2019/20 L2 Final League Table Predictions

[Conker]

Salford will recruit well but look at this squad from last season, despite the ridiculous spending it still lacked proper quality for this level.

 

[hellogregory]

Literally giving money away! How much have you raked in so far this last few seasons backing us to go down?

Not much seeing as I haven’t betted on us going down since midway through 14/15, but I’ve raked in a fortune betting on us failing to win home games past couple of seasons.

Think I’m going to go for the angle of us losing away games next season given Pressley’s record of no away wins since January and the state of our squad.

 

[SELatic]

Based on not much at all

1. Bradford
2. Scunthorpe
3. Northampton
4. Swindon
5. Plymouth
6. Mansfield
7. FGR
8. Port Vale
9. Newport
10. Exeter
11. Salford
12. Grimsby
13. Crewe
14. Crawley
15. Latics
16. Stevenage
17. Walsall
18. Colchester
19. Cheltenham
20. Cambridge
21. Orient
22. Carlisle
23. Morecambe
24. Macclesfield

 

[EricSabin]

Based on not much at all

1. Bradford
2. Scunthorpe
3. Northampton
4. Swindon
5. Plymouth
6. Mansfield
7. FGR
8. Port Vale
9. Newport
10. Exeter
11. Salford
12. Grimsby
13. Crewe
14. Crawley
15. Latics
16. Stevenage
17. Walsall
18. Colchester
19. Cheltenham
20. Cambridge
21. Orient
22. Carlisle
23. Morecambe
24. Macclesfield

Looks bang on to me

 

[Big Bird]

Based on not much at all



1. Bradford
2. Scunthorpe
3. Northampton
4. Swindon
5. Plymouth
6. Mansfield
7. FGR
8. Port Vale
9. Newport
10. Exeter
11. Salford
12. Grimsby
13. Crewe
14. Crawley
15. Latics
16. Stevenage
17. Walsall
18. Colchester
19. Cheltenham
20. Cambridge
21. Orient
22. Carlisle
23. Morecambe
24. Macclesfield

 

[Agombar stool]

Based on not much at all

1. Bradford
2. Scunthorpe
3. Northampton
4. Swindon
5. Plymouth
6. Mansfield
7. FGR
8. Port Vale
9. Newport
10. Exeter
11. Salford
12. Grimsby
13. Crewe
14. Crawley
15. Latics
16. Stevenage
17. Walsall
18. Colchester
19. Cheltenham
20. Cambridge
21. Orient
22. Carlisle
23. Morecambe
24. Macclesfield

Couldn't really make too many arguments against that. Think you have Vale a bit high and Walsall possibly a bit low but on the whole that's pretty much as I see things at the moment.

Fully aware that its still June and so that could easily change given most if not all clubs will be busy during July.

 

[Buxton Vale]

Couldn't really make too many arguments against that. Think you have Vale a bit high and Walsall possibly a bit low but on the whole that's pretty much as I see things at the moment.

Fully aware that its still June and so that could easily change given most if not all clubs will be busy during July.

there is no way we will finish top 8, more like 12-14th, but the bottom five looks about right.

 

[Agombar stool]

there is no way we will finish top 8, more like 12-14th, but the bottom five looks about right.

yeah, I was thinking something like 12th-16th for you guys. The main goal is to rid the place of Smurfiness and get the new owners settled into the door. This season I suspect will be a mid-table season and then maybe you can push upwards next.

 

[Buxton Vale]

yeah, I was thinking something like 12th-16th for you guys. The main goal is to rid the place of Smurfiness and get the new owners settled into the door. This season I suspect will be a mid-table season and then maybe you can push upwards next.

that's the plan, steady and sustainable. We have shifted out most of the dead wood and the names being linked with us suggest an easier more enjoyable season. Our defence was decent last season, so firepower and home form are our areas for improvement.

 

[kieran_vale]

I’d agree with that. Think 12th-16th would represent an acceptable finish for us. Still think there are questions as to who other than Pope can score on a regular basis. Will need a full season from Oyeleke and Worrall also as they are vital to how we play.

 

[valefan16]

I’d agree with that. Think 12th-16th would represent an acceptable finish for us. Still think there are questions as to who other than Pope can score on a regular basis. Will need a full season from Oyeleke and Worrall also as they are vital to how we play.

See who else comes in, if we get a half decent striker and some pace (Cullen and Amoo maybe?)

I would take around 12-14th, similar situation to Micky Adams first season a decade ago really, get on the start of the upward trajectory.

 

[Indian Dan]

Nobody fancies you as dark horses other than me, then!

 

[valefan16]

Nobody fancies you as dark horses other than me, then!

You never know but there is a lot of a mess to sort out. Fans are likely to return and the club is building bridges with suppliers etc, its all positive but its a big job to turn us from the mess we have been in the last three years.

