since getting released from Porto. The Angola international will rotate with ten Rouwelaar this year to eventually take over the number 1 shirt.

Central defenders

As you can see a pretty young bunch, with Kappelhof as the only experienced player. Narsingh is an own product from the academy, so I'm delighted that he will feature regularly this year. I picked up Souttar for free from Dundee United and has featured three times for Scotland.

Wing backs

Mansou and Ritzmaier are the starters with the two loanees as back up.

Central midfield

Two new faces here: Quickly snapped up Tonny Trinidade after he was released from Feyernoord, actually I have to praise my scouts for it, because they recommended him, and I acted imediately. Very happy with that piece of business. The other new man is Irishman Paul Kerr who I bought for 450K from Ross County.
The two French loan players I've got from our parent club Bordeaux, but they didn't start enough games and have been sent back to France.

Strikers

Bakambu and Mehmeti are the starters. Scored tons of goals together last season, and I expect the same this year. Sosa is a young player with lots of potential, who arrived on a free from Penarol in Uruguay. I also have academy player Holmberg who could get a cup match or two.

If you're interested in a screenshot of any of the players, just give me shout!

What formation are you playing? 5-3-2?

5-3-2 is the formation, indeed. This is Holland after all...

But like Van Gaal you possess a very inexperienced bunch of centrebacks...

Yes, but unlike van Gaal (so far, for both of us) I posses wingbacks that can defend, midfielders who can pass the ball and strikers who score goals!

I am a Manchester United fan and I totally agree. I think Falcao will go well but we need a Hummels or a Ramos in the back.

I think Rojo and Blind will be solid enough. As I believe they can both be used both as wing backs and central defekters.

Some really good results, the wins over Ajax, Vitesse and Feyernoord especially. And some horrid ones. The 5-0 humiliation by PSV I will try to forget as soon as possible.
We still score a lots of goals, which is always fun - Bakambu and Mehmeti have scored 30 goals between them in 18 matches. And Tonny Trinidade has proved to be a splendid simning as well. Sometimes we just fall apart in defence though. The teams that can get wide players in between our wing backs and central defence tend to hurt us enormously from time to time.



¨Still, 8:th in the league isn't that bad.

I won't be any big changes to the squad during the January window, I think. I happy with the team.

Some transfer news:



Two record fees, one after the other. During the last day of the transfer window, Shalke made an 5.5M Euro bid for our promising striker Holmberg. That's the kind of bids a mid-table side in Holland struggling with finances can't turn down. (We aren't exactly struggling finacially any more, since I took over we're on the black in every column that matters. But money is always needed.)
Later Spartak Moscow came in with a big bid for Bakambu. He scored 36 league goals over the two seasons he spent with us. Now we look a little thin on the forward side, but that will be fixed, come next season:



YES! And Kelechi, the admiration goes both ways.

Hah, and you've given a bit of cash to Bayelsa too, nifty deal.

Great work getting Iheanacho!

I'm always loyal to my past players too, hope he's successful for you.

Nice work rgetting Kelechi and some superb transfer funds coming into the club! Definitely some good form!

Thanks guys. I'm really looking forward to next season. We'll just need to finish this one first - European places are in the pot!

tough loss against PSV. Great work in re-signing Iheanacho.

Thanks Joseph, yeah it was a great feeling signing Iheanacho. And more Bayelsa players on the way.
---



No, the second half of the season was not good enough.
We finished 7:th which meant we got to play a Euro Place Playoff. But we came up short against Vitesse, after a 3-1 loss away, we couldn't get a win at home.




After two seasons on loan we signed Izuchukwu. As it was on a free transfer nothing will go to our old club Bayelsa. He hasn't been very good, but I like him, and he's still young and can hopefully develope further.

Loving the player loyalty in this . Not the greatest end to the season but sure that'll pick up in the next!

Thanks Kez, I always try to re-sign players I like when I move clubs. But often you're not able to do that, so I'm happy to have brought two players and two staffmembers from Nigeria!

Here he is. Now aged 22 and ready to take on Europe!



The other big coup for this season. Grimaldo is a class player, and will slot in perfectly on the left flank. His contract with Barcelona is up at the end of the season, and I hope I can manage to sign him then.



Not as good as Frimaldo, but he'll do a good job rotating with Mansou on the right hand side.



Found this guy at the same time as Grimaldo in Barca's B team. Will rotate with Izuchukwu as the ball winning midfielder. For 250K, he looks a bargain.

A mixed bag of results, mostly quite poor. I have struggled to find a formation that work, so I have been fiddeling about quite a lot, and that doesn't do much good in terms of consistency...
The fact that it took Iheanacho 7 matches before he scored his first goal didn't help.



We have to face the fact that we are still a middle of the table team. Let's just quickly move on to the next half of the season, before this gets boring.

Some quality signings bro. Iheanacho looks quality, didn't expect him to be that good!

How has he adapted to Europe?

Love the reconnect with Iheanacho. Solid mid-table start to the season.

Fantastic to see you're reunited with Iheanacho Grimaldo looks very good and hope you snap him up!

Thanks guys for the support. That really make me want to go on with Breda, I was starting to glance towards the Ajax job after De Boer was named as a possible candidate for some job in Italy or Spain or something.

I am of course delighted to have Iheanacho back, and he is good and getting better! His first months in Europe hasn't been the best, sort of like the whole team's efforts. 5 goals in 16 appearances is less than I had hoped for. But I will of course stick with him, and keep starting him every match.

Grimaldo might be hard to sign. HE wanted over 50 000 a week, and I can only offer about half of that, but I haven't given up hope yet.

The most important first! I got my first trophy in the Netherlands as we won the Dutch Cup (KNVB Beker). Absolutely delighted! This also means we get to play the Europa League, without having to play the play off thing.



A good second half of the season which saw us lose only two games.



We finished 7:th, no major surprise there, but there were a major surprise in the league - Sparta Rotterdam won the league! Predicted to finish 14:th, they really came from nowhere. They must have been very lucky (or good) in the loan transfer market - their seven best players (AR-wise) are all loanees. So they might fall fast next year. They do however have a player called Yaya Banana...



This is how our players did. Noone really stand out, maybe Tonny Trinidade deserves a special mention. Some good goal scoring from both Iheanacho and Mehmeti in the end.

Congratulations on the silverware and heading to Europe next season!

Thanks Dan, looking forward towards next season.

Congrats on the trophy!

Thanks KEZ! The second one is on the way.