INTRODUCTION

By the dawn of the 21st century, time had just about ran out for Mvv. While direct relegation from the Eredivisie had been avoided, a poor relegation/promotion playoff series resulted in relegation. A city depleted from its 20th- century industry, and therefore the lion’s share of its financial revenue and working-class population, now also faces the tough challenge of bringing the last remaining professional sports club within its city walls back to the highest level of Dutch football. Mvv began organizing their squad and staff to facilitate their return to the Eredivisie dream, but the dire economic state of the city and a couple of financial loans let them with little in the way of funds to do so. The club was able to sign a couple of youngsters and one real signing, but they were unable to bolster their squad up to hoped standards. This resulted in a couple of dreadful seasons in which the club finished between the 13th and 18th place.

Light at the end of a long and dark tunnel appeared in 2007 / 2008 when the club finished 5th and nearly promoted via the promotion-relegation playoffs. The following year turned out to be fruitful as well, in which the promotion was nearly achieved again via the playoffs, but faith decided against them at diptych matches against de Graafschap. Financial difficulties threw them back in the darkest parts of the tunnel in which they remained until the 2017/2018 season in which they paid off their last loan. A bright season seemed imminent, but two rather dull, lackluster campaigns followed.

These two paragraphs bring us to the current date, the 3rd of May 2019. After another uneventful draw, the season ends, four points shy of the playoffs. This includes their (unwanted) 20th anniversary in the 2nd division of Dutch professional football. The broad discusses a couple of hours after the game how to continue. Trying the same idea which leads to the results of the past 20 years or going in a different direction with investors. The latter option was favored by the fans, but the broad was hesitant about investors. A long debate followed which eventually resulted in the latter of the two options.

In the weeks following, the broad started their search for investors. A plan which initially would take months to years resulted within 2 weeks in a group of 3 investors.

• The first was an IT business owner from the UK, the born Stoke-on-Trent man wanted to leave the UK with the fear of a massive Brexit financial decline for his company. He knew the club from a relative in Stoke-on-Trent who visited the Maastricht club in 2018 because of the supporter friendship between the two clubs.
• The second man was a health and sports expert born just outside the city of Maastricht. His father was a fan of the club since the early 70s. Although the sport/ health expert had been away from the province of Limburg since 2010, he now wanted to settle down a bit and take care of his aging parents. As a gesture of respect to his father, he wanted to help his father's club to reach its goals of Eredivisie football.
• The last was a German married couple who earned their finances in the steel industry. Their daughter who studied at the Maastricht University had told them about the club, and the couple became excited to aid in the idea of investing in a football club.

This group, as neither of them had knowledge of how to run a football club, decided, that for the time being, a broad, added with some advisors appointed by the investors, should run the day-to-day business at the club.

Could this be the revival of a once Eredivisie club? Or will this be the same old story of lackluster, mid-table finishes as it has been for 2 decades?

CLUB INFORMATION

Year founded: April 2nd, 1902
Nickname: de Sterrendragers and de Sjengen
Stadium: de Geusselt (8.800 all-seater stadium)
Trophies: Dutch second division title: 1983/1984 and 1996/1997
Rivalries: Roda JC, Fortuna Sittard, VVV Venlo

Best of luck! The scene has been set rather nicely in the OP.

A good start here. Excited to see how the new board help to turn the clubs fortunes back around!

AN ODD START AND A NEW HOPE

Hardly was the ink dry in Maastricht, when the next good news story came out. After five and a half years former MVV manager Ron Elsen decided that his role as a makeshift manager was finished and that he would return in his former role as Director of football for the upcoming season. The shift from manager to DOF left the managerial position vacant. Who could replace Ron? Was the main question among the fans. Radio silence lasted for almost 2 days before news of the new manager leaked. The local newspaper 'De Limburger' obtained possession of a confidential email between the members of the broad. Disclosed in the email was the name of the newly signed manager, a Belgium ex-professional football player with Turkish roots named Fuat Usta.

This decision unanimously went down the wrong way among the fans. Fuming with anger, the fans marched to the stadium to express their dissatisfaction with the decision. After a brief discussion between the broad, directors and the fuming fans the decision to sign Fuat Usta as the new manager was reversed. This almost Napoleonic revolt about their new manager was the day after in local newspapers described as 'a strange display and odd start for the new owners'.


During the next couple of days, a multitude of meetings is held between the stakeholders in this issue. The fans wanted experience, while the broad wanted someone with a heart for the club. As the parties' demands grew closer towards each other a decision was made in which a man who knows the club inside out and already had some experience at coaching a youth team in the English Premier Division. Ruud Geuskens was signed to a 1-year deal as their new manager with mutual agreement between the involved stakeholders. Can this man bring the club to the promised land? Is this the end of the miserable years of mediocrity in the depths of Dutch professional football? Only time can tell, but a new hope is born in the hearts of the MVV fans.

A one-year-deal is hardly putting much faith in the new man but let's see if he can justify a renewed offer within the next twelve months.

g luck

The new owners aren't stamping their authority down are they, clearly they want the fans onside. Therefore I think it'll be vital for the new boss to get the fans onside especially with such a short deal agreed.

