Stickied Confirmed Signings 2024/25

[#Beebot]

100% and solid teams but perennial NL also-rans like Woking, Bromley, Boreham Wood, Solihull, are top half in L2 minimum, I'm convinced

They are not top half teams, but would stay up comfortably.

3 up, 3 down needs to happen really.

 

[spireite]

They are not top half teams, but would stay up comfortably.

3 up, 3 down needs to happen really.

Honestly, politely disagree. Most sides in L2 are just not as organised. Look at Harrogate, Sutton

 

[GEORGE]

I think you’d have to go a long way down this league before you got to a team that would be relegated from League Two with their current side.

You keep telling yourself that.

 

[Who Needs Mourinho]

You keep telling yourself that.

Hartlepool finished 4th last season in the NL and have a weaker team this campaign and are 8th in League Two.

Barrow lost their manager and player of the season after being promoted but still comfortably stayed up.

Harrogate are second with the vast majority of their promotion squad after coming through the playoffs a couple of seasons back.

Their is no difference between the bottom half of League Two and top half of NL.

 

[EnglishRed]

Hartlepool finished 4th last season in the NL and have a weaker team this campaign and are 8th in League Two.

Barrow lost their manager and player of the season after being promoted but still comfortably stayed up.

Harrogate are second with the vast majority of their promotion squad after coming through the playoffs a couple of seasons back.

Their is no difference between the bottom half of League Two and top half of NL.

GEORGE is a mentalist, dont listen to him. A weird Bristolian.

 

[Soup Ladle]

We might be 8th but there is a difference in quality. We aren't getting a kick away from home. Teams press us much better, defences are more solid and you get punished for stuff you get away with in NL. The more time you spend here the more you overestimate the quality of it.

I think most of the top half would stay up because there's always a couple of basket cases who will take the 2 down.

 

[Soup Ladle]

Hartlepool finished 4th last season in the NL and have a weaker team this campaign and are 8th in League Two.

Barrow lost their manager and player of the season after being promoted but still comfortably stayed up.

Harrogate are second with the vast majority of their promotion squad after coming through the playoffs a couple of seasons back.

Their is no difference between the bottom half of League Two and top half of NL.

We do and we don't. We lost Oates and Armstrong but got Tyler Burey in from Millwall who's been different class. Byrne from Halifax was one of the best NL defenders and he's slotted in well. An upgrade on Ryan Johnson.

Harrogate have spent a lot of money this pre season.

The general standard of both leagues isn't miles apart but there is a bit extra in both boxes in L2.

 

[Who Needs Mourinho]

We do and we don't. We lost Oates and Armstrong but got Tyler Burey in from Millwall who's been different class. Byrne from Halifax was one of the best NL defenders and he's slotted in well. An upgrade on Ryan Johnson.

Harrogate have spent a lot of money this pre season.

The general standard of both leagues isn't miles apart but there is a bit extra in both boxes in L2.

Who did they spend it on? When I look at their squad it’s mainly the same players from when they were in this division.

 

[Chief Rocka]

Who did they spend it on? When I look at their squad it’s mainly the same players from when they were in this division.

Their big signing was Luke Armstrong who they paid an undisclosed fee for and I'd imagine are paying him a healthy wedge.

 

[GEORGE]

GEORGE is a mentalist, dont listen to him. A weird Bristolian.

Wrong on both counts.

 

[BeeArmy]

Crowd of 865 at Dover.

Would estimate we had around 150/200 but I’m sure the Dover fan would have a better guess.

 

[EnglishRed]

Wrong on both counts.

Jury is still out, bud.

 

[GEORGE]

Jury is still out, bud.

Hopefully Jury gets back from being injured soon.

 

[Monkey Tennis]

There's a huge fucking difference between League 2 and non-league. Can tell some of you lot haven't been up there for some time...

 

[Gladders]

There's a huge fucking difference between League 2 and non-league. Can tell some of you lot haven't been up there for some time...

At the top yeah, but they are not wrong in that most top half NL sides would comfortably stay up in L2. Bottom of L2 is poor quality.

 

[Urban]

Hmmm. I rate NL as the strongest it’s been in a while (in terms of club size down here and individual players - obviously this doesn’t entirely match up to the form of some teams) and L2 is fairly weak this year (look at the strength of L1 in comparison).

But to say these teams would stay up is very generous and is underestimating the strength of L2. The clubs up there receive more funding and spend more money on ways other than players - eg. Better quality coaching and behind the scenes staff. Despite this seasons weakness it is a harder league to succeed in than most realise (and take the word of a fan of one of the most relegated teams ever to know this!)

 

[EnglishRed]

There's a huge fucking difference between League 2 and non-league. Can tell some of you lot haven't been up there for some time...

bloody hell a couple of seasons in league 2 and Barrow are the world's experts.

 

[Monkey Tennis]

bloody hell a couple of seasons in league 2 and Barrow are the world's experts.

I'm (partially) joking. But those claims about Woking finishing top half etc are absolute bollocks.

Yeah, I agree that most top half NL teams would stay up this season - the likes of Scunny are awful - but just because Sutton and Hartlepool have done well so far doesn't mean it's a piece of piss.

I know there was a big gap between us going up and the next season starting and a change of manager, but we went from pissing this tinpot league to being one of the worst in L2. Players who were amazing in non-league looked way out of their depth.

The gap between top of NL and bottom of L2 isn't that big, but if you took any team and dropped them in the division above straight away, they'd struggle unless they stepped it up significantly.

