FC Twente had a good 2013/14 as they went unbeaten in Eredivisie at home and managed to finish 3rd with 63 points, only 4 points behind Feyenoord in 2nd. The Enschede based club were also knocked out of the KNVB Cup in the second round after losing 3-0 away to SC Heerenveen last season.
Alfred Schreuder has been assistant manager at Twente for 5 years and will be taking over as manager next season with Michel Jansen stepping down to the assistant manager position. Many feel this switch will not make much difference next season as Schreuder was highly involved last season.
Swedish centre back Rasmus Bengtsson will be captain for the upcoming season, he has been at FC Twente since 2010 and is considered by most to be one of the main leaders in this side.
The top goalscorer and top assist maker was Serbian international Dusan Tadic with 16 goals and 14 assists. Unfortunately for FC Twente, Tadic departed the club this summer joining ex-Feyenoord manager Ronald Koeman at Southampton for a fee believed to be around €11m.
FC Twente have brought in a replacement for Dusan Tadic in Kasper Kusk from Aalborg BK who play in Denmark for a fee believed to be around £500,000. Kusk can play on either wing but prefers the right wing and can play in the attacking midfield role. Kusk's record last season in the league for Aalborg BK was similar record to Tadic from last season, Kusk scored 12 goals and assisted 11 times which meant he was top goalscorer and top assister at Aalborg like Tadic at FC Twente.
The 21 year old Dutch striker Luc Castaignos has been the main striker at FC Twente in the past two seasons scoring 27 league goals in that time. Castaignos is a player who needs to step up if he wants to earn himself a move, he nearly left this summer as Swansea City nearly signed the young striker but the deal fell through.
Another important player will be Quincy Promos who had a good season last year scoring 11 goals and assisting 8 in the league from right wing. He was awarded his first Netherlands cap this year and will be wanting to get more caps by showing his ability this upcoming season. He's a recently had talks with Russian club Spartak Moscow about the possibility of a transfer, talks are ongoing between the two clubs. Many FC Twente fans feel Promos is going more for the money than to help his own career develop.
FC Twente missed out on Europe last season after losing to FC Utrecht in the Eredivisie European play offs for a Europa league 2nd qualifying round place. This season FC Twente have qualified for the Europa League play-off round and will be seeded, the draw for the Europa League play off round is on August 8th and the two legs will be played on August 21st and August 28th.
FC Twente kick their Eredivisie season off at SC Cambuur on Saturday August 9th, this will be a tough fixture as SC Cambuur had a better home record than SC Heerenveen and Vitesse Arnhem last season. After that on August 16th it's ADO Den Haag at home, last season FC Twente couldn't beat ADO Den Haag in both league games, drawing the home game and losing the away game. NAC Breda away next on August 23rd and this should be a win for FC Twente as they beat NAC Breda 5-2 and 0-2 last season. FC Twente have a fairly tough start but many will expect FC Twente to start well and win at least two of these three fixtures.
FC Twente have brought in two players this summer and still have just under a month to bring in more. Kasper Kusk is their main signing and PEC Zwolle defender Darryl Lachman on a costless transfer who will provide back up to an already strong defence.
Dusan Tadic has been the biggest departure this summer, another important departure from FC Twente is Roberto Rosales who has joined Málaga CF on a costless transfer. The Venezuelan right-back Rosales joined FC Twente in 2010 and has been an ever present since and will be a difficult player to replace. FC Twente players will need to fill the void left by the outgoing players but the team is young and hungry to step up in their place.
Best Eredivisie finish: Champions 2009/2010
Eredivisie prediction: 3rd
Europa league prediction: Round of 32