With a preference for rebuilding once great clubs, I not only wanted to take over a club who had fallen from grace over a longer period of time, but had started the 2019/20 season on a similar trajectory.
As I searched the leagues looking for a club that caught the eye, a few managed to gain more than a cursory glance, but I knew I had found the perfect club almost the second their name appeared in front of me.
RSC Anderlecht truly ticked all the boxes. Historically they were precisely what I wanted, a powerhouse. 34 times Belgian champions, they are without question their nation’s most successful club. Not only do they boast more than twice the number of domestic titles of any of their rivals, they also have history on the continental front, with an impressive haul of 5 European trophies, putting them in a select group of only 15 clubs to reach this landmark.
Recent years had not been so kind. A run of 5 seasons where they had won only 1 Pro League Championship and just a single appearance in the Champions League, finishing bottom of their group, and Anderlecht are no longer considered the force they once were. This culminated in a 6th place finish in 2018/19, meaning the club would have no European football of any kind for the first time in over 50 years.
If the fans were looking for a beacon of hope, it wasn’t forthcoming. Big name, big money summer signings could not stop the rot and the beginning of the 2019/20 season had been nothing short of a shambles. After a run of 1 win in 10 league matches, Anderlecht sat an appalling 12th in the table as they headed into December, and the misery was compounded by an embarrassing 2-1 defeat to third tier Deinze in their first (and only) cup match of the season.
Sitting down with the board to discuss the club’s future was very revealing. They see the long term problems the club has, and have admitted they may have to wait as long as two and a half years for a league title, and didn’t seem expect anything from this season, with the exception of some positive signs.
Finance is the big problem that strikes you on the first day. What we have are a large batch of overpaid underachievers. We sit in 12th place with three players earning upwards of £60k per week. Reigning champions Genk’s top earner pulls £26k. The financial problems don’t stop there. With the club in serious debt, the board will make just 15% of any transfer income available, and with a starting transfer budget of £860k, I’m going to need to work quickly to identify low cost ways of improving the squad in my first window.
The upshot is the Academy. The youth system that developed Lukaku, Tielemans and Kompany looks to be on the cusp of a golden generation. The likes of A lbert Sambi Lokonga and Yari Verschaeren are already impacting at first team level, and just below them sit a group of exceedingly talented 16 and 17 year olds who could be the core of our team for a number of years.
We have 4 days to prepare for our first match together, away to 11th placed KV Kortrijk on Sunday night. The previous coach had used a 3-5-2, but I far prefer a back 4 system, and so we will play a 4-2-3-1 with narrow wingers and aggressive full backs. This isn’t far from my preferred system and, vitally, it suits the players we have at the moment.
The goalkeeper and defence picks itself due to injuries and suspensions, most notably Vincent Kompany, who still isn’t quite fit enough to make his first appearance of the season. With two loanee centre backs starting and two up and coming young Belgian full backs waiting in the wings, I don’t imagine this weekend’s back four will be one that will stand the test of time, but they look like they’ll do a more than adequate job. Albert Sambi Lokonga is my first pick in midfield, as good as any option we have now, and a future star. I choose Adrian Trebel from a number of solid but uninspiring options as his partner. Injuries again play a part in the selection of my attacking midfield trio, with Nasri and Pjaca unavailable for a number of weeks, I select underperforming Nacer Chadli and young prodigy Yari Verschaeren either side of summer arrival Michael Vlap. Kemar Roofe has been the team’s best player this season, and will lead the line.
The bench is young, very young. Of the 6 outfield players, only one is older than 20, three are 17. I’ll avoid the cliched quote about winning with kids.
The match itself is a mixed bag. The players already show glimpses of the style we want them to play, but the game is fairly even and we leave with a point after drawing 1-1. A highlight is the performance of Michael Vlap. The young dutch midfielder had struggled for game time before my arrival, but today he put in a man of the match performance,Anderlecht scoring the opening goal and showing some nice link up play in midfield.
The result and performance are indicative of where we are. There is plenty work to be done.
