As the 4th placed side in the 2016 J1 League, Gamba entered at the play off round where they faced Malaysia's Johor Darul Ta'zim in a one-off match at Suita City Football Stadium on 7 February.

A bright start in J1 saw them top the standing after round 12, however just 4 wins in their remaining matches led them to a 10th-place finish which saw long serving manager Kenta Hasegawa removed from his position at the end of the season.

Headlining the arrivals were, attacking midfielder, Jin Izumisawa, who had played a key role in Omiya Ardija's 5th-place finish in J1 the previous year where he linked well with ex-Gamba favourite Akihiro Ienaga as well as Brazilian centre-back Fabio who took the well trodden path to Osaka from Yokohama F. Marinos to provide competition for the established centre-half pairing of Daiki Niwa and Kim Jung-ya.

In addition Ryota Suzuki, who had been on loan at J2 League side, Tokyo Verdy, from his parent club Yokohama F. Marinos in 2016 came in to compete with Yosuke Fujigawa and Ken Tajiri to be backup to first choice goalkeeper, Masaaki Higashiguchi.

Young defender Genta Miura from newly promoted J1 side Shimizu S-Pulse and midfielder Haruya Ide from JEF United Chiba rounded off the signings who would immediately join up with the first team squad.

Young talent in the form of midfielders; Shogo Nakahara from Consadole Sapporo and Yuto Mori from Nagoya Grampus as well as striker Hiromu Kori from J3 outfit Grulla Morioka all arrived but would initially link up with Gamba Osaka U-23 ahead of their second season of J3 football while midfielders Reo Takae, Takahiro Koh and South Korean defender Bae Soo-yong all joined the club straight from high school and would join Nakahara, Mori and Kori in the under-23 side.

Probably the biggest surprise was right-sided midfielder Hiroyuki Abe's move to J1 rivals Kawasaki Frontale, having been a key member of the side since his arrival in 2012, scoring 7 times in 30 games during Gamba's J1 title winning season of 2014.

Rounding off the pre-season departures, it was no surprise to see midfielders Kenya Okazaki and Shohei Ogura head through the exit door, both were experienced pros who'd spent the bulk of the previous year playing J3 football with Gamba's Under-23 side and were moved on to make way for younger talent.

After starting their campaign strongly with an impressive 3-0 victory away to Adelaide, they were brought back to earth with a thump in round 2, being humbled 4-1 at home by Jeju United.

Goals from Fabio and Izumisawa saw Gamba ease past JEF United and set up a clash against another Chiba-based side, Kashiwa Reysol in round 4.