League Two 2023/2024

[Monkey Tennis]

I also fancy Swindon to do well. Think Barrow is a good shout for the playoffs.

Since about September we’ve had relegation battling form (not checked that out, but I presume it’s true). We need to improve a lot just to stay mid-table.

 

[Optipez]

Tranmere were another of the disappointing sides. Don’t know much about the going ons there but they’re naturally a club that should be competitive. Tbh, until clubs sort out their recruitment it’s all a bit pissing in the wind.

L2 is a league where the managers can make a big difference - both good and bad. Wrexham and Notts County can’t just rely on turning up and gathering 3 points like last season. I’ve seen Luke Williams up close and I’m not convinced he has a Plan B - he’s out of the Garner/Lindsey mould. Take Wrexham out of the equation and Parkinson only has an average win % - less than 40%.

All in all, it could be a right old slog.

Our odds are ridiculous. I'd put Mansfield ahead of us as things stand.

 

[Optipez]

Anyone know who the least well run basket case of a club is? They're usually the ones to drop out the league.

 

[Son of Cod]

Anyone know who the least well run basket case of a club is? They're usually the ones to drop out the league.

It is unquestionably Crawley. Absolute shitshow under the new ownership but it came together on the pitch at a good time last season and they managed to send Hartlepool down.

 

[クレイグ]

It is unquestionably Crawley. Absolute shitshow under the new ownership but it came together on the pitch at a good time last season and they managed to send Hartlepool down.

I'll always remember this shocker: https://fanbanter.co.uk/crawley-own...e-for-posting-bad-taste-video-about-carlisle/

Probably sums the Crawley ownership up tbh.

 

[Son of Cod]

I'll always remember this shocker: https://fanbanter.co.uk/crawley-own...e-for-posting-bad-taste-video-about-carlisle/

Probably sums the Crawley ownership up tbh.

Wow, I'd previously missed that one!

 

[クレイグ]

Wow, I'd previously missed that one!

Them trying to buy us before Crawley was pretty cringeworthy too. Dodged a bullet there.

 

[Gi Dalor]

It is unquestionably Crawley. Absolute shitshow under the new ownership but it came together on the pitch at a good time last season and they managed to send Hartlepool down.

All of this, I appreciate Casey has a more informed opinion. this is just my take from the outside.

Crawley is a weird situation, because the owners have done the sensible thing and disappeared from sight for the time being.
They still haven't appointed a new CEO / Director of football. They still need to get rid of a few players that they've burned their bridges with before bringing new faces in (and obviously the longer this all takes, the more they miss out on targets).
There's always the possibility that at some point they'll start basket casing again. They need staff. They need a few players. Maybe they simply don't have the ability to even bring in people who can run a football club.
But there is another scenario. They do bring in competent staff. The owners let them get on with it and abandon the whole web3 angle, (which would annoy their holders, but like the supporters, it's probably not possible for them to be more annoyed, so the only way is up).
They probably have enough for a decent wage budget and to swallow the inevitable losses for a season or two, with the possibility that they might sell a youth player or two for clauses.
Plus the coach, Scott Lindsey, looks a good fit; for the club, for the squad.

Basically Crawley are a possible basket case, until proved otherwise, but they're certainly now running the club differently. The original vision was to be the internet's team with communication and transparency. Now it's like The Romanovs in the Winter Palace before the Russian revolution. Eben is the Tsar and i guess that makes Preston Rasputin).
Unless WAGMI totally blow things up again, I just can't see them being a disaster. However, if there are no basket cases, 2 non-basket case clubs go down, and i think that's the likely situation.

 

[Casey]

We are still basket cases. Sacked the ceo/dof because of an overspend but insisted we kicked league 2 players out the door for nothing. They would have given Nichols to Gills for now but they forgot to ask.

Lindsey, at least, knows his way around the lower leagues but we have a full squad of players that just avoided relegation, two players under contract who will never play for the club again (re Wagmi) and they said they are lowering the budget.

The disasters that were Betsy and then Etherington will hopefully not happen again (and also the calamity of sacking Young after he got the team playing) but I don't know how much of the problems was down to their incompetence and how much was down to the incompetents they put in charge.

I'm very pessimistic but if we can get a couple of players in the right positions there's the makings of a half decent team.

The crap about how they make their money and the sidemen stunts are all very cringeworthy but in all honesty it doesn't/ shouldn't affect the team on the pitch.

Casey

 

[Optipez]

We are still basket cases. Sacked the ceo/dof because of an overspend but insisted we kicked league 2 players out the door for nothing. They would have given Nichols to Gills for now but they forgot to ask.

Lindsey, at least, knows his way around the lower leagues but we have a full squad of players that just avoided relegation, two players under contract who will never play for the club again (re Wagmi) and they said they are lowering the budget.

The disasters that were Betsy and then Etherington will hopefully not happen again (and also the calamity of sacking Young after he got the team playing) but I don't know how much of the problems was down to their incompetence and how much was down to the incompetents they put in charge.

I'm very pessimistic but if we can get a couple of players in the right positions there's the makings of a half decent team.

