During summer Alfonso Solans in his 6th season as President, reinforced the squad with several players such as midfielders Nordin Wooter from AFC Ajax,[1] Jose Ignacio from Valencia CF,[2] Roberto Acuña,[3] Defender Gary Sundgren[4] and forwards Yordi and Pier.

Meanwhile, the club transferred out Gus Poyet to Chelsea FC after 7 years,[5] youngstar forward Fernando Morientes[6] and Dani were sold to Real Madrid.

In his 2nd season as head coach Luis Costa did fix the defensive line with decent performances of Sundgren, on the midfield the Dutch midfielder Nordin Wooter was a total flop being surpassed as starter by Jose Ignacio on the right wing, on the contrary, the other midfielders Kily Gonzalez, Santiago Aragon and Roberto Acuña did cover in a decent way the departures of Gus Poyet and Nayim.

Costa found troubles at the offensive line with new arrivals Yordi and Pier delivering poor performances -prompting the arrival of Paulo Jamelli during Winter-, the team only reached the mid-table spots even far away to play the upcoming 1998 UEFA Intertoto Cup finishing in a 13th spot.

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