 

[Monkey Tennis]

At the top yeah, but they are not wrong in that most top half NL sides would comfortably stay up in L2. Bottom of L2 is poor quality.

The Grimsby team that is flying now is more or less the same that couldn't buy a win (except from us) for the last few months of the season, right?

 

[PaulHaddock]

The Grimsby team that is flying now is more or less the same that couldn't buy a win (except from us) for the last few months of the season, right?

3 players remained in Saturday’s starting XI remained from last season so no. The quick turnaround time can be attributed to Paul Hurst. If we could scored about 5 more goals in those last few months then we’d have stayed up.

 

[Chief Rocka]

I'm (partially) joking. But those claims about Woking finishing top half etc are absolute bollocks.

Yeah, I agree that most top half NL teams would stay up this season - the likes of Scunny are awful - but just because Sutton and Hartlepool have done well so far doesn't mean it's a piece of piss.

I know there was a big gap between us going up and the next season starting and a change of manager, but we went from pissing this tinpot league to being one of the worst in L2. Players who were amazing in non-league looked way out of their depth.

The gap between top of NL and bottom of L2 isn't that big, but if you took any team and dropped them in the division above straight away, they'd struggle unless they stepped it up significantly.

Woah woah woah haway let's not go re-writing history now, you were top yes but a world altering pandemic sent you jammy gets up, you were in the middle of a mini wobble with Harrogate and Notts chasing you down when the league got pulled, Covid was the best thing to happen to Barra!

 

[Gladders]

The Grimsby team that is flying now is more or less the same that couldn't buy a win (except from us) for the last few months of the season, right?

No, as said above, 3 players who start almost every game remain from last season, the rest are all new. Couple of others are subs but even they were signed by Hurst in Jan when we started to improve (all be it not quick enough).

 

[Monkey Tennis]

Woah woah woah haway let's not go re-writing history now, you were top yes but a world altering pandemic sent you jammy gets up, you were in the middle of a mini wobble with Harrogate and Notts chasing you down when the league got pulled, Covid was the best thing to happen to Barra!

The mini-wobble was basically a defeat to Notts when Quigley got sent off. We were pissing and would have continued to piss it.

 

[Soup Ladle]

I'm (partially) joking. But those claims about Woking finishing top half etc are absolute bollocks.

Yeah, I agree that most top half NL teams would stay up this season - the likes of Scunny are awful - but just because Sutton and Hartlepool have done well so far doesn't mean it's a piece of piss.

I know there was a big gap between us going up and the next season starting and a change of manager, but we went from pissing this tinpot league to being one of the worst in L2. Players who were amazing in non-league looked way out of their depth.

It's clearly a step up, watching all our games you can see that. We've had to graft for every single point.

Our midfield totally ran the show down here now they're still decent enough but they get much less time on the ball and teams are wiser to us so we're not dictating play as much as we did.

The main difference is the quality in defence and attack is higher and tactically teams are better drilled either because of ability/fitness and they have more access to scouting/data etc. Its not miles better but I haven't seen anyone really crap yet and that wouldn't be the case in the NL. Even Oldham weren't that bad. The strongest teams in L2 are good and are quite far above the NL.

 

[Son of Cod]

The Grimsby team that is flying now is more or less the same that couldn't buy a win (except from us) for the last few months of the season, right?

Nope, wholesale changes. One of the three mentioned above is McKeown in net too.

 

[GTFCfish]

Yep the team that we have now would absolutely demolish the sack of shit team that we had in League 2 last year.

 

[Fyldefan]

I'm (partially) joking. But those claims about Woking finishing top half etc are absolute bollocks.

Yeah, I agree that most top half NL teams would stay up this season - the likes of Scunny are awful - but just because Sutton and Hartlepool have done well so far doesn't mean it's a piece of piss.

I know there was a big gap between us going up and the next season starting and a change of manager, but we went from pissing this tinpot league to being one of the worst in L2. Players who were amazing in non-league looked way out of their depth.

The gap between top of NL and bottom of L2 isn't that big, but if you took any team and dropped them in the division above straight away, they'd struggle unless they stepped it up significantly.

You wasn’t pissing anything. Harrogate were 4 points behind you and I’m sure they still had to play you. You’d started to slip up. Make no mistake about it. You’re in that division by default as we are in the north

 

[OneDecentLester]

Lot of debate about who’d do what if they were in the NL or L2, but one things for sure… that sack of shite Mansfield team that’s struggling atm would be just as hopeless in this division

 

[jacobncfc]

Lot of debate about who’d do what if they were in the NL or L2, but one things for sure… that sack of shite Mansfield team that’s struggling atm would be just as hopeless in this division

Bit of a mystery what’s going on there. They’ve spent decent money, have some talented players with good reputations, an experienced and previously successful manager. Quite reminiscent of the year we went down actually, where you always assumed we had good enough players to pick our form up but never actually did. In the end it was really Macclesfield going on a great end of season run from nowhere that did for us, similar could easily happen to them.

 

[OneDecentLester]

Bit of a mystery what’s going on there. They’ve spent decent money, have some talented players with good reputations, an experienced and previously successful manager. Quite reminiscent of the year we went down actually, where you always assumed we had good enough players to pick our form up but never actually did. In the end it was really Macclesfield going on a great end of season run from nowhere that did for us, similar could easily happen to them.

Fingers crossed hey