Thetownend.com

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2021/aug/02/league-two-2021-22-season-preview

My heart started looking for us in the 'promotion candidates' My head understands why we are at the other end of this article.

I think we'll stay up comfortably. Around 12th.

Also why are Rovers fancied? They were worse than us last year, and have the same management team.

My suspicion is that we'll be in the bottom six - eight or so for the first couple of months of the season, but pull away as the team gels and after a bit of strengthening be firmly midtable. But you know, I thought we'd be fine last season, so what do I know?

Got to be a couple of teams shitter than us.  Feels like we'll start behind but a feel good factor and some positivity behind the scenes should be enough to see us safe.

Head and heart both saying mid table.

Upper middle-ish, maybe even flirtation with the playoffs. Fuck this 'just stay up' bollocks. I'm not buying it and I doubt many fans would be happy if we finish near the bottom.

It would be unfair to expect promotion this season, but when this season ends I want to feel as though the manager has what it takes to get us up next season.

The players we have at the minute, assuming Grant and AK sign, are a really, really decent core for this level, much better than I was expecting if I'm honest. First few weeks might be a bit of a slog as we continue to play catch up, but if we can make a few good signings and get a bit of luck along the way... who knows. (definitely heart over head at this point, ha!)

We'll finish above the gash.

I think we'll finish lower half of the table - 17th, if we sign Grant and odimayo.

But there are others to surely come in..

I reckon we'll be finishing somewhere 14th-17th.

Even Reg would be confident in us finishing above 27th!

I'd take a lower mid table finish, can see the first few months being a struggle due to lack of options, fitness etc.

Just hope everyone gets behind the team and management, even if it isn't going our way during this time.

We will easily be mid table or above. This league was gash a few years ago and can't have massively improved since.

Sent from my XQ-AD51

They haven't bought well and last season were as much of a shitshow as we were, we beat them twice too, no idea why they are fancied, I have them down as low mid table, I would say we will be 10th, higher if we can get a decent 20+ striker on board.

doh! I've tried again

I don’t think our back line looks remotely solid and I can’t see whose going to put the ball on the back of net.

If Grant signs - midfield looks ok, fairly creative. No one to get on the end of those chances yet.

I hope to be proved wrong but I have no faith in the players from last season that were rubbish and/or injury prone to suddenly come good

What O_T_R said. Hope the fans give the new regime some leeway. Would be happy to finish mid table, with clear signs that we'll challenge next season.

let's hope Barton doesn't get sacked :)

I think you are right ‘Div.

I think we will be adding some additions who may be star loan players in a workman team. I sense a mid table finish.

I think we will be slogging it out in the bottom 4 until November and then push on, expect to see us lower to midtable by feb/march and then, who knows..

You're writing off Simpson without him having played a league game for us? And Benda, Caddis and Fryers aside, that back 4 is a good proportion of our title winning season defence...

I crave mid table obscurity, but I do that every season

As corny as it is I'm just relieved and excited to have some football back. I think we'll have enough to stay up, and that's all I'm hoping for. Anything else is a bonus.

We're gonna piss it!

Parsons is the next Austin
Simpson the next single season Barn Door Billy.

Well score so many goals that it won't matter if we have a soft defence. Anyway, JoJo Goalio will save as much as Kovar didn't!

Heart every time for me - until proven otherwise.

I reckon we’ve got a top 7 1st XI but very little back up - at the moment.

I’m looking forward to winning a cup game or 2, as well.

Obviously a huge amount of sarcasm is detected, for HMS piss the league!

Parsons is far more like Twine than Austin and is not really a natural goal scorer but likes to play behind the striker.

Simpson reminds me of a young Jon Obika, strong, big, good control and decent pace and dribble but doesnt have the best shot from what I am told by my Ipswich supporting mate. But he needs games to get his confidence up in front of goal and in L2 lots of goals are bundled in from 6 yards so who knows.

KKH looks to be the real deal and add on a couple of other youngsters and I think we will surprise teams who all seem to think we are in this league to make the numbers up going by their forums.

Yes. Head says struggle to begin with, but hope to come on strong in the second half of the year. Think mid table but hoping to sneak into the playoffs.

Simpson is unproven at best. He might turn out to be an absolute beast but you’d be foolish to pin your goal scoring hopes on a 19 year old with 4 pro games under his belt.

Let’s not forget that he’s arguably our only striker at the moment.

Baudry is done and Conroy is more often injured than not & Hunt hasn’t had a good game for about 18 months. Again, loved to be proved wrong but don’t have much hope in our (current) back line returning to their form of 2 years ago...

Given the details about quite how much of a shitshow last season was from a coaching & management perspective I'm inclined to give all of last year's players a free pass on a season that's best forgotten.
Hunt is a great example - really impressed with him under Wellens and then looked a shadow of the same player last year.