MEETING THE SQUAD AND PRESS

In the weeks following the tumultuous appointment of Ruud Geuskens as the new manager of MVV Maastricht, standard procedures happened at the club. Ruud Geuskens met his staff, players and was interviewed by the press. Eyebrows were raised when the word promotion in two years was mentioned by the broad, a club which did not finish in the top half of the table last year has to compete in a dogfight for Eredivisie promotion? That seems a bit farfetched and unrealistic. But as optimistic as Ruud Geuskens was in real life, he looked at promotion as a challenge rather than a mission impossible. As the media asked about the promotion topic Ruud Geuskens answered calmly with a quote of Jimmy Johnson, stated: ''Do you want to be safe and good or do you want to take a chance and be great? Let's go for the latter.''
After the early press conference, Ruud Geuskens had a second meeting with his assistant coaches to evaluate the squad.


First the goalkeepers:
Nigel Bertrams is clearly the best goalkeeper at the club, followed by homegrown youngster Lars van Meurs, and lastly Belgiums 21year old goalkeeper Gilles Deusings.

Defense:
MVV possesses two quality left-backs in Uruguayan full-back Facundo Bonifazi and wing-back Joeri Schroyen, who will have to deserve their role as the starting left-back. As the third option hot prospect, Raoul Last is available as well. In the center of the defense, the club lacks pure quality as Luc Mares is the only capable center back. Both Luxembourg international Enes Mahmutovic and the Martina brothers can play in the center back position as well, but they are either out of their natural position or they are simply not good enough for the first eleven. On the right-back position, the pecking order is pretty straight forward as ex-Man Utd right-back Marnick Vermijl is clearly the first choice and Shermar Martina will fill in the backup right-back role.

Midfield:
on the midfield, MVV possesses a couple of gems, as homegrown talent Koen Kostons, Ex-Dortmund, Schalke04, and Fenerbahce talent Serhat Kot, and Jerome Deom are all potential 5-star players who can play on the central midfield. Furthermore, Lewis Holtby his brother Joshua and homegrown youngster Nino Everaers can play on the central midfield area as well. On the Left-wing MVV possesses a quality winger in the name of William 'Willy' Balikwisha who has also 5-star potential and On the right-wing Ado Den Haag loanee, Thijmen Goppel is available for the upcoming season. A lack in-depth in the winger positions has to be compensated by some additional signings.

Forwards:
The forward position at MVV has only one real striker in the name of Anthony van den Hurk who is also the club captain this year. Gavin Vlijter is a striker/winger who can serve as his backup before additional strikers will arrive at the club.

After meeting the squad, transfer targets were determined. Who will survive the cut and who will arrive in the preseason?

* My apologies for the quick and hasty post, my full-time job took a lot of my time today, and therefore there was little time to write a more in-depth story of the squad. Furthermore, the team foto was of 2019/2020 in august some of the players have moved on from the club since then, and some (e.g William Balikwisha, Nigel Bertrams) were signed after the foto. So not all players in the current squad are shown on the picture.

Ambitious expectations for sure but as Ruud said, its about being great. Squad looks good, but a backup striker at the very least is needed!

As Seb says, another striker will be targeted I'm sure. There are a few decent areas in terms of depth and quality but a couple of signings will be needed.

Interesting team, always putting bets on over 2.5 goals on them IRL. Save in the Holland is always fun!

Wow really nice, have seen a couple of games in MVV, nice city

THE FIRST BLOW IS HALF THE BATTLE

As the pre-season continues, practice games will be played to learn the 4-1(dm)-2(cm)-2(wingers)-1 system as to regain match fitness. As supporters of MVV and other clubs have physically clashed in the past, the mayor and city government would not allow MVV to play big opponents during the pre-season. Seven pre-season games will be played over a one month period. VFR Wormatia Worms, VV Gemert, As Beauvais Oise, Royal Knokke FC, Olympique Lyonnais II, FC Lebbeke, and FCV Dender were the 2019/2020 pre-season opponents of MVV Maastricht. The results are shown below:


A good pre-season with 7 wins out of 7 games, but a lack of resistance in those games is still an issue. Is this MVV actually good or were their opponents just poor/mediocre? Only time will tell.

During the preseason MVV signed a couple players to bolster their squad. The list goes from most exciting - to least exciting- players. The signings are shown below:

Mathias Bossaerts
A Belgium former U21 international, who spend time at Belgium giant Anderlecht and English giant Manchester City. He is a 4,5-star potential 4,5-star central defender.


Florian Makhedjouf
A former Algerian U20 international born in France, who had his youth development at French giants Paris Saint Germain. However, most of his games were played at the French 3rd level of Football. The 28-year-old midfielder is a 4-start player for MVV.


Thibaut van Acker
Former Belgium U21 international who played over 50 games at the highest level in Belgium. He is currently a 4 star player for MVV. * Thibaut was already signed by MVV but for some reason did not show up in the squad depth analysis of the previous post.


Kevin Malget
A 36 cap senior international of Luxembourg, in which Kevin scored 4 times. He was at Virton in Belgium as a non-contract player. He is a 3,5-star central defender.


Xiscu Martinez
A 23 years old winger, who is currently at a 2,5-star rating with the potential to be a 3,5-star winger. He played for clubs in lower Spanish divisions or B-squads at the highest level in Spain.


Nelson Azevedo
Another winger. Nelson played for Standard Liege and Anderlecht before joining MVV. The 21-year-old was out of contract and signed an amateur deal in Maastricht.


Jan Bekkema
A Dutch goalkeeper who is currently a 2,5-star player and will serve as a backup for Nigel Bertrams this year. he spent previous spells at sc Heerenveen and Straelen.

Some very decent additions there that will help add to your squad nicely. Looking forward to seeing how you fair in the first few competitive fixtures after a very good pre-season.

Some nice moves there with a decent mix of experience and potential coming in. Good work and if they pre-season is anything to go by, it should be an exciting season.