After a short recess, I welcome you back to Holland where FC Emmen are eagerly awaiting the start of their second season in the Eredvisie as we look to build on last year's 12th placed finish.
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. This season the Board are being just as cautious as last year, requesting we survive relegation again and reach the 3rd round of the Dutch Cup, something we failed at last time around.
Preseason
Our decent placing in the league last season earnt us just shy of £4M in prize money, enough to run the club for at least a year, even after the board generously gave me £1M towards transfers.
I decided we needed a major resuhuffle in personnel, with the most significant casualty being Oliver Antman. I'd gotten sentimental about Antman having chased after him for so long while at KuPS but it was clear now that where i'd tried to rework my tactic to suit him, that hadn't gotten us much success. Antman would fetch £2.2M and we'd get a further £540k from the sales of Maria (AML) and Dest (DR). A further four players would leave on free transfers, freeing up some much needed cash on the wage bill.
FC Emmen 2026/27 - Transfers Out
All told we would now need to recruit a back up keeper, an AML for the first XI and another in reserve, a first team DMC, plus backups for DL and DC as well.
Despite the transfer kitty and the extra cash from player sales, we struggled to find the players we needed and i was loathe to sign players that wouldn't improve us, just for the sake of it. I opted to utilise a few loan deals to help bridge the gap and bring in the quality we needed.
Pavlin Iliev joined for the season from Leeds and was a great addition in the role of DMC while Ronnie Gordon would bolster our DC options, on loan from Brighton. I also brought in Richard Willems from Vitesse as a last minute third choice keeper. I knew i wouldn't need him but i was also starkly aware of the lack of GKs in both the Reserves and in the U19s.
In terms of permanent signings, we made a few of those too. Five players joined for the future and were all placed into the Reserve team, all coming in on free transfers. We then brought in Steenvoorden and Le Gall for the AML slot, Sangweni for DR, Schoonbrood for DL, and Fabry Torres to challenge Funch for the number 1 jersey. Lancey is a 19yo DC from Wales who will be a key figure in years to come, while Mariani should provide cover in midfield. Peter Benninga has some impressive technical and physical attributes and i hope with some solid mentoring, he can develop into a leading striker.
That leaves Muller, who didn't come until the January but has stats to rival our on loan DM, Pavlin Iliev and has time to bed in ready for next season when he'll be in the starting role.
FC Emmen 2026/27 - Transfers In
In terms of games, we'd scheduled five friendly matches against similar or lower opposition and i was pleased with how we fared, winning all of them and keeping 4 clean sheets.
FC Emmen 2026/27 - Friendly results
The player making the biggest impact was new signing Jetta Schoonbrood who scored all five in our 5-0 drubbing of our affliliate club HZVV, and then scored the winner against Billericay as well. Not a bad way to kick start your career, let's hope he carries the form into the league matches!
FC Emmen 2026/27 - Jotta Schoonbrood
League Performances
The first half of the season proved to be a similar one to last year, consisting of a mixed bag of wins, draws and losses. In truth, we were very average in most of the games, picking up 7 losses, 7 draws and 5 wins. That said, two of those wins included a 5-0 demolition of Heracles Almelo and a 6-1 destruction of N.E.C. which was pleasing for the fans and board alike. A win at hme to Ajax and a draw away to FC Groningen are also not to be sniffed at and we found ourselves comfortably in mid-table as we headed into the winter break.
FC Emmen 2026/27 - League results (first half of the season)
As previously mentioned, the January Transfer Window saw Valentino Muller join from Rapid Vienna as the only new player in as he would create some competition for Iliev in defensive midfield.
We would restart the campaign with a couple more friendlies, both of which were won comfortably, before the return to league action saw us pick up just 4 points from our opening 5 games. Despite a further 4 wins, including a very satisfying away victory to high flying sc Heerenveen, we would labour to the end of the season and eventually succumbed to another 12th place finish, this time not really challenging the teams above us.
FC Emmen 2026/27 - League results (second half of the season)
Despite a slightly abject end to the season, we have at least started to solidify our status as a club capable of staying in the Eredivisie. Hopefully we can continue to build on this footing in the seasons to come.
Cup Performances
The board had requested we reach the third round of the Dutch Cup and I was determined to meet their expectations. We were drawn against Eerste Divisie club VVV-Venio in the first round and so i took the opportunity to rest a few of the starting XI. In the end, we got the job done but were far from convincing with the score stuck at 0-0 after 120 minutes and a penalty shoot out required to see us through.
Next up, another Eerste Divisie club in Telstar, and another lacklustre performance from us saw us scrape a 1-0 win, the only goal coming from the head of our centre back via a corner.
We'd achieved our goal, we'd reached the third round and would be drawn against league leaders Ajax. I fielded our best team and new that we had it in us to beat them, having already done so in the league.
They took an early lead and defended superbly, but we were able to soak up the pressure and match them as they attempted to put it beyond doubt. As we entered injury time, it looked like we would succumb to their superiority but a 91st minute equaliser meant we would battle it out for another 30 minutes in extra time.
Unfortunately, it wasn't to be as they scored another which was enough to knock us out. I was pleased with the performance though and thought on another day, we might have scraped the win.
Season Review
All told, another successful season as we continue to establish ourselves in the league and made the last 16 in the cup. Plenty to build on for next year as we look to break into the top half of the division.
FC Emmen 2026/27 - End of Season Review
In terms of player performances, Keita took most of the awards with Player of the Season, Goal of the Season and Young Player of the Season, while new full back Steenvoorden grabbed the award for Signing of the Season.
FC Emmen 2026/27 - Player Awards
Just 6 goals each for van Duijn and Junior was enough to see them jointly top the club's goalscoring record this year, suggesting the goals are being spread around the team. Iliev achieved 92% pass completion, while Keita took the plaudits for highest rating and most assists from his RPM role.
FC Emmen 2026/27 - Player Stats
I'm keen to continue the progression of the club, but am very happy with most of the squad and so will be giving some of the younger players time to develop and improve next year, hopefully meaning we can use the bulk of our transfer kitty for fewer, higher quality players. See you next time.
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.