We could use this thread for evaluating and discussing all teams in the jupiler league. Ofcourse for most clubs the transfers aren't all done yet but for some you already have a good view on what the team will look like. 1st place: Anderlecht Anderlecht seems to have become stronger with the transfers of Mitu, Delorge, Sami Alagui and Akin. Only one to go so far is Aruna, who didn't have a too good season. Kompany will only go for very much money and Tihinen is most probable to leave. Loanee Maarten Martens has signed a contract at RKC and some talented youngsters have stepped into the first team (the best of them seems to be Ivorian defender Cheick Tioté). Christophe Gregoire and Walter Baseggio might also leave. Strange thing is that we haven't heard anything about transfers from Wilhelmsson and Jestrovic, who were both expected to go. Other possible signings are Bart Goor (if the prize lowers), Sylvio Proto (if he accepts Anderlecht's final offer) and a central defender (Gooch is not a possibility as he signed a new contract 'till 2007). I expect some changes at Anderlecht, maybe a surprise with Kompany in midfield and Vanden Borre in the centre of defense, which would allow for Delorge to play the right back position. I believe Anderlecht even seems ready for European football.
2nd place Standard Liege This could become the season for Standard. The transfer period still is long and many players can still leave but I believe it's a good sign that Conceicao and Gooch signed a new contract and that Geeraerts has indicated he really wants to stay. This could mean they will be able to hold on to all of their players and play with the same team and, very unexpectedly, with the same coach. The only guys leaving seem to be Mo Tchité and Sambegou Bangoura who can easily be replaced by Roussel. New signing is Matthieu Beda from St-Truiden. He was good at Bordeaux but didn't have a good season. Almani Moreira returns from his loan spell at Hamburg but will probably be loaned out again. Latest news is that Trond Sollied wants to buy Ivica Dragutinovic. Standard seems to have found something they had lost the past 20 years: stability. Let's hope this can get them some good result. More later...
Third place: Club Brugge A lot of important players went. Simons to PSV, Vanderheyden to Wolfsburg, Cornelis to Genk and to lesser extent Rozehnal to PSG. It will be hard replacing all these guys, although Klukowski seems to be a good replacement for Vanderheyden and they already had De C*ock at right back for Cornelis. Valgaeren is better than Rozehnal IMO, so that shouldn't be a problem. The biggest problem will be to find someone who can come close to replacing Simons, who was very important for Brugge. With Vermant they got an experienced player, but I never liked his style and don't think he's the right man to replace Simons. What I've heard about Leko is all very positive and after all he did play many matches in primera division. With Dufer they also bought a very good player for the right side. The problem could be that there have been too many transfers this summer and it will take some time to build a strong team. Add to that a new trainer and staff and it might become difficult. Let's hope we can see some youngsters break through this year, because they have a lot of talent. I guess there's also a chance Ceulemans will play Balaban in midfield, as he did in the last practice match.
Yes, great stuff tomo! I'm surprised to see you think Club Brugge will be 3rd. I'm wondering where you'll place Genk now.
I also think that Anderlecht will be the champion 2006. They have lost only one player (Aruna Dindane) and with Serhat Akin and Bart Goor, they have 2 new players of international niveau. Mitu and Delorge are good for the Belgian Championship but not for the Champions League. I think that Standard will be the most dangerous opponent this year. They have a strong team with Conceiçao, Rapaic, Gooch, Drago,... If they don't start late playing good football (as the last years), they can also be champion 2006. Club Brugge will go for the 3rd place. They lost too much players (Simons, Vanderheyden, Cornelis, Ceh, Rozenahl,...) and the new players (Leko, Vermant, Valgaeren,...) but also Klukowski and Ishiaku are not so strong. Furthermore, striker Rune Lange is injured for 4 months... Racing Genk, Lierse SK, Sporting Charleroi and La Gantoise will play for the 4th place. The two promoted teams will go back to League 2.
DSCO5, I have been thinking about placing Genk in fourth position, but I actually believe Gent will end higher so: 4th place: AA Gent Last year they did unexpectedly good despite many injured and I expect them to do even better this year. Georges Leekens is a very experienced coach who always manages to get the best out of a team (the 1-goal difference victories are his trademark). Unnoticable, Gent is turning into a top team with the new stadium (Arteveldestadium) coming up in 2007. The players that return from injury or that are able to play at full capacity are numerous: Sandy Martens (ex-NT), Nicolas Lombaerts (U21's), Davy De Beule (ex-NT),... Add to this the first rate defending of Dario Smoje (ex-Milan)Stephen Laybutt and Steve Cooreman (captain and a very good player IMO) the technical supremacy of Mbark Boussoufa (ex-Ajax and Chelsea) and the killer instinct of Alliyu Datti (ex-Milan) and you have a team that can challenge anybody. Two goalies (Herpoel and Mollez) that can keep their nets clean will also make a big contribution to this AA Gent. If they don't have too much injuries, they will have a surprisingly good season. O-side, nice to hear you feel the same way about next season.