This season will be made or broken on injuries and how many of our first team can play the majority of games. If we get through relatively unscathed then I'm quite optimistic of a top half finish, but that's a big if.

Hunt as well suffered a serious back injury which seems to have taken a long time to get over, as you state he looked really good in L2 under Wellens so hopefully he will come back stronger again now he is fit again.

Almost just posted this word-for-word. Using last season as a yard stick is grossly unfair to these players.

This....

Mid table, probably a minor flirt with the possiblity of squeaking into the playoffs at end of season but like others, this year I'm just happy to be able to go to games and watch some football again.

If we start taking injuries I can see us struggling. Not a huge amount of depth.

Having a fitness regime at the club will be a massive benefit to us.
Hoping that we see less muscular injuries and these are managed more effectively. Expecting us to strengthen up top and if we are successful here then you never know.
A few weeks behind everyone else but certainly not adrift.

How was the chilled champagne?

Head and heart (which is black and wizened) say bottom for the first couple of months. We may claw our way upwards if we’re lucky with injuries.

I’d be delighted if we stay up, the management team looks as though they know what they’re doing and off-field stuff continues on an upward curve.

I feel fortunate that I’ve got a team to watch this season- something I wasn’t so sure about a few weeks ago.

My head is saying "don't get too excited we might get a points deduction"

Exactly my thoughts. With no pre-season or a squad to even take pre-season I think any points in those first 6 games are a bonus.  

I still can't get my head in a position to accept targeting safety/bottom half finish. As town fans we haven't had this proposition many times in the last 20 years. We usually go into each season with ambitions of promotion.

I know we are lucky to have the club and our preparations have been terrible. BUT i still can't do it. this is a proper shit league and everyone is making these assumptions without more signings to come.

I refuse to believe it.

The main issue is, even if we have another 5 reasonable signing and we have a squad we're happy with.....they've been totally thrown together with no preseason.

You would hope certain players will be professional enough to be in good shape anyway, you'd certainly expect the loans from higher clubs to be. I'd be willing to wager there will be a few that aren't though and their lack of fitness will be a problem.

Then the team of players thrown together have to gel tactically and within the way we want to play. It could take months for them to gel properly.

This is all after assuming we get 5 or 6 more signings to give us a squad capable of competing. I think it's just people being realistic about our circumstances.

The same goes for other teams, though, and would still apply to us had we had a full pre-season.

The way I see it is that we're 5-6 games behind the others. After that we should be caught up, albeit having had a poor start results-wise.

Yeah my general thinking first 6 games is a total write off.

Games 7 to 10 may still be difficult but after that we should be reasonably ok with the squad we have, provided we don't have rotten luck with injuries.

I dont have a clue how this season is going to go tbh. Usually have some idea at the start of the season (based on last season, who weve kept, new signings, same/different manager etc.). Sometimes completely wrong, but at least some inkling. This season, not a clue. Not even sure how many of the new squad I've actually seen play in the flesh... Just looking forward to watching live games again! COYR

Head says 16th place finish.

Superb Mate :)

With some of them not having had much of a pre-season I think fitness will catch us out for a few games until they get match fit and start to bond as a squad, with a few decent additions, mainly at the front and back I'd see us holding mid table, but depending what position we are come January a few decent and shrewd additions then it may see us looking upwards.

I see us struggling for a good few games though.

There are so many unknowns, the manager after his showing at Rovers has a lot to prove, but could be a real good coach, the players left over from last season have a new lease of life and clean slate, and the loans so far look promising.

I'll review my thoughts when the transfer windows slams shut.

I've never understood the "Oooh let's not get carried away" mentality. To me that's the whole point of being a football fan. There are so many shit times as a fan, when it looks like the good times may have come back again you have to embrace it and milk it for all it's worth.

I totally get the point that we're very much behind the 8-ball all in terms of pre-season and squad is decidedly thin on the ground. This may well lead to a somewhat patchy start but we have some very decent players for this level of football and it's a long old season. I can see us being somewhere around the playoffs next May.

To publicly state that survival is the aim is exactly how Clem/Rob/Ben should be managing expectations. As has been said though, there's no way they would have said that to the lad from Aston villa or to Odimeyo.

Let the endless Rollercoaster ride continue 😉

They may not have the same management team for much longer!

I thought this was a fred about Bert Head v Paul Hart and went into it thinking this will be a piece of piss to decide!

I reckon the Town will start slow/struggle but build up momentum going into the Jan Transfer Window sitting around mid-table. I think that transfer window will be key. By then a good chunk of financial limitations should be dealt with/gone/agreed and the finishing position objective may change as the management aim to grab play-offs (maybe even better).

Personally, I think Town will end up 9th or 10th on a pretty strong finish. We'll likely be reflecting short term  in rueing the delayed pre-season/slow start. However, the long term will be pointing towards a target of auto promotion in the following season.

Come on you mighty fucking reds!  :pint: