League 1 2024-25

S

SouthernSeasider

Well-known member
Confirmed teams so far

Blackpool
Bristol Rovers
Burton Albion
Cambridge United
Charlton Athletic
Exeter City
Leyton Orient
Lincoln City
Mansfield Town
Northampton Town
Reading
Rotherham United
Shrewsbury Town
Stevenage Borough
Stockport County
Wigan Athletic
Wrexham
Wycombe Wanderers

With Huddersfield basically down also.

Not the most appetising. However realistically, we should not be threaten by anyone. There are no “big” teams as such - Derby and Portsmouth were everyone’s favourites this year. If Bolton don’t go up via the play offs then they will be clear favourites.

I can see Charlton doing well under Nathan Jones, Wigan coming back to being stronger and was impressed with Reading today.

We really should be top 6 MINIMUM next season though.

Still feels crap however.
 
SouthernSeasider said:
Confirmed teams so far

Blackpool
Bristol Rovers
Burton Albion
Cambridge United
Charlton Athletic
Exeter City
Leyton Orient
Lincoln City
Mansfield Town
Northampton Town
Reading
Rotherham United
Shrewsbury Town
Stevenage Borough
Stockport County
Wigan Athletic
Wrexham
Wycombe Wanderers

With Huddersfield basically down also.

Not the most appetising. However realistically, we should not be threaten by anyone. There are no “big” teams as such - Derby and Portsmouth were everyone’s favourites this year. If Bolton don’t go up via the play offs then they will be clear favourites.

I can see Charlton doing well under Nathan Jones, Wigan coming back to being stronger and was impressed with Reading today.

We really should be top 6 MINIMUM next season though.

Still feels crap however.
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Yeah it not all bad, some good local games next season.

It'll be harder in a way as the ones coming down with us had points deductions this time.

However if a league is more competitive then more teams beat each other and so a lower points total is likely needed to win the prizes, if you can put runs together and take advantage of it.
 
So to add to that list it will be three from Bolton/Peterborough/Oxford/Barnsley
One more from Birmingham/Plymouth/Sheff Wed/Blackburn, probably Birmingham or Plymouth
And one from MK Dons/Donny/Crewe/Crawley
 
What I see there is that it’ll be significantly more challenging than this season. This season there have been 8-9 teams realistically in the mix. Next season it’ll be 13 and that’s why I can see us lower mid-table.

We’ve had quality, but we lack physicality, so we need to achieve the right mix. We’ve got to be able to control games, which we haven’t.

The teams coming down will all be competitive and Stockport & Wrexham will look at improve. Wigan and Reading will also start with a clean slate. I don’t think we’ll see teams limping into the play-offs, as we have this season. It’s going to be tough.
 
It'll be a tougher division as I expect both Wrexham and Stockport to be much more competitive than the clubs who have been relegated. Rotherham will be Rotherham, like Stevenage but bigger and even more ugly. Huddersfield and whoever else will also be up there. Wigan and Reading without the points deductions are also likely to be a threat. Whichever 3 teams miss out on the play offs are also likely to remain competitive. To improve on 8th we need to find a midfield pairing that works and a striker or 2 that can score consistently. We have a good core, let's not be overly negative after what was ultimately a disappointing season. A good summer transfer window, getting all our players fully fit and well drilled should put us in the frame. UTMP.
 
If we couldn't do it this season, we will have no chance next season. The division will be so much stronger!
 
We really should be top 6 MINIMUM next season though.

All us 'entitled' ones thought that this season and have been suitably lambasted about it🤷
 
Just to counter the point even I've raised about it being a tougher league, we don't do as well against lesser sides so maybe with more teams who will play their way we'll do better...

As also mentioned if more teams are taking points off each other then less are required to get promoted.
 
I suppose the problem with the 3 coming down (and we were one of them!) was they had point deductions and transfer embargo’s.

This is how they’d have done without:

Us 73
Wigan 70
Reading 59

Not a million miles off and so unlike this season I’d expect one if not two of the relegated sides to go back up. Tough season ahead.
 
JJpool said:
Just to counter the point even I've raised about it being a tougher league, we don't do as well against lesser sides so maybe with more teams who will play their way we'll do better...

As also mentioned if more teams are taking points off each other then less are required to get promoted.
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We struggled to break down teams that parked the bus. We took plenty of points off all of the top sides (except Derby), the failure was not beating the poor ones often enough.
 
