Welcome back to De Oude Meerdijk in the North East corner of the Netherlands, home to newly promoted FC Emmen.

The Journey So Far...

If you've missed any of the previous updates, you can read a quick summary on how it's gone so far here. The upcoming campaign sees us return to the Eredivisie for the 2025/26 season and the Board have sympathetically asked us to avoid relegation while reaching the 3rd round of the Dutch Cup.

Preseason

After promotion in the most unlikely of circumstances, we found ourselves preparing a squad for a relegation battle, rather than a promotion campaign, which I'd originally been expecting.

We have the bones of a decent squad, but are seriously lacking in defence, not to mention some decent backups to the starting XI and so I set about identifying our most urgent needs for the upcoming season.

I'd already signed our loanee DM, Bonke Innocent, and a DC in Jarno Janssen on permanent contracts earlier in the season and they would be joining at the start of July. Unfortunately, both were signed for the Eerste Divisie but i'm hopeful they will be decent backups when needed. Elsewhere, we need another GK and DC, plus a backup DL, AMR and two MCs.

Last year's signing of the season, Enzo Millot, would return as our leading IF on the right hand side, while our 22yo Italian maestro Pantaleo Manzo would join as his understudy.

Our GK vacancy would be filled by Oliver Funch who was initially signed as a backup but in fact will feature as our main GK.

In DC we brought in Marco Kana who has great attributes and youth on his side to become a mainstay at the club. I also signed another youngster called Adni Cani who i hope can develop at the club and possibly play a few games as a squad player this term.

At DL it's Logan Ndenbe to challenge Cristiano who at 32, is probably entering his last year at the club.

In central midfield we brought in Cheick Keita and Arthur Beauvallet, both of whom would push for starting places and create some healthy competition.

With the first team squad assembled, i was happy enough with the players we brought in, but there's no question that we will struggle against the bigger sides. Hopefully we've enough in us to secure our Eredivisie status for another year come May.

League Performances

FC Emmen 2025/26 - We're top!

The fixture list was kind to us to begin with, offering up Heracles Almelo, N.E.C. and NAC Brada in our first 3 fixtures. There are no easy games here but at least this opposition were closer to our standard than the likes of Ajax or PSV. We came away with a draw and two wins and found ourselves at the top of the league on 7 points (while the rest of the league were yet to play their third game).

Ajax showed us what we could expect against better opposition as they smashed us 4-2 at home. I didn't mind the defeat and was pleased to net a couple of goals but was very frustrated that Cani (only playing out of necessity) passed the ball into our own net from outside his own area.

Cani attempts a pass-back, but chooses to score instead.

Despite the wake up call from Ajax, we didn't completely collapse in the next few games. The highlight being a remarkable comeback away to AZ who led 3-0 at halftime, only for us to squash their celebrations and net 3 in the second half!

Following our promising start in our opening 6 games, we would go on to secure just three wins in our next 15, the other 12 games being losses. We slid down the table but those early wins were what we needed to keep us comfortably in 12th, and away from a relegation battle.

January couldn't come quick enough and a couple of weeks away from the league was a welcome distraction. We played two friendlies and won both comfortably, before restarting the second half of the season with 3 wins from our opening 6 against AZ, Roda JC and Excelsior .

With 8 games to go we were within touching distance of 8th place, with just 4 points separating us in 12th. Two impressive away wins against Groningen and then sc Heerenveen saw us take 6 points in convincing fashion, but unfortunately an inconsistent run of final games saw us finish the season in 12th with a draw against 13th placed FC Twente on the final day of the season.

All told, 12th is still mid-table and so we comfortably met the board's expectations and can be pleased with our highest ever finish in the Eredivisie, earning us a little over £5M in prize money which is enough to see the club stay in the black for the next year or two.

Cup Performances

Our cup campaign held hope for some much needed revenue and with the Board expecting us to reach the Third Round i was expecting at least three rounds of prize money to come in.

We kicked off against second-tier side Fortuna Sittard whom we beat in last year's promotion playoffs and we managed a decent win here as well to set up the Second Round with VVV-Venlo. VVV proved to be a tougher opponent and managed to scrape a 2-1 win, although in part thanks to a poor showing on our part, thus resulting in an early exit from the cup.

There's no worse feeling than getting knocked out of a cup but unfortunately for us, it would be another 11 months before we could have another go.

Season Review

If I'm honest, I'm shocked that the Eredivise doesn't have the same bizarre permutations as the Eerste Divisie, and therefore can't believe we've not qualified for Europe!

In all seriousness though, we went up a season or two earlier than planned but held our own against a number of bigger teams, which has given us a solid platform to build on for next year.

FC Emmen 2025/26 - Season Review

The main focus of our investment will need to be in defence but i'm unsure what we can expect in the way of financial backing so may not get what we clearly need. Time will tell.

In terms of stats, we were surprisingly the league's 6th highest scoring team, 2nd best in passes completed ratio (top in total passes) and top of the average possession table.

We also did well in some of the more obscure metrics, including average attendance and stadium sellouts, both of which have led the Board to start looking for a site to build a new stadium on.

I'm looking forward to bringing in some new recruits to strengthen the squad next year and am hopeful we can push for another mid-table finish, maybe even top half. Until then...

Thanks for reading the blog, i hope you enjoyed this update. You can follow me on Twitter @fm_athlete and in my FM Slack channel #fm_athlete for more updates throughout the season.