What could have been an excellent first 8 games ended up being rather average after two late collapses in January.
After the 1-1 draw in the first match, December was a fairly solid month on the field. The highlight was a very dominant performance against 3rd at the time Charleroi, although we were beaten comfortably by Standard Liege. Taking 10 points from 15 in this period was a very respectable tally and represented a solid 1st month, particularly in the context of an injury crisis, where almost every starter missed at least one of the five matches.
We returned from a three week winter break and got off to a flying start. A late goal from Michael Vlap gave us a 2-1 victory in a tough, even match away to rivals Club Brugge, and our first major result together. The following two matches were rather bizzare, and very similar. In both games we were completely dominant for the first 75 minutes, controlling the game, conceding almost no chances and taking the lead. We then consipired to turn both leads into defeats in the dying stages.
Taking a positive perspective, the team have clearly improved over our first 2 months. The poor final ten minutes against Gent and Mouscron have taken away a near perfect start and those 6 points could be costly if we are to make the top 6 and qualify for the championship group, but if we can maintain our performance levels and cut out the late collapses, we are certainly headed in the right direction.
Part 2 - Transfers
We kicked off our January window by securing 18 year old Uruguayan Manuel Ugarte. We identified Ugarte as a player who could not only improve the team for the future due to his huge potential, but will contend for a starting position from the outset. His profile will perfectly compliment Sambi Lokonga’s box to box style, with Ugarte operating as a defensively strong deep lying playmaker. We used the majority of our entire £850k budget on Ugarte, offering future payments taking the total transfer fee up to £1.7m.
Having brought in funds through the sale of Peter Zulj, Zakaria Bakkali and Pieter Gerkens, we added 17 year old Filip Brekalo from Dinamo Zagreb late in the window for a fee of £300k, rising to £500k. With a minimal percentage of transfer revenue made available, we took the opportunity to bring in a top young left back, securing the long term future of that position.
Finally, we secured three pre-contract signings for the summer window. The biggest coup was attracting Argentinian midfielder Tomas Belmonte from Lanus, winning the race to sign him ahead of Benfica, Sporting CP and over 10 MLS clubs. In addition we brought Keres Masangu & Jamie Yayi Mpie, two young Belgians in Serie A, back to their homeland. Both attracted significant fees to go to Italy as 16 year olds, and now at 18 & 19 years old still represent significant potential for the future.
Part 3 - The rest of the season
Our aim for the remainder of the regular season is clear, we want to make the top 6 split. This will maintain our position amongst the elite clubs in the country, and give us the strongest possible chance of qualifying for Europe.
This wont be an easy task. After our recent dropped points we are 8 points from 6th with 8 games to go. If we are unable to make it, the peculiarities of the Belgian League system will still give us an outside chance. A long winded qualification process involving a group stage could lead us to a chance to steal a European spot from the team finishing 4th in a single match. Ideally, it wont come to that.
We recovered from two poor results in late January to get an excellent 2-1 win over title challengers Genk, kickstarting our eight game run in for the top six. Once again however, we slipped up in the next match, losing 3-1 to relegation fighting Waasland-Beveren, with the home side in clinical form.
Our results from then on were good, taking 5 wins and a draw from the final 6 games of the regular season, keeping four clean sheets in the process. Much to our disappointment, this wasn’t enough to make the top 6, falling two points short and coming in 7th place. If we were going to qualify for Europe, we would be doing it the difficult way.
Group stage and knockout rounds
We coasted through the group phase, securing top spot after four games, allowing us to rotate in the final two matches. This took us into the semi finals against Mouscron. After taking a 2-0 lead in the first five minutes of the first leg, we were comfortable through the rest of the tie, eventually booking our place in the final with a 3-0 aggregate win.
Eupen were the team standing between us and a one off match to claim a European spot. The first leg brought frustration, as we twice took the lead only to be pegged back almost immediately. With the tie poised at 2-2 from the first leg, we blew Eupen away in the home match, taking a 4-0 lead in the opening 13 minutes, and eventually winning the match 6-1.
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