League One - Your Expectations?

[Royal_jimmy]

Today is a dark day, it hurts and the next few weeks will.

What are your expectations next season?

I don't expect immediate promotion as we've got a huge rebuild on our hands but we should be getting into the playoffs next season I think. Especially if Dai sticks around. If he gives up on us I expect us to drop again. I'll be more optimistic and expect us to be in the playoffs. It's a huge drop in quality. Players like McIntyre, Holmes, Yiadom and Azeez aren't championship quality but having watched many league one games I think they'll be ok in that league. Still expect us to be leaky though as they're really not great. Carroll if he stays will score 10-15, a few good signings especially up front should help us.

[Loafer]

We will probably finish below the play offs by a long way and endure 12 months of you having a massive tantrum about league one and people's jobs

Go watch non league, its way better

[Sutekh]

Hoping the club appoint an actual proper manager rather than yet another useless numpty who has never seen the English game. And high on the fix list is the flaming awful defence, really wouldn’t be sorry if every defender left the club but unfortunately the club has them all for at least another year

So this new manager has to be able to build a team capable of defending which I’m sure is going to test him to the very limit just in itself.

[Orion1871]

A hugely difficult slog. First stop next season is to avoid a double relegation. Then we will have to try to stabilise the club for a few years in mid table, before we even think about trying to challenge for promotion.

There is still a lot of pain ahead, and those who are searching for "things to look forward to" are going to be hit with a hard dose of reality a couple of months into next season.

[Delboy]

If Bowen and his team who we listened to last week are true to their word, they have a plan, we have 15/16 good players retained, add the right manager and some hungrier players we will be challenging again . Anything better than the last 4 years .

[Delboy]

20000 fans at home next May for a promotion party !

[72 bus]

If Bowen and his team who we listened to last week are true to their word, they have a plan, we have 15/16 good players retained, add the right manager and some hungrier players we will be challenging again . Anything better than the last 4 years .

If Bowen gets a decent job offer from a championship club he will probably leave.
Same with Brian Carey, six years as Head of Recruitment at Tottenham Hotspur now finds himself at a tier three club, why would he stay ?

[Linden Jones' Tash]

I don't get how we rebuild given the dramatic drop in revenue in L1.... Unless the owner gambles again and supports an (unsustainable for L1) budget for 1 season... Which will lead to more problems if it fails.

And given the grief he's getting for investment/spend/loading debt to date, why should he?...

Financially this is Armageddon or am I missing something?

[Snowflake Royal]

I don't get how we rebuild given the dramatic drop in revenue in L1.... Unless the owner gambles again and supports an (unsustainable for L1) budget for 1 season... Which will lead to more problems if it fails.

And given the grief he's getting for investment/spend/loading debt to date, why should he?...

Financially this is Armageddon or am I missing something?

We can rebuild because decent L1 players cost far less than Championship ones.

Even if we paid an entire 28 man squad £6k a week (we were capped at offering £8.5 to new signings previously remember) that’s under £9m quid wage budget.

With Moore, Joao, Meite and hopefully Puscas and Ejaria gone, that's about £5m - £7m off our wage bill of about £16m this season.

If we have any sense at all, anyone we've signed in the last couple of years will have a relegation wage reduction clause given the restrictions we've been under.

We have a coupleof players we can sell for reasonable money in the likes of Ince and Holmes.

If Wigan and Rotherham can manage on smaller crowds and income than we'll have, so can we.

We also have one of the most successful academies in the country that has churned out oodles of L1 and above quality players.

[Hound]

There is a massive drop in revenue but also a huge drop on the wage bill to match

Puscas, Moore, Joao, Meite off the books will cover the loss in revenue

I think we’ll be in and around the play offs. If the likes of Barnsley have managed that then we should be more than capable

Need to make a good decision on tbe manager and some shrewd good value signings (absolute no guarantee of either) but if we do then we should have a fairly good year

[Hound]

Noted Genoa can secure promotion tomorrow if results go the right way, currently 6 clear with 3 games to go

So add that money to the pot, possibly something from an Olise transfer, maybe sell off ince and we should actually be one of the better off teams in the division

Do think rather than taking 3 years to rebuild or whatever, next year May well be our best chance for those reasons

[NathStPaul]

It all depends on who the manager is and if the terrible outside influences at the club vanish.

