Football Season Guide

Heracles Almelo finished the previous season around mid-table in 10th position. This was a decent result for the Almelo side but there was disappointment about not having qualified for the Europa League play-offs. It was a campaign of ups and downs for Heracles and one of the main goals for the upcoming season will be to become more consistent in the results. Samuel Armenteros was the absolute star of the previous season by scoring 19 goals in the Eredivisie. This even lead to his debut in the Swedish national team at the end of the campaign. He is aiming to secure a transfer now and it will be really hard for Heracles to keep him. Paul Gladon, who was sold to Wolverhampton Wanderers last summer, has returned to Almelo on loan to deal with a possible departure of Armenteros. The decent season has lead to the departure of a few regular players. Midfielder Thomas Bruns and defenders Mike te Wierik and Justin Hoogma have made transfers to Vitesse, FC Groningen and Hoffenheim respectively. The Almelo side has been able to deal with these transfers by adding several new players to the squad. It looks likely that some of those, for example Jamiro Monteiro and either Jeff Hardeveld or Bart van Hintum will immediately be in the starting line-up at the beginning of the campaign. Goalkeeper Bram Castro came close to a transfer to AA Gent, but this got cancelled in the end. He is expected to remain the number 1 goalkeeper despite the addition of Harm Zeinstra to the squad. Finishing the upcoming season around 10th spot in the table would be a satisfying result for Heracles Almelo, although they will be dreaming of qualifying for the Europa League play-offs at the end of the campaign. Having won those at the end of the season 2015/2016, it resulted in a Europa League preliminary round debut which was definitely too short for the Almelo side as they were quickly eliminated.