2025/26 League One Season

[Zico]

1 hour ago, ianofcleveleys said:

Orient used the loan system very well, there was also Donley from Spurs who looked a cut above our level. Us turning our noses up using loans to the same extent as others was daft

 

43 minutes ago, Dr. Feelgood said:

Did we turn our nose up ? We may have, I genuinely don't recall.

I do know that after the tremendous finds of Trafford & Bradley we then took on some right duffers & from the Liverpool, Stretford, Citeh stables ... & generally ones that haven't moved on to be successes elsewhere. 

Maghoma being the only notable success since. Matete ... well, there have been a lot worse but not up to that previous standard.

Maybe we lost our touch, or our nerve.

We had Nlundulu, Shoretire and Mbete on loan at same time as Trafford and Bradley 

Following season we had ogbeta, Ramsay, Taylor, Ashworth and maghoma 

This season we had Murphy, Matete and Etete

I don't think we turned our noses up, just you forget about the ones who did nothing 

We also invested more in our own squad last season then previous which didn't work out either

[thebells]

Next season looks the most open League One for some time. Although I had my doubts about Brum and Wrexham this time last year, their budgets outstripped everyone else by far.

That argument can be made about Luton this time but there'll be legacy Premier League contracts in there and players who absolutely don't want to be in League One, so I don't see them dominating.

Could make a case for up to 12 teams getting promoted at the moment (including us).

The things in our favour are a manager who has been promoted, a still very sizeable League One budget, a settled off field club and (despite what some think), a good core of players. Factors against us are those players we all know need moving on, a number of injury prone players and a fanbase that could get prickly after a few bad results.

Too early to tell but if I had to guess now, I'll say Play Offs for us. Beyond that, I really haven't a clue. Cardiff and Huddersfield don't even have managers at the moment and some clubs have lost strong loan players.

 

[Whitesince63]

45 minutes ago, thebells said:

Next season looks the most open League One for some time. Although I had my doubts about Brum and Wrexham this time last year, their budgets outstripped everyone else by far.

That argument can be made about Luton this time but there'll be legacy Premier League contracts in there and players who absolutely don't want to be in League One, so I don't see them dominating.

Could make a case for up to 12 teams getting promoted at the moment (including us).

The things in our favour are a manager who has been promoted, a still very sizeable League One budget, a settled off field club and (despite what some think), a good core of players. Factors against us are those players we all know need moving on, a number of injury prone players and a fanbase that could get prickly after a few bad results.

Too early to tell but if I had to guess now, I'll say Play Offs for us. Beyond that, I really haven't a clue. Cardiff and Huddersfield don't even have managers at the moment and some clubs have lost strong loan players.

 

Exactly bells which is why I think with the 4 or 5 signings we all know we’re short of there’s nothing in there this season that stands out. The clubs coming down will certainly lose some of their better players one way or the other and let’s be honest, even with them they got relegated. I don’t see L1 being as strong next year but I see us under Schu being much stronger so I’m feeling really confident for us even before we’ve signed anyone.

[wakey]

20 hours ago, SalCity Biggie said:

Didn't realise Luton got relegated again, playing in the prem two seasons ago and now in league one. Don't think we plummeted that hard did we?

never from the top flight, but pretty sure we're the only club to go down 2 divisions in less than 2 seasons 

[Duck Egg]

My worry for next year is that, aside from those first few games, I didn't see enough of an improvement in us defensively or on set pieces at either end.  Even taking into account the injuries and the form of one or two dropping of a cliff, SS didn't appear to have had much of an impact.  He's got his work cut out in the transfer window and on the training ground to turn those awful duffers that finished the season into promotion contenders this.

[Big E]

I think it’s more he’s hammered the soft cunts and they didn’t like so downed tools 

[tomski]

It won’t need a huge shift change in personnel. Will need a mindset change of a few who can influence and get the others to buy into the graft and hard work. 
 

just needs 3 or 4 characters and he’ll know exactly what we need. In Schuey we trust.

[Duck Egg]

1 hour ago, Big E said:

I think it’s more he’s hammered the soft cunts and they didn’t like so downed tools 

I hope so! 

