Football Season Guide

Sevilla claimed a record third consecutive Europa League title last season but once again they will try their hand at the big table in 2016-17 as they qualify for the UEFA Champions League by virtue of that success in the continent’s secondary club competition. Unai Emery’s side crashed out of that tournament at the group stage last year and will be hoping to make it into the knockout stages this time around, even if that scuppers their hopes of a fourth Europa League trophy tilt. Unai Emery has departed for the Paris Saint Germain bench and has been replaced in Nervion by former Chile manager Jorge Sampaoli, who is understood to have turned down the Argentina job in favour of a position at the helm of a Champions League club in Spain. Indeed, it has been a summer of significant change at the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan. Turnover in players is often high at the club – they have made heftier profits than any other club in Spain by buying potential talents and selling them world class players – but during the summer of 2016 the upheaval has been tumultuous even by Sevilla’s standards. Joining Emery through the exit door were key players in Sevilla’s 2015-16 season and the spine of the team will have to be replaced following the departures of Kevin Gameiro, Ever Banega, Gregorz Krychowiak and skipper Coke Andujar. Ever the exciting prospectors, Monchi and his team have recruited a host of exciting young players to replace them, with seasoned La Liga performers Luciano Vietto and Pablo Sarabia coming in as well as Primera Division debutants in the shape of Ganso, Wissam Ben Yedder, Franco Vazquez, Joaquin Correa and Hiroshi Kiyotake. That group includes players formerly billed as future world-beaters and if any club can extract the best out of them it is Sevilla. Last term’s beaten Copa del Rey finalists have been rampant in pre-season so far, beating River Plate, Santa Fe, Mainz and St Pauli in the warm-up to their first competitive match in the UEFA Super Cup against Real Madrid on August 9th. That is quickly followed by the Spanish Super Cup over two legs against Barcelona, so Sevilla will be busier than any other club in Spain before they kick-off their La Liga campaign at home to Espanyol towards the end of the month. We can expect an exciting brand of football from Jorge Sampaoli, which is likely to be less conservative than Unai Emery’s approach. Sampaoli led Chile to the 2015 Copa America title with the same energetic, high-pressing strategy favoured by his famous predecessor Marcelo Bielsa and, looking at the attack-minded midfielders he has recruited, we can expect a similarly ferocious tempo in Nervion. Any potential weakness could be in defence if they don’t sign any top players in that area, as they are looking slightly short at the back, although Sergio Rico will be a massive figure behind the defenders if he maintains his form in goal. Sevilla begin as underdogs against Real Madrid and Barcelona in the Super Cups but there is room for upsets in both games. Either trophy would give them a big confidence boost ahead of the new season and probably help this new team under new management to gel.