5th place: RC Genk This is a bit of a longshot, as they can finish anywhere between second and eight place. They have a new coach, that isn't so strict as Vandereycken, so this might give a new impulse. After all Broos has managed to get some titles with Anderlecht and Brugge. Problem about this group is that it doesn't really have a leader. The one who stands out most is goalie Jan Moons, but he makes the occasional blunder, which is why I'm not fond of him. They would better give a chance to promising goalie Logan Bailley, who managed to impress me during his loan spell at Heusden-Zolder two years ago. Koen Daerden should become the leader in time. This group is simply too sweet but apart from that it has all the qualities to have a good season. Vandenbergh showed his Torinstinct last season, leading Genk to European football with his goals, Engelaar proved to be a very polyvalent midfielder, Stojanovic has a lot of overview, Claessens was a security in defense and Daerden showed us he is no longer a talent but simply a good player. Beslija and Priske (if he stays) are also good players Add to this the transfer of Hans Cornelis, who can play in the centre of defense or at right back, the possible breakthrough of central midfielder and huge talent Faris Haroun and gifted defender Sebastien Pocognoli and the return after injury from Thomas Chatelle and Genk might just become the surprise of the season. I guess a lot will depend on whether Engelaar stays or not. Feyenoord seems to be after him.
What's your verdict on Lierse for the coming season? If I remember well they start with a tough game at Standard.
IMO opinion, Standard seem to be good for 1st place this year. They have the players and more importantly - the stability. They just need to fly out of the blocks
They have a tough start indeed, playing Standard on the first match day and Club Brugge on the fourth. If they start off well, they will end in the left, otherwise it will be the right part of the table. Lierse is a team that's hard to predict, as they lost their two best players and bought some new promising guys. It's hard to tell how they will adapt, mostly because all of them are Croatian.
6th place: Charleroi Last year they had a good run and this year nothing much has changed. They were able to hold on to their fantastic coach Jacky Matthijsen and to star players Orlando, Lacquait and Akgül, although Lacquait might still leave (and was reported to leave to Marseille). The main reason why I place them so high is because of their coach, who is a master-tactician and can get the best out of every team. So far they have only lost central defender Ibrahim Kargbo, but on the other hand attracted some talented youngsters from lower division teams (which is how Philippe Albert and Daniel Van Buyten were discovered). One of them is Francois Sterchele, the top scorer from third division club OH Leuven. Charleroi really wants to be a top team but still has a long way to go IMO. A top coach can get the best out of a team, but as soon as he leaves... Thing to look forward to in this Charleroi are the fantastic dribbles of Brazilian Orlando.
7th place: Westerlo This team lost its coach Jan Ceulemans to Club Brugge and found a decent replacement in Herman Helleputte. He won't have a hard time keeping his players motivated, as most of them are very experienced. Not only did they get goalie Ronny Gaspercic back from Spain, they also bought Nico Van Kerkhoven and Tom Van Imschoot, got some guys from Feyenoord and added a youngster to their team. They may also be expecting some players from Chelsea. The losses aren't too big: Paas is the only really important player to go. Westerlo is as ripe as Genk is green and this is a major advantage. A smart policy without too much highs and lows still proves its worth, and Westerlo will no doubt end in the left part of the table.
8th place: GBA This team has the most training hours in the whole jupiler league. Small wonder if you know their coach is a former police inspector. After surprisingly winning the Belgian cup last year GBA is heading for Europe. They lost Daniel Cruz, the technician of the team, to Lierse and might still lose Carl Hoefkens (who became international again) to Stoke City. Their team looks solid though, with some young Belgians and some experienced foreigners. Too bad we won't get to see more of major talent Moussa Dembele, who left for Willem II. Maybe this could become the year of the final breakthrough for wonderful players as Dickson, Prince or Vander Linden. Messoudi is the one that has already become a starter for the team. New sensation might become Sezer Ozturk, a young turk that came over from Bayer Leverkusen. In the last few years he seems to have shone on various youth tournaments. He is on a one year loan deal with an option for buying him. I can only evaluate the other transfers later, as the names say nothing to me.
9th place: Lierse And now we have arrived at the most wonderful team in the jupiler league . Lierse lost strongholders Mitu and Delorge to Anderlecht but was able to contract GBA's star Daniel Cruz, the Ukrainian most promising youngster of the year, the Croatian most promising youngster of the year, former French NT striker Tony Vairelles and some more Croatians who seem to be quite good (Tomic for example). Besides that they have offered professional contracts to six (!!!) promising youngsters, of which many are youth internationals. This prooves again that no team can live up to the standard of Lierse's youth system. And now the negative side of it all: we have found a rich investor but he doesn't seem to know too much about the game. Therefor he uses advisors, of which some are OK, other not. The players are all very good, but you and I know that a team can't be bought (except when your name is Abramovich), so it will take a lot of time to get the chemistry going. It also seems that, apart from Vanderstraeten we don't have any real leaders, although Wils, Fasotte and Vairelles might become that. Further I'm looking forward to the dribbles of Adolphe Tohoua.
I think Lierse will be better than 9th place!!! OK, Mitu left the club, but Cruz is even good or better than Mitu. They will be on 5th place!! You said something about the captain of the Nigerian national team: what is his name again?
Souleyman, he seems to have been the captain of the U21's and can be played as a right or left defender. But I don't know if they bought him yet, last thing I heard was that he was on trial. I hope they can get the 5th place, and it is possible, especially because Genk might lose some of their strongholders. But, you know how it goes, Lierse has been predicted many a times to end high or to be the surprise of the season and they hardly ever succeeded.
In looking back at older pages of this forum, I found this. It seems I was quite a visionary Only team I failed completely was my own team...
goddamn. that's amazing !! ofcourse there are some mistakes, but predicting : 1.anderlecht 2.standard 3.brugge 4.gent 5.genk would have earned you A LOT of money