[Johnnyrotten]

8 hours ago, thebells said:

 

Too early to tell but if I had to guess now, I'll say Play Offs for us. Beyond that, I really haven't a clue. Cardiff and Huddersfield don't even have managers at the moment and some clubs have lost strong loan players.

 

I thought one of them might be waiting for the play offs to finish and maybe going for Richie Wellens or Dave Challinor, but Huddersfield have just appointed Lee Grant (Ipswich coach) and the favourites for Cardiff are Brian Barry-Murphy and Des Buckingham).  

[Johnnyrotten]

20 hours ago, e2e4 said:

theres summat on the bbc's website about far easterners sacking off following united coz they dont win anymore. 

polar opposite to that ^^

If I'd been watching Bolton (or any club) from afar I'd have been the same probably, for me it was all about the enjoyment of watching games at Burnden Park.  It doesn't come across on TV, even in the late 70s when I saw highlights of our matches it didn't hook me in any more than any other local teams, but walking to the ground, seeing the floodlights, being amongst the fans, the sounds and smell of the place was strangely seductive!

[Dr. Feelgood]

11 hours ago, Zico said:

 

We had Nlundulu, Shoretire and Mbete on loan at same time as Trafford and Bradley 

Following season we had ogbeta, Ramsay, Taylor, Ashworth and maghoma 

This season we had Murphy, Matete and Etete

I don't think we turned our noses up, just you forget about the ones who did nothing 

We also invested more in our own squad last season then previous which didn't work out either

tbf I thought both Ashworth and Taylor were worthwhile.

Taylor had no luck with injury & Ashworth, for me, was one of those who never fitted into our nebulous formation. I'd have kept them both.

Nlundulu still gives me nightmares. A serious 'wtf'.

[Zico]

Just now, Dr. Feelgood said:

tbf I thought both Ashworth and Taylor were worthwhile.

Taylor had no luck with injury & Ashworth, for me, was one of those who never fitted into our nebulous formation. I'd have kept them both.

Nlundulu still gives me nightmares. A serious 'wtf'.

I thought Ashworth was a decent tidy footballer who with some game time could've been pretty good for us

though he signed for Blackpool played 6 games then got sent on loan to Ross County

LWB was always an issue for IE - we also had Wiiliams and Ogbeta that season and he could never decide who to play

I'm sure someone else will have randomy played there too

 

[ZiggyStardust]

6 minutes ago, Dr. Feelgood said:

Nlundulu still gives me nightmares. A serious 'wtf'.

No problem with trying him out n loan.

 But to buy him on the strength of his performances whilst here ? wowsers.

[Farnywhite]

11 hours ago, Zico said:

 

We had Nlundulu, Shoretire and Mbete on loan at same time as Trafford and Bradley 

Following season we had ogbeta, Ramsay, Taylor, Ashworth and maghoma 

This season we had Murphy, Matete and Etete

I don't think we turned our noses up, just you forget about the ones who did nothing 

We also invested more in our own squad last season then previous which didn't work out either

No evatt said after Bradley and Trafford they were throwing players at us but we had moved on to permanently signings instead of up lifting players for other clubs . The problem being evatt was wrong because the quality lower down wasn’t premier league we fucked up bt not taking players from city and Liverpool and getting lower quality players on loan 

[ianofcleveleys]

12 hours ago, Zico said:

 

We had Nlundulu, Shoretire and Mbete on loan at same time as Trafford and Bradley 

Following season we had ogbeta, Ramsay, Taylor, Ashworth and maghoma 

This season we had Murphy, Matete and Etete

I don't think we turned our noses up, just you forget about the ones who did nothing 

We also invested more in our own squad last season then previous which didn't work out either

Evatt openly said in last Summer's window that a conscious decision had been taken to move away from numerous loans and onto buying up talent that would be ours for the future. 

This season just gone the only loan we started with was Matete, Murphy and Etete came in Jan

[Casino]

32 minutes ago, Farnywhite said:

 we fucked up bt not taking players from city and Liverpool and getting lower quality players on loan 

We did have players from city and liverpool, though

Just nowhere near the level of traf n bradley

[Eddie]

1 hour ago, ZiggyStardust said:

No problem with trying him out n loan.