I imagine we will look to do as we did after the Glover season in 2009 when Micky Adams came in and firstly made us solid before pushing on.

 

[Vanni]

Don't think we'll have any dark horses this year, though Salford may turn out to be one such horse. They could end up mounting a push for the top 7, and that would be nothing short of a miracle for such a little side with no previous experience of league footy in their 100 years plus history.

Now that I think about it a little bit more, they don't even have that much experience of top level NL footy. The Beeb would be all over them if they were to challenge at the top end methinks, and shirley that would be a great advert for lower league footy right?

 

[Buxton Vale]

Don't think we'll have any dark horses this year, though Salford may turn out to be one such horse. They could end up mounting a push for the top 7, and that would be nothing short of a miracle for such a little side with no previous experience of league footy in their 100 years plus history.

Now that I think about it a little bit more, they don't even have that much experience of top level NL footy. The Beeb would be all over them if they were to challenge at the top end methinks, and shirley that would be a great advert for lower league footy right?

No it wouldn't. It would be underlining the fact that if you have money, then tradition, history, fan base and sustainability mean nothing.

 

[valefan16]

No it wouldn't. It would be underlining the fact that if you have money, then tradition, history, fan base and sustainability mean nothing.

Issue is Salford have no fan base of note and any that exist will be at the games so take the opener for instance who’s really interested in pinging sky on to tune in? Do Man United fans really care?

 

[Spanishstag]

Way tòo early to predict ,i joke about bradford ,but its hard to see past them for top spot ,salford might get a shock ,my dark horses are grimsby oh and stags to make it this time ,think andy cook is a brilliant signing

 

[GTFCfish]

No it wouldn't. It would be underlining the fact that if you have money, then tradition, history, fan base and sustainability mean nothing.

He was joking.

 

[shoddycollins]

Issue is Salford have no fan base of note and any that exist will be at the games so take the opener for instance who’s really interested in pinging sky on to tune in? Do Man United fans really care?

They probably don't care but may be interested enough to tune in. Sky probably see live Salford games in the same way they see putting on classic PL matches or documentaries. Premier League (well ManU) fans will see it in the schedule decide to give it a watch.

Shame it's against Stevenage really, no offense to Stevenage fans but you're not gonna bring many fans so unless you absolutely smash them on the pitch, you're just gonna seem like generic opposition from a football drama/comic, and that's most likely how it'll be presented. With in-depth profiles of Salford's players/owners/fan in the build up.

Ideally I'd have put them up against a team like Oldham, Crewe or Vale. A team that are thoroughly lower league and yet with the potential to outnumber the combined Salford/ManU contingent and really take the limelight off Salford. Maybe Vale given their recent financial difficulties, though if Macclesfield had it in them to outnumber the Salfords I'd go with them. The idea would be to show off how absurd it is that so little money is filtering down from the Premier League to teams just three divisions below that can still bring thousands of fans to an away game, yet when it does filter down in the shape of money and influence earned at the top, it bypasses the lower echelons of professional, established and well supported clubs entirely and instead basically invents a brand new team that nobody wanted to see in the league (not even most of their own fans) to enable them to come up here and essentially drag down the average number of supporters in League Two.

I mean it's not the first time a club with far fewer fans than most have come up here with financial backing, but Salford take the biscuit for how few actual fans they have, how comparitively wealthy they are, how they're throwing that money around and how easy they make it look. I mean I can't remember Crawley ever poaching players from Championship and SPL clubs.

Bradford came to mind but because most people see them as a sleeping giant, like their upcoming Leeds match, Salford would be expected to be the little club and still get the limelight.

 

[Spanishstag]

Bradford are a potentially big club ,6th largest city in england ,nice stadium ,but you cant keep giving season tickets away ,150 quid and expect to chsllenge the big uns

 

[Indian Dan]

Yeah, but the higher up the leagues you go the less reliance on gate money you are.

 

[Fedora Dale]

There or thereabouts: Bradford, Forest Green, Grimsby, Mansfield, Plymouth, Salford, Scunthorpe, Swindon

Hanging about in the middle:
Cambridge, Crewe, Exeter, L'Orient, Newport, Northampton, Port Vale, Stevenage

Bottom end: Carlisle, Cheltenham, Colchester, Crawley, Macclesfield, Morecambe, Oldham, Walsall

 

[shoddycollins]

Yeah, but the higher up the leagues you go the less reliance on gate money you are.

In any case, I'm sure most of our clubs would happily knock down the price of season tickets if they knew the outcome would be selling 12,000 of them by February. Normally even clubs with the fanbase to sell over 10,000 season tickets don't get anywhere near that figure until July and would much prefer to have the money in their accounts ready to spend as soon as the transfer window opens.