The crap about how they make their money and the sidemen stunts are all very cringeworthy but in all honesty it doesn't/ shouldn't affect the team on the pitch.

Casey

I think if the budgets are big enough you can dodge the bullet for a while but in the end bad leadership and incompetence catches up with a club in the end.
Notts, Bury, Scunthorpe, Mansfield, Yeovil all clubs relegated to the NL from here with badly run clubs, it seems to be almost a guarantee of relegation if it goes on for two or three seasons.

 

[AnotherStagsFan]

Our odds are ridiculous. I'd put Mansfield ahead of us as things stand.

As long as we have Clough in charge we won’t get promoted. Our odds are justified to be 7th/8th faves

 

[Optipez]

As long as we have Clough in charge we won’t get promoted. Our odds are justified to be 7th/8th faves

Wouldn't argue with that but Clough is pretty consistent and we are quite a few players short of a team that's going to bother top seven L2. as our squad stands.

 

[Marbles]

We will be near the bottom two again. If Armstrong goes we're in bother.

 

[PuB]

Colchester look a good outside bet there considering how much they spent during January. Morecambe, Crawley and Accrington I think will be in trouble, the first two for ownership issues mostly

 

[Son of Cod]

Them trying to buy us before Crawley was pretty cringeworthy too. Dodged a bullet there.

Yep, fine margins. I look at the new Scunny owner and realise he'd have probably been in for us had we not been taking over when we were.

All of this, I appreciate Casey has a more informed opinion. this is just my take from the outside.

Crawley is a weird situation, because the owners have done the sensible thing and disappeared from sight for the time being.
They still haven't appointed a new CEO / Director of football. They still need to get rid of a few players that they've burned their bridges with before bringing new faces in (and obviously the longer this all takes, the more they miss out on targets).
There's always the possibility that at some point they'll start basket casing again. They need staff. They need a few players. Maybe they simply don't have the ability to even bring in people who can run a football club.
But there is another scenario. They do bring in competent staff. The owners let them get on with it and abandon the whole web3 angle, (which would annoy their holders, but like the supporters, it's probably not possible for them to be more annoyed, so the only way is up).
They probably have enough for a decent wage budget and to swallow the inevitable losses for a season or two, with the possibility that they might sell a youth player or two for clauses.
Plus the coach, Scott Lindsey, looks a good fit; for the club, for the squad.

Basically Crawley are a possible basket case, until proved otherwise, but they're certainly now running the club differently. The original vision was to be the internet's team with communication and transparency. Now it's like The Romanovs in the Winter Palace before the Russian revolution. Eben is the Tsar and i guess that makes Preston Rasputin).
Unless WAGMI totally blow things up again, I just can't see them being a disaster. However, if there are no basket cases, 2 non-basket case clubs go down, and i think that's the likely situation.

Well put, that's pretty much spot on how I see them too. Definitely on the cusp of going either way for me. We could be sat here in a year saying fair play, Wagmi pulled it around...but we could also be sat here talking about how obvious that downfall was. It's a massive season for them off the pitch, there's a real sense of being in limbo regarding their future right now.

 

[Essex2Wessex]

Agree that (as I thought from the outset) that it could go either way for Crawley under WAGMI. Hopefully they have learned their lessons, are thankful for the close escape from relegation, and will let people who know about lower league football have the final say. Lindsey is obviously a big improvement on what went before.

Morecambe look like they are in real trouble both on and off the pitch, obviously things can change during pre-season but as things stand I do rather fear for their future.

As for us....ahem. We spent a small fortune on mostly fairly unimpressive players in Jan, and could do with ditching or at least loaning out a fair few of them, need to make some good signings alongside what is already a numerically bloated squad, and we have a charismatic and well-liked, but in this role utterly unproven manager (with just one victory, albeit over Sheffield Wednesday, since taking charge in Jan), and a sense, justified or otherwise, that the owner is increasingly more interested in asserting a role in politics than in sport, oh, and loads of new appointments backstage too. Think we will be lucky to be in the top half of the table as things stand, but it could be far worse.

This year's promotions and relegations (Luton and at the other end of things Oxford City apart) have largely felt like a lost but once natural order reasserting itself (Wrexham, Notts, Wednesday, Ipswich, and for that matter Kiddy up; us, Accy, Morecambe, Wigan, Reading down).... which is ominous for a small club that has become accustomed to punching above its weight...

 

[GEORGE]

Agree that (as I thought from the outset) that it could go either way for Crawley under WAGMI. Hopefully they have learned their lessons, are thankful for the close escape from relegation, and will let people who know about lower league football have the final say. Lindsey is obviously a big improvement on what went before.

Morecambe look like they are in real trouble both on and off the pitch, obviously things can change during pre-season but as things stand I do rather fear for their future.

As for us....ahem. We spent a small fortune on mostly fairly unimpressive players in Jan, and could do with ditching or at least loaning out a fair few of them, need to make some good signings alongside what is already a numerically bloated squad, and we have a charismatic and well-liked, but in this role utterly unproven manager (with just one victory, albeit over Sheffield Wednesday, since taking charge in Jan), and a sense, justified or otherwise, that the owner is increasingly more interested in asserting a role in politics than in sport, oh, and loads of new appointments backstage too. Think we will be lucky to be in the top half of the table as things stand, but it could be far worse.

