Guess who’s on top of the Dutch top flight six games into the season! It’s not Ajax or PSV. It isn’t Feyenoord. AZ and FC Twente are only fifth and sixth respectively as of Saturday morning.
It’s a club you’ve probably never heard of.
They are called PEC Zwolle, from the city of the same name in the North-East of the Netherlands, and have won four games, drawn one and lost just once to sit on the summit.
This is a team that finished down in 11th last season, in their first season back in the Eredivisie since 2003/04.
To put PEC Zwolle (they were known as FC Zwolle for 20 years until last season) into context, they have never finished higher than 8th in the Dutch top division and that was way back in the 1970s.
They have also reached the KNVB Cup final on two occasions but the last occasion was 36 years ago.
Zwolle are a club that have suffered major problems in the past. Following relegation in 1988/99, it culminated in bankruptcy when the team reverted from the PEC to FC suffix.
Despite being the club that gave ex-Manchester United defender Jaap Stam his professional debut, Zwolle spent the entire 90s and the start of the noughties in the Eerste Division (second tier).
So it is a surprise to see them riding high in the league this season. But are they a flash in the pan?
It is highly likely that they are. They did beat one of the traditional top three and potential title challengers Feyenoord on the opening day with an injury time winner. But the Rotterdam club were caught cold at the beginning of the season as they lost three on the trot.
Zwolle then went on an impressive run of three consecutive victories including 3 – 1 and 5 – 1 away wins over Heracles and NEC Nijmegen and a home win over newly-promoted SC Cambuur.
"Can we become champions? I would not bet on it. Of course we have to stay realistic,” asked their manager Ron Jans after that win. Jans has been a revelation since returning to his hometown (he was born in Zwolle and PEC is the club where he started his playing career).
He is experienced enough as well having managed the likes of FC Groningen and Heerenveen, as well as a stint across the border in Belgium with Standard Liege. He has set the team up in a modern 4-2-3-1 with an attacking edge that has seen them score 14 times in six games – joint second highest in the league this season.
But they have stuttered since that four game winning run. Just before the international break they drew 1 – 1 with FC Utrecht, before their unbeaten run came to an end away to Ajax last weekend. They also lost a creative outlet in winger Youness Mokhtar to FC Twente before the transfer deadline. He was a key player at the start of the season, scoring once and getting three assists.
But they are still top by a point ahead of this weekend’s games. It’s a feeling they have not experienced since the start of the 1988/89 season – a season that ended in relegation and eventual bankruptcy.