If we appoint a competent manager who has experience of getting teams out of League 1 I would have thought we'd be top 6.

[Webster750]

As things stand we've got an owner who we can't be sure will remain commited, no manager, a DoF yet to really do anything but talk a good game (not that it's his fault), a scouting team yet to bring a player in outside of the 'nobody else wanted them' pool (again, not their fault) and a depleted squad with the likelihood of quite a few more leaving.

That being said I expect to win the league.

[Sanguine]

No expectations at all. Really difficult to imagine what the squad will look like, where we will find a manager, and what relegation will do to morale both in the playing squad and the fanbase. If I had to have a bet, I'd say somewhere around 10th, but no real play-off push, just a middling season with a few promising periods.

[Loafer]

It all depends on who the manager is and if the terrible outside influences at the club vanish.

If we appoint a competent manager who has experience of getting teams out of League 1 I would have thought we'd be top 6.

I'd take Danny Cowley

[Millsy]

It’ll be shit for years.

Dai hasn’t learned any lessons and will be shite. And if he leaves potentially even worse.

Expect years of battling, eventually getting to playoffs and losing them , then more years of battling.

[YorkshireRoyal99]

Completely depends what the squad looks like, although we should be one of the wealthiest clubs in the league next season so we should be able to attract some of the best players for League One level to the club over the summer. Plenty of outgoings as well which is good news, could use moving on a lot of the dross we've had this season. The stadium is good this League One level and the training facilities will be one of, if not the, best in the league as well.

Plenty of positives that can be taken. Obviously I'd rather all this happened in the Championship, but there isn't anything we can do now. Given this we should have enough to build a squad that can excite the fans and, most importantly, be challenging at the top end of the table. My personal minimum expectations are the play offs and I don't think that's unachievable.

[NathStPaul]

Millsy and Jimmy

[Forbury Lion]

Some of my expectations, in no particular order:
1. No increase in ticket prices, possibly even a reduction if the budget allows
2. A new manager appointed swiftly with experience of the English leagues, ideally a successful manager.
3. An appreciation by all that League One is tough to get out of, As thing stand odds on us getting relegated to League Two are probably greater than us gaining promotion back to the Championship, Our first target is to avoid the drop
4. More depth and quality added to the squad, unless of course the new manager/coach can get more out of the existing players
5. 100% commitment from all players, even those who understandably wish to move on/play at a higher level
6. The club to be run the right way, Better in the long run to not keep or sign a player if it's going to cause FFP issues further down the line.
7. Players and staff to be paid on time every month without question. It's not great for retaining or attracting staff/players, creates negativity amongst the fans, suppliers, sponsors and partners of the club and it may get us a points deduction.
8. Improved scouting network to find the right players at the right price
9. Transparency and honesty
10. A big fcuking celebration when we eventually gain promotion - could be waiting years for that
11. Patience from the fans and the owner
12. Swifter action in future than this season if we ever find ourselves on a bad run heading towards relegation
13. Academy top flight status restored
14. Youth players getting a chance - Papa Johns Trophy?
15. Job losses amongst staff kept to a minimum.
16. Fill the stands with kid for a quid deals or whatever if regular attendances are low, help build the fanbase for the future and make a killing on sales of hotdogs, fizzy drinks and club shop merchandise.
17. More wins than this season, More points than this season, More positivity than the end of this season

[Snowflake Royal]

Goal for me is better season than recently with promotion within 3 seasons.

Minimum expectation is 14th next season. Ideally pushing for POs / autos.

Start rebuilding the club on a sustainable footing with a medium term plan rather than short term reacting and only thinking of the immediate season and problem.

Hoping to see plenty of youth players breaking through.