It's a complicated thing to work out, what would be the ideal season ticket price for a club, with a number of factors such as total capacity, size of fanbase, how big a factor cost is in determining if someone attends or not, and so on. Think Bradford have found the right mark for them, might not work for everyone, I imagine if we started selling season tickets at 150 a pop, rather than 300 we would see a big drop in ST revenue as a result, because we don't have that portion of the fanbase who are really keen to invest the time in supporting the club but can't afford or don't want to spend the money.

 

[LS Bantam]

I had a rant a few months ago regards criticisms towards our season ticket prices, not saying that’s the case here. I’ve copied and pasted it below as it explains a bit the overriding benefits vs short term lesser earnings.

‘Fans ripping the club off’ is probably the saddest thing I’ve read on a football forum and an indictment as to how English fans are cash cows to clubs paying extortionate prices compared to the rest of Europe. You can buy a season ticket at Bayern Munich for €140.
Our ‘cheap season tickets’ has close to doubled our attendance at times, it’s opened up the game/the club to literally thousands and thousands of people, thousands of kids, a new generation of fans that like us will get hooked and be there for decades.
It’s affordable, £6 odd, cheaper than the cinema, cheaper than most options on a Saturday afternoon, you’re all welcome to watch the same 23 teams for three times that.
We sold over ten thousand replica shirts last season I think, forget the financial side, that’s kids going out in City shirts to play, not Utd/Liverpool kits, that’s seeing loads of City shirts playing 5 aside or whatever on an evening. On a Saturday it’s more pints being bought, more pies, more programmes. Sponsorship money goes up as we can offer advertising to twice as many people, suites are full on a match day, it’s all the extras we get that make up the difference.
Take this year out and since they were introduced, on field we’ve been promoted, got to the league cup final, got to an FA cup quarter final, the play off semis and the play off final, so financially/playing wise it’s not effected us negatively, all that not in a 25% full ‘empty’ stadium but one packed with fans who’ll have those memories forever.
I’ve never got my head around the joke of our season ticket prices, our attempt to make football affordable, like I say, in Europe say, no one would look twice, in this country where for example Prem away tickets were getting so much they’ve had to put a cap on prices, we’re the odd ones out.

 

[Indian Dan]

Brilliant initiative

 

[FiRTHYY]

 

[Deepcut Cobbler]

Our problem and something applicable to others is that even if we reduced our prices we would still be limited by our current ground capacity. However, even at our current prices, if we are doing well we attract near capacity crowds which is why we have been attempting to increase the capacity to something like 12k. Unfortunately our initial attempt was thwarted by our much publicised previous Chairman, his 'associates' and the inability of the Borough Council at the time to manage their finances correctly.
The current proposal will only provide a small increase, no where near the 12k, which will restrict any opportunity or financial reason to reduce prices.

 

[FiRTHYY]

Our problem and something applicable to others is that even if we reduced our prices we would still be limited by our current ground capacity. However, even at our current prices, if we are doing well we attract near capacity crowds which is why we have been attempting to increase the capacity to something like 12k. Unfortunately our initial attempt was thwarted by our much publicised previous Chairman, his 'associates' and the inability of the Borough Council at the time to manage their finances correctly.
The current proposal will only provide a small increase, no where near the 12k, which will restrict any opportunity or financial reason to reduce prices.

Is 12k a tad ambitious? I believe you have averaged12k or more 8 times in your 91 year existence?

 

[Deepcut Cobbler]

Is 12k a tad ambitious? I believe you have averaged12k or more 8 times in your 91 year existence?

Gives us the opportunity to 'fleece' more than the current 1400 away fans from the 'bigger clubs'...

 

[valefan16]

Think Bradford do a superb job with their tickets and a shame for the wider football fan that other clubs can’t also pull it off and make it affordable.

Vale tried something similar in 2008 and got 6500 season ticket holders on the back of a relegation (think they were about £200) but only did it once and it’s a shame as we like Bradford have the huge ground capacity but Smurf always put on the odd offer and used that as an excuse when hardly anyone extra turned up for a 2 for £30 offer on Tuesdays against Crawley and Oldham for instance.

Hoping next season Carol and Kevin look at something like this, they seem to be taking advise from various clubs owners as they build the burnt bridges of the past ownership so who knows.

At the end of the day Bradford I recall got about 7-8000 in the early 00s before it and have halved the price and get roughly double. Whilst it probably doesn’t add much financial boost in terms of ticket sales you get the extra support and of course extra revenue from food, programmes, shirts etc.

The Germans have it spot on, hence mid table sides or 2. Bundesliga clubs can pull in huge support, went to watch Hertha v Werder for a tenner ten years back and it was a 74000 sell out to watch top level football with the likes of Klose, Diego, Mertesacker, Frings etc.