Football Season Guide

AZ U21 were the most impressive of the youth sides last season as they pulled off consistently good results against top sides and played attacking and audacious football throughout. Coupled with the fact that the AZ U19 side also triumphed in the UEFA Youth League, it was indeed quite the triumphant season for the Alkmaar club as a whole. Yet it is now a new beginning for them as Maarten Maartens has decided to seek a new challenge and is not the manager of the team anymore. Jan Sierksma is the natural replacement after he was Maartens' assistant and also lead the U19 team in Europe. He knows the current crop of youngsters quite well and will be motivated to keep improving them and giving them the platform to excel. Players like Jayden Adai, Kees Smit, Ro-Angelo Zaal and Daminus Reyverson all have real potential to become part of the senior squad and will look to make the step up and produce at Eerste Divisie level this season. AZ U21 retain pretty much their entire squad from last season as only Fedde De Jong has moved on this summer and this ensures continuity and good understanding. Therefore, the Reds from Alkmaar seem ideally placed to have another pretty strong campaign and be the pick of the bunch of the U21 sides.