Football Season Guide

Basel are coming from a season that left their fans with mixed feelings, as it saw them qualify for the knock-out stage of the Champions League, but also fail to win the domestic title for the first time in eight years. Raphael Wicky was appointed in order to modernize the Red-Blues' style of play and make them more competitive in Europe, and was allowed to keep his job despite failing to deliver the title, with sporting director Marco Streller stating that appointing Wicky was a long-term decision and that the board felt that the early signs were good. The Red-Blues have become a formidable counter-attacking side under Wicky, best evidenced by their 5:0 Champions League demolition of Benfica, but have struggled to break down packed defences far too often, which was ultimately their undoing in the domestic title race and their young manager will need to learn how to adjust his tactics in order to make his side more lethal against the minnows. Basel have lost two of their best players in Mohamed Elyounoussi and Michael Lang, who both decided to try their luck in stronger leagues, while the likes of Tomas Vaclik and Leo Lacroix are among other key men to have left. Unsurprisingly, like-for-like replacements for Elyounoussi and Lang ave been signed in Aldo Kalulu and Silvan Widmer, while the club's determination to develop young players has been once again confirmed by their decision to replace Vaclik with Luzern's 24-year-old keeper Jonas Omlin, who has had a superb season. While not bringing in many players who are expected to become starters, Basel certainly have plenty of reasons to be optimistic. The likes of Dimitri Oberlin and Albian Ajeti will all be a year older and more experienced now, while the fans will be hoping for Ricky van Wolfswinkel to have an injury-free season this time around, after missing nearly a half of the previous campaign.