 But to buy him on the strength of his performances whilst here ? wowsers.

Possibly the first clear sign of his inability. To watch his previous 6 months so closely, spend good money on him and then stubbornly make the statements he did about his being like Toney was a clear sign of his poor management.

Many more were to come.

Edited May 28, 2025 by Eddie

[gonzo]

2 hours ago, Zico said:

 

LWB was always an issue for IE - 

So much so we had to replace like for like bang on 70 minutes every week.

I don't think I'll ever be able to understand that particular habit of his.

[Zico]

2 hours ago, Farnywhite said:

No evatt said after Bradley and Trafford they were throwing players at us but we had moved on to permanently signings instead of up lifting players for other clubs . The problem being evatt was wrong because the quality lower down wasn’t premier league we fucked up bt not taking players from city and Liverpool and getting lower quality players on loan 

But I've just pointed out the season after we had players on loan from city and Liverpool

We had 5 players on loan like we did the season before

The same season we had Bradley from Liverpool we had beck and he did nothing

[Zico]

1 hour ago, ianofcleveleys said:

Evatt openly said in last Summer's window that a conscious decision had been taken to move away from numerous loans and onto buying up talent that would be ours for the future. 

This season just gone the only loan we started with was Matete, Murphy and Etete came in Jan

I know

I said that 

I just don't think we turned our nose up at the loan system

But maybe that decision was based on the fact the other 8 out of 10 loan players we had previously were shit

I'm sure most teams in L1 have loan players from the leagues above, some do well, some don't

Mk Dons got relegated with maghoma, we got play offs 

Point is

If Murphy had been as good as as Bradley or Matete as good as Maghoma this conversation wouldn't be happening

But they weren't 

3 out of 13 loans have been good players

[ianofcleveleys]

10 hours ago, Zico said:

I'm sure most teams in L1 have loan players from the leagues above, some do well, some don't

You're right, probably an indictment of just how many players the big clubs have to shove out of their system to get experience. If the likes of City, Chelsea etc regularly have 30+ out on loan, a few will make a big impact, a lot won't and will probably end up drifting down the leagues and even out of them over the next few years.

[thebells]

17 hours ago, Johnnyrotten said:

I thought one of them might be waiting for the play offs to finish and maybe going for Richie Wellens or Dave Challinor, but Huddersfield have just appointed Lee Grant (Ipswich coach) and the favourites for Cardiff are Brian Barry-Murphy and Des Buckingham).  

Seems a Cardiff announcement imminent. I think Evatt is in contention reading between the lines but they'll be weighing up his League One experience against the 'potential' of Barry Murphy. He's a really highly rated coach and well known in the game, but no managerial experience. And if they're unsure about IE due to his personal affairs, they'll also do well to steer clear of BBM.

If IE doesn't get it, hard to see where he jumps back in, other than waiting until the October sacking season.

[burnden]

A few miles to travel this season 

[Zico]

3 hours ago, ianofcleveleys said:

You're right, probably an indictment of just how many players the big clubs have to shove out of their system to get experience. If the likes of City, Chelsea etc regularly have 30+ out on loan, a few will make a big impact, a lot won't and will probably end up drifting down the leagues and even out of them over the next few years.

Will be interesting to see how Murphy turns out, only because I've got a Geordie mate who reckoned when we signed he was highly rated and they had high hopes for him

From what I've seen will be amazed if he makes it in the PL at a club with CL ambitions every season 

Now he was bang average, if that 

[Steejay]

1 hour ago, thebells said:

Seems a Cardiff announcement imminent. I think Evatt is in contention reading between the lines but they'll be weighing up his League One experience against the 'potential' of Barry Murphy. He's a really highly rated coach and well known in the game, but no managerial experience. And if they're unsure about IE due to his personal affairs, they'll also do well to steer clear of BBM.

If IE doesn't get it, hard to see where he jumps back in, other than waiting until the October sacking season.

Murphy succeeded Keith Hill at Rochdale. Sure he was there for a couple of years.