League One 2026/27 expectations

[Steve Gilbert]

So now we have our manager in place, we have the fixtures, I know we haven’t signed anyone yet but what is everyone’s early expectations for the season ahead?
For me personally it needs to be at least a play off place.

 

[holdsteady]

Absolute dominance, 100 plus points in this Sunday league against nothing teams.

We are used to playing teams like Wrexham, Preston and Portsmouth, we should be smashing the likes of Leicestershire and Sheffield Thursday (what sort of team is named after a day of the week?).

Apparently we have played at this level before, must have been back in the 19th century or something because I can’t remember it.

 

[Steve Gilbert]

Absolute dominance, 100 plus points in this Sunday league against nothing teams.

We are used to playing teams like Wrexham, Preston and Portsmouth, we should be smashing the likes of Leicestershire and Sheffield Thursday (what sort of team is named after a day of the week?).

Apparently we have played at this level before, must have been back in the 19th century or something because I can’t remember it.

#teamslikesheffieldthursday

 

[holdsteady]

I am actually worried about away fans when they come to play us, be such a huge day for these tinpotters that it could be a health risk, can the government given an amber warning or something?

Actually think we should be aiming for 200 points.

 

[Marked Ox]

Don't know until I see what changes happen to the squad.

 

[OxfordBoy]

Yeah pretty pointless anyone predicting this now, before we've signed a single player

Overall though, it would be incredibly disappointing not to at least be in the playoffs at the end of the season

 

[Sarge]

Top 2 minimum

 

[Steve Gilbert]

Yeah pretty pointless anyone predicting this now, before we've signed a single player

Overall though, it would be incredibly disappointing not to at least be in the playoffs at the end of the season

That’s why I said ‘early predictions’ before we have made a signing.
We already have a squad that, in my opinion, doesn’t need much adding to it to make the play offs at least.

 

[Scotchegg]

Promotion needs to be the aim, and I expect us to be challenging at the top. But (and I said the same with Bloomfield), that doesn't mean that we have to hit the ground running from the first game. I am happy to see us building something a little more sustainable, both in terms of the squad, and the style of play. There are no prizes for where you are at the end of August, October or Christmas. Its about building over the season to a top 6 (minimum) in May.

 

[SirAndyOfCrosby]

Promotion needs to be the aim, and I expect us to be challenging at the top. But (and I said the same with Bloomfield), that doesn't mean that we have to hit the ground running from the first game. I am happy to see us building something a little more sustainable, both in terms of the squad, and the style of play. There are no prizes for where you are at the end of August, October or Christmas. Its about building over the season to a top 6 (minimum) in May.

Very sensible.

And a sure-fire strategy to ensuring a 9th place finish.

 

[Scotchegg]

Very sensible.

And a sure-fire strategy to ensuring a 9th place finish.

Why?

 

[Jaboysmith]

Top 4, 80+ points

 

[Burglar Bill]

What we have now is easily capable of a play-off place, or at least they would've been under Bloomfield. Ramsey certainly adds a variable that could go either way. Hopefully we can shed much of the