Football Season Guide

Sion are coming from a rather peculiar summer, as they have virtually signed no one, while conducting a major squad clear out. Two club stalwarts have left in Xavier Kouassi, who continues his career in USA, and Andris Vanins, who was benched in the late stages of the previous season, with Didier Tholot obviously planning for a change between the goal posts. None of the players that left were particularly important, but what is interesting is that Sion have allowed so many defenders to leave without replacing them, although it needs to be noted that Beg Ferati will be akin to a new signing after missing nearly the entirety of the previous season due to mononucleosis and its consequences. Another player who will be like a new signing is striker Ilombe Mboyo, who joined last winter, but did not get any playing time in the spring season due to injury problems. The Sitteners are widely seen as a side that underperformed domestically last season due to their European obligations and definitely have one of the best squads in the division. Didier Tholot will have no excuses if he fails to get his side competing for Europe this time around - the injury list has cleared up, there is no European football to distract them this time around and Sion will be expected to stop being the league's "nearly" team and possibly even push for the second place.