This year's promotions and relegations (Luton and at the other end of things Oxford City apart) have largely felt like a lost but once natural order reasserting itself (Wrexham, Notts, Wednesday, Ipswich, and for that matter Kiddy up; us, Accy, Morecambe, Wigan, Reading down).... which is ominous for a small club that has become accustomed to punching above its weight...

Who were these costly signings you made in Jan ? I know you outbid us for one from Scotland.

 

[Essex2Wessex]

Who were these costly signings you made in Jan ? I know you outbid us for one from Scotland.

Was that Charlie McCann, who we got from Rangers? He got injured almost straight away so his capabilities remain unproven for us.

The other allegedly very expensive acquisition was Bakayoko from Bolton. Although given the disarray in our ranks (and specifically an absence of service) it wouldn't be fair to solely blame him for failing to even come close to scoring, but as a striker he has singly failed to impress.

The keeper we signed from Tranmere, Doohan, has been unimpressive and a downgrade on his predecessor (and our backup, too) as well.

A couple of the other new intake (Garrick up front, maybe Robson at the back) have been tolerably decent, with Garrick easily the pick of the bunch. A guy we had on loan from Everton, who Big Dunc had known since the latter's childhood, Onyango, was impressive, but typically acquired a long term injury almost straight away and quickly returned to Merseyside.

 

[Son of Cod]

Was that Charlie McCann, who we got from Rangers? He got injured almost straight away so his capabilities remain unproven for us.

The other allegedly very expensive acquisition was Bakayoko from Bolton. Although given the disarray in our ranks (and specifically an absence of service) it wouldn't be fair to solely blame him for failing to even come close to scoring, but as a striker he has singly failed to impress.

The keeper we signed from Tranmere, Doohan, has been unimpressive and a downgrade on his predecessor (and our backup, too) as well.

A couple of the other new intake (Garrick up front, maybe Robson at the back) have been tolerably decent, with Garrick easily the pick of the bunch. A guy we had on loan from Everton, who Big Dunc had known since the latter's childhood, Onyango, was impressive, but typically acquired a long term injury almost straight away and quickly returned to Merseyside.

Could well turn out that some of these benefit from the drop. Doohan is more the good enough for L2 from what I've seen and I could see Bakayoko coming good.

 

[Casey]

What's going on with all the injuries?

Us, Mansfield FGR the list goes on and on.

There are always injuries but it seems to be an increase over what went on before.

Casey

 

[Essex2Wessex]

What's going on with all the injuries?

Us, Mansfield FGR the list goes on and on.

There are always injuries but it seems to be an increase over what went on before.

Casey

My (not necessarily well-informed) suspicion is that the failure of most EFL1&2 clubs (especially in the Southern half of England) to return to playing in reserve leagues post-COVID has been a factor in affecting match fitness. The fringe players are playing far fewer competitive games, and perversely the core players are playing more, as the fringe get fewer opportunities to prove themselves or make a case for inclusion in match squad.

Not sure if that is a key reason, but our rate of injuries last season felt unprecedented, and something similar was noticable at other clubs too.

 

[Indian Dan]

That’s a very good suspicion. Lots of clubs had way over average number of injuries - us included.

 

[AdamStag]

Having us out at 16 or 18/1 when the likes of wrexham and notts county have those odds show just how little bookies know about the league i suppose.

Don’t really mean much though,

 

[AdamStag]

What's going on with all the injuries?

Us, Mansfield FGR the list goes on and on.

There are always injuries but it seems to be an increase over what went on before.

Casey

If we get away with half the injuries this coming season than the one we’ve just had it would still be high, but i’d be happy.

If we can keep clear of that, we’ve every chance.

 

[LS Bantam]

Mansfield had injuries last season? Wow guys you really should’ve said, I don’t think you’ve mentioned it enough.

 

[Stocky]

Mansfield's squad is good. I said all season they were the best team I'd seen all season when they beat us at Field Mill. We improved in the weeks and months after that game so that may have made them look comparatively better. But they're a contender for sure.

 

[AdamStag]

Mansfield had injuries last season? Wow guys you really should’ve said, I don’t think you’ve mentioned it enough.

Well we’d have made the playoffs and possibly top 3 without, so yeah, worth mentioning

 

[gary]

League 2 is not all about budget. You can be successful with a smaller budget but obviously recruitment has to be spot on.

 

[Luke Imp]

I think part of the injury issues are also down to Clubs running with more younger players in the squads than previously and giving them more game time.

Does also feel like the change from Manager to Head Coach have resulted in each department having far more accountability and final say on things i.e. the medical/sports science lot telling the Head Coach who's available and who isn't, whereas in previous years the Manager would tell him to take some painkillers and get on with it, so I definitely think they're erring more on the side of caution with injuries in the last three or four years.

 

[jacobncfc]

Having us out at 16 or 18/1 when the likes of wrexham and notts county have those odds show just how little bookies know about the league i suppose.

Don’t really mean much though,

It’s because you’re doomed to finish eighth ish in this league forever, as far as I can tell.