NewburyOne said:
It'll be a tougher division as I expect both Wrexham and Stockport to be much more competitive than the clubs who have been relegated. Rotherham will be Rotherham, like Stevenage but bigger and even more ugly. Huddersfield and whoever else will also be up there. Wigan and Reading without the points deductions are also likely to be a threat. Whichever 3 teams miss out on the play offs are also likely to remain competitive. To improve on 8th we need to find a midfield pairing that works and a striker or 2 that can score consistently. We have a good core, let's not be overly negative after what was ultimately a disappointing season. A good summer transfer window, getting all our players fully fit and well drilled should put us in the frame. UTMP.
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Rotherham and Evans what a combination. 😳
 
JJpool said:
Yeah it not all bad, some good local games next season.

It'll be harder in a way as the ones coming down with us had points deductions this time.

However if a league is more competitive then more teams beat each other and so a lower points total is likely needed to win the prizes, if you can put runs together and take advantage of it.
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Also have to factor in that we somehow play better against better teams so hypothetically having more “good” footballing teams should fair well for us.
 
Clueless making excuses already?
How tough it's going to be to compete.
Clubs coming up and coming down, and clubs with bigger budgets.
 
GrahamwantshisOates said:
We say the same every Season. “it’s going to be tougher”. Things will pan out and it will be “We are playing in a poor league”.
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It's quite probable that after the po's you could sit down and predict fairly accurately the top 9/10 +/- 2 and the same with the bottom. Three facets to the league

Like Arsenal throughout the years it was always said they couldn't win at a cold Stoke on a Tuesday night, so couldn't win the title. Our Stoke is a Port Vale etc etc, the poorer teams in the league.
 
People saying ‘currently we’re miles away from being able to compete next season with loans going back etc bla bla bla’ well no shit what do your think the transfer window is there for 😂😂 I’ve no doubt we’ll be able to bring in some decent quality players for this division and the ones we already have will have a had a years worth of league one experience under their belt which can always help going into a second season in the same division.

As for the league being tougher as one or two have alluded to, we often fair a bit better against good sides so having more ‘footballing’ sides in the league with us might actually allow us to pick up a few more results. I do believe though that they’re could easily be 11 or 12 sides who reach 70+ points though next season as teams like Bristol rovers, Shrewsbury, burton, Cambridge, league two play off winners and maybe Mansfield are all likely to get tonkings off most of us at the top so even though we’ll take points off each other, I think there’s likely to be a big gap in points maybe between the top 12/13 and everyone else so we’re still going to need probably at least 75 points for play offs maybe more again
 
I've taken a few local ones and a couple of big ones out but generally how depressing is this list!

Bristol Rovers
Burton Albion
Cambridge United
Exeter City
Leyton Orient
Lincoln City
Mansfield Town
Northampton Town
Reading
Rotherham United
Shrewsbury Town
Stevenage Borough
Wycombe Wanderers
 
Meliora said:
We struggled to break down teams that parked the bus. We took plenty of points off all of the top sides (except Derby), the failure was not beating the poor ones often enough.
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When teams park the bus you have to look at alternative formations to break them down and Critchley failed to do that and no wonder these teams were taking points of us because we made it too easy for them.
 
Seasideforever said:
The final 23 will be tougher from where I’m sat than this season .We really need a good summer recruitment campaign and see where we are after 10 games
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Yeah I think the teams in there now look poor but add in the extra 2 relegated and the extra 3 play off sides who don't go up and there are your 5 favourites to kick off with.
 
neyo said:
I’d say next season looks tougher than this one, no?
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Depends whether Crutchley is here or not. If he remains, I fear a season of struggle.

Critchley is a one season wonder. But then in 20/21 he was lucky to have a good coach alongside him who made all the difference. By the end of his second season the cracks were showing - he had lost his way - but was lucky to get the chance to jump ship to Villa - where he failed. Then he was lucky to get the job at QPR - where he failed. Then he was lucky to get the job back here - where he failed to secure a promotion due to his obsessive, negative tactics especially away from home.
 
Ghost_of_Max said:
I've taken a few local ones and a couple of big ones out but generally how depressing is this list!

