Looking forward to the 2024-25 season

[Sutekh]

Well now the club are mathematically safe from the drop what are your hopes for next season.

1. No Dai (and Pang) any more
2. New communicative owners who actually talk to people at all levels
3. Retaining the likes of Savage, Azeez, Elliott, Wing, Knibbs, Wifi and Bindon to build a promotion challenging team around
4. Some clever/opportune transfer market trading despite the FL sanctions
5. An FA Cup run
6. Play-offs
7. Games against Oxford and Hollywood FC

[WestYorksRoyal]

Consistent 16k - 17k attendances at the SCL.

Knowing you won't lose points won on the pitch.

[Snowflake Royal]

Looking forward positively, rather than waiting for the next disaster.

A feeling of a return to the early 00s, when we were coming out of a period of a bit of shambles under Burns with Madjeski AWOL and Howe allowing money to be thrown at toss, into a period of sustained good football, promotion chases and a feeling we were on the rise and really could make it to the big time for the first time.

Buzzing atmosphere. Higher attendances - average of 15,500 would be pretty good (+3,300), and I believe our best at this level, outside crazy old stadium capacities anyway.

No points deductions.

Retaining a progression into the first team for the best youth players to test themselves.

No more expensive aging has beens.

[The Royal Forester]

The only hope I have is having a club that is still alive. With Dai still on the scene, that is not yet a foregone conclusion!

[Hound]

Dai gone and the majority of this team to stay and keep progressing. And not so much rain

That’d do me for starters

[Stranded]

We will naturally lose a couple of the OOC players, as some will get tempting offers from a division above & we may need to fend off interest in Wing, Smith & Knibbs but, maybe naively, this squad seem to love working together, working for this manager and there is clearly a refound bond between them and the fans.

So, if the ownership does change, I'm looking forward to re-signing a decent number of those OOC and adding 4 or 5 quality free agents to the squad.

Of the potential free agents from L1, I would be happy for us to move for:

Conor Ogilvie (Pompey) LB
Josh Knight (Peterboro) CB
Ruel Sotiriou (Orient) CF

Possibly even someone like Adam Reach dropping down from the Champ - only 31 still.

But I'm sure the recruitment guys already have a multitude of targets including potential deals like those for Elliott and Savage.

[Snowflake Royal]

We will naturally lose a couple of the OOC players, as some will get tempting offers from a division above & we may need to fend off interest in Wing, Smith & Knibbs but, maybe naively, this squad seem to love working together, working for this manager and there is clearly a refound bond between them and the fans.

So, if the ownership does change, I'm looking forward to re-signing a decent number of those OOC and adding 4 or 5 quality free agents to the squad.

Of the potential free agents from L1, I would be happy for us to move for:

Conor Ogilvie (Pompey) LB
Josh Knight (Peterboro) CB
Ruel Sotiriou (Orient) CF

Possibly even someone like Adam Reach dropping down from the Champ - only 31 still.

But I'm sure the recruitment guys already have a multitude of targets including potential deals like those for Elliott and Savage.

Can't see many of our ooc players getting attractive offers from the Championship.

Even Azeez I don't really think looks like a Champ bench player beyond the bottom few. His touch and decision making is too iffy.

[WestYorksRoyal]

We will naturally lose a couple of the OOC players, as some will get tempting offers from a division above & we may need to fend off interest in Wing, Smith & Knibbs but, maybe naively, this squad seem to love working together, working for this manager and there is clearly a refound bond between them and the fans.

So, if the ownership does change, I'm looking forward to re-signing a decent number of those OOC and adding 4 or 5 quality free agents to the squad.

Of the potential free agents from L1, I would be happy for us to move for:

Conor Ogilvie (Pompey) LB
Josh Knight (Peterboro) CB
Ruel Sotiriou (Orient) CF

Possibly even someone like Adam Reach dropping down from the Champ - only 31 still.

But I'm sure the recruitment guys already have a multitude of targets including potential deals like those for Elliott and Savage.

The recruitment last summer was great, but we did have Jared Dublin in the build up. I wonder how important he was. From the outside, it looks like Bowen and Carey are more old-school in how they go about things, using relationships, reports etc., to identify targets, whereas Dublin filled in a gap in using data. Certainly we all wonder how the hell we spotted Bindon.

I would assume that in the EFL landscape Bowen and Carey have all the knowledge we need, but they're less likely to pull off a left field masterstroke.

Can see Azeez potentially staying based upon offers (as IR says above). Perhaps if he kept up his December/January form we'd lose him, but he hasn’t kept that up. I don't think he'll get many Championship offers, and if he does move up a division I don't think he'll play much.

[Stranded]

We will naturally lose a couple of the OOC players, as some will get tempting offers from a division above & we may need to fend off interest in Wing, Smith & Knibbs but, maybe naively, this squad seem to love working together, working for this manager and there is clearly a refound bond between them and the fans.

So, if the ownership does change, I'm looking forward to re-signing a decent number of those OOC and adding 4 or 5 quality free agents to the squad.

Of the potential free agents from L1, I would be happy for us to move for:

Conor Ogilvie (Pompey) LB
Josh Knight (Peterboro) CB
Ruel Sotiriou (Orient) CF

Possibly even someone like Adam Reach dropping down from the Champ - only 31 still.

But I'm sure the recruitment guys already have a multitude of targets including potential deals like those for Elliott and Savage.

The recruitment last summer was great, but we did have Jared Dublin in the build up. I wonder how important he was. From the outside, it looks like Bowen and Carey are more old-school in how they go about things, using relationships, reports etc., to identify targets, whereas Dublin filled in a gap in using data. Certainly we all wonder how the hell we spotted Bindon.

I would assume that in the EFL landscape Bowen and Carey have all the knowledge we need, but they're less likely to pull off a left field masterstroke.

Can see Azeez potentially staying based upon offers (as IR says above). Perhaps if he kept up his December/January form we'd lose him, but he hasn’t kept that up. I don't think he'll get many Championship offers, and if he does move up a division I don't think he'll play much.

I think Bindon was a "bit of luck" - his Mum got a job over here and he wanted to follow as was only 18, his agent is Kia - who was the first club he was going to get offered to?

[League1_Herewecome]

A couple of song bangers to go with everyone's new found optimism....

Mika - Grace Kelly - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CGVgAYJyjk

First we tried a little Coppell
What a Team 1-0-6
Now we've got Super Ruben
The EFL look like pricks

We can purple we can be green
We're the worlds greatest team
We can be silver we can be grey
No one plays like we play
We can blue we can be white
We can be f u c k ing dynamite

Why can't you beat us?
Why can't you beat us?
Coz you're f u c k i n g s h i t e...


Mika - Lollipop - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6md5RSnVUuo

Playing shit football at the SCL
And The Dings gonna take you down
The Ding
The Ding
The Dings gonna take you down

Reading FC the Team for Me
Reuben told me to watch and see
Now the Dings gonna win the League
The Dings gonna take you down

Playing shit football at the SCL
And The Dings are gonna take you down
The Ding
The Ding
The Dings gonna take you down

[Away Version - "playing s h i t football when you're playing at home.."

[NathStPaul]

Can see another midtable season with some big wins and heavy defeats.

[Snowflake Royal]

Not sure I see many heavy defeats given our recent defence. We've conceded 3 or more in only about 4 games since Jan.

[Hound]

We will naturally lose a couple of the OOC players, as some will get tempting offers from a division above & we may need to fend off interest in Wing, Smith & Knibbs but, maybe naively, this squad seem to love working together, working for this manager and there is clearly a refound bond between them and the fans.

So, if the ownership does change, I'm looking forward to re-signing a decent number of those OOC and adding 4 or 5 quality free agents to the squad.

Of the potential free agents from L1, I would be happy for us to move for:

Conor Ogilvie (Pompey) LB
Josh Knight (Peterboro) CB
Ruel Sotiriou (Orient) CF

Possibly even someone like Adam Reach dropping down from the Champ - only 31 still.

But I'm sure the recruitment guys already have a multitude of targets including potential deals like those for Elliott and Savage.