Bristol Rovers
Burton Albion
Cambridge United
Exeter City
Leyton Orient
Lincoln City
Mansfield Town
Northampton Town
Reading
Rotherham United
Shrewsbury Town
Stevenage Borough
Wycombe Wanderers
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Should be finishing above all of them tbh
 
GrahamwantshisOates said:
We say the same every Season. “it’s going to be tougher”. Things will pan out and it will be “We are playing in a poor league”.
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This is a big part of the problem. Fans whip themselves up into a paranoid state by spouting crystal ball nonsense. Why won’t any of next seasons tough teams have bad seasons, injuries and sack managers etc?

Another way of looking at it is more teams will attack us, which seems to suit us more than teams sitting back. Under Critch we have a better chance at beating Wrexham and Stockport away than we do Port Vale.,
 
My predictions for next season:
- Toxic atmosphere at Bloomfield leads to home form suffering.
- Attendances dramatically down and the Bloomfield atmosphere consigned to history.
- Critchley continues to play this bizarre formation with players out of position.
- Poor form leads to the sacking around November time.
- Pool scrape enough points to just avoid relegation.
 
Ghost_of_Max said:
I've taken a few local ones and a couple of big ones out but generally how depressing is this list!

Bristol Rovers
Burton Albion
Cambridge United
Exeter City
Leyton Orient
Lincoln City
Mansfield Town
Northampton Town
Reading
Rotherham United
Shrewsbury Town
Stevenage Borough
Wycombe Wanderers
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Should be at least play offs
 
Going to be very competitive (understatement).

Birmingham have to be favorites but Wrexhams revenue is championship level (huge sponsors and selling 50-100k shirts to Ryan Reynolds fans) so they'll be able to outbid most, including us obviously.

Huddersfield are a big club at this level who usually don't stay here long, plus every time you think "surely Rotherham can't do it again" they do, they seem uniquely adapted for the league one slog.
 
SouthernSeasider said:
Confirmed teams so far

Blackpool
Bristol Rovers
Burton Albion
Cambridge United
Charlton Athletic
Exeter City
Leyton Orient
Lincoln City
Mansfield Town
Northampton Town
Reading
Rotherham United
Shrewsbury Town
Stevenage Borough
Stockport County
Wigan Athletic
Wrexham
Wycombe Wanderers

With Huddersfield basically down also.

Not the most appetising. However realistically, we should not be threaten by anyone. There are no “big” teams as such - Derby and Portsmouth were everyone’s favourites this year. If Bolton don’t go up via the play offs then they will be clear favourites.

I can see Charlton doing well under Nathan Jones, Wigan coming back to being stronger and was impressed with Reading today.

We really should be top 6 MINIMUM next season though.

Still feels crap however.
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Why is top six a target? You reach the play offs and it’s a lottery with no guarantee. A season hinges on two or three games. We should be aiming for top two and automatic promotion - anything less seems half hearted to me
 
On the whole tougher next season.

Rotherham and Hudders might be slightly weaker than the promoted teams but Brum, off-field chaos notwithstanding, possibly as strong or stronger.

Wrexham and Stockport will expect to be competitive, albeit both have come a long way in a fairly short time and will require changes.

Wigan, Reading likely to be more competitive. Lincoln probably won’t go backwards.

Harder to see who might fall backwards. Barnsley and Posh most likely to regress … but I said that last season.
 
I wonder if we’re going to have another
“We’ll piss the league” from a certain poster? 🤣

I see some posters have already dismissed Birmingham, Rotherham and Huddersfield as we shouldn’t be fearing them just unbelievable. 🤷‍♂️

Plus were still going to have 3 from Bolton, Posh, Oxford, Barnsley.

Tougher league next season for me we’ll do well to beat 8th especially with several key players more than likely leaving and not having a clue if anyone will be coming in given Sadlers position which unfortunately is going to take priority through the summer.
 
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So the old season is just over a week old and we've already decided we're screwed next season. Fighting a relegation battle according to some!
Undoubtedly some teams will be stronger, some will be weaker and some will be the same, we have no idea which way its going to go, we shouldn't be complacent or terrified.
It's going to be an awfully long summer if we start beating ourselves up about it before we've even published our retained list.
 
Some teams coming down get a bit of a shock.

There are some decent enough footballing sides in this division and also the smaller sides can at times, as we know, sit in an put all the pressure on the bigger side even at home, add in some more physical sides too and it can be difficult.

Although if you get the right mix, balance tactics etc you should be able to do alright.
 
I think we will have serious competition from 10 clubs next season: the 3 that came down from Championship, 3 of the 4 teams in the playoffs, Lincoln, Wigan, Wrexham and there is always an overachieving smaller club (like Oxford this season).
 
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