The recruitment last summer was great, but we did have Jared Dublin in the build up. I wonder how important he was. From the outside, it looks like Bowen and Carey are more old-school in how they go about things, using relationships, reports etc., to identify targets, whereas Dublin filled in a gap in using data. Certainly we all wonder how the hell we spotted Bindon.

I would assume that in the EFL landscape Bowen and Carey have all the knowledge we need, but they're less likely to pull off a left field masterstroke.

Can see Azeez potentially staying based upon offers (as IR says above). Perhaps if he kept up his December/January form we'd lose him, but he hasn’t kept that up. I don't think he'll get many Championship offers, and if he does move up a division I don't think he'll play much.

I think Bindon was a "bit of luck" - his Mum got a job over here and he wanted to follow as was only 18, his agent is Kia - who was the first club he was going to get offered to?

Was Kia his agent before he moved over? Did his mum move local to here?

Either way, definitely some luck involved there but we did well to get him in and give him the chance

[Stranded]

The recruitment last summer was great, but we did have Jared Dublin in the build up. I wonder how important he was. From the outside, it looks like Bowen and Carey are more old-school in how they go about things, using relationships, reports etc., to identify targets, whereas Dublin filled in a gap in using data. Certainly we all wonder how the hell we spotted Bindon.

I would assume that in the EFL landscape Bowen and Carey have all the knowledge we need, but they're less likely to pull off a left field masterstroke.

Can see Azeez potentially staying based upon offers (as IR says above). Perhaps if he kept up his December/January form we'd lose him, but he hasn’t kept that up. I don't think he'll get many Championship offers, and if he does move up a division I don't think he'll play much.

I think Bindon was a "bit of luck" - his Mum got a job over here and he wanted to follow as was only 18, his agent is Kia - who was the first club he was going to get offered to?

Was Kia his agent before he moved over? Did his mum move local to here?

Either way, definitely some luck involved there but we did well to get him in and give him the chance

She is assitant coach at the London City Lionesses, so would imagine lives in London which Tyler may well do as well but even if he is more local then still closer to family than staying in LA.

[Winston Biscuit]

[Snowflake Royal]

Not every likely contender is confirmed yet. So early days. But I remember 4-4-2 had us down at about 20/1 for the title in 05/06.

[Royal_jimmy]

I'd hope to see Dai gone and a reasonable new owner who can steady the ship and ensure all bills are paid. I expect we'll lose a few players over the summer, hopefully for fees as the club starts to be run more sustainably and we can invest more money into wages and attracting good players on free and on loan. The transfer fee ban isn't the end of the world as not many clubs buy players in this league.

I feel confident we can continue the current form into next season and we'll finish in or around the playoffs. Probably a year too soon to be expecting automatic promotion and we'll probably lose a few key players so will need to rebuild. Also hoping we can beat the Pox next season!

[MartinRdg]

... Also hoping we can beat the Pox next season!

And, of course, hoping they aren't promoted via the playoffs.

[Clyde1998]

Sky Bet Promotion Odds (at time of posting):

• 5/2 - Holywood
• 7/2 - Lincoln; Rotherham
• 9/2 - Blackpool; Charlton; Reading
• 5/1 - Wigan
• 6/1 - Stevenage; Stockport; Wycombe
• 7/1 - Bristol Rovers; Leyton Orient; Mansfield
• 9/1 - Exeter
• 10/1 - Northampton; Shrewsbury
• 12/1 - Burton; Cambridge

At the start of last season, Oddschecker's promotion odds had Blackpool sixth on 9/2. So at this very earlier juncture, the odds suggests we'll be around the play-offs - which seems right.

At the other end, 12/1 would've put a side 13th - so perhaps these are all abnormally short simply to reduce the chances of Sky losing a load of money from early betting.

Obviously things will start to shift once we know all of the teams in the division and transfers start being made.

[Clyde1998]

Not every likely contender is confirmed yet. So early days. But I remember 4-4-2 had us down at about 20/1 for the title in 05/06.

I remember the Reading FC magazine (remember that?) had a full list with us being mid-table ahead of that season. Just shows how underestimated that team was, making the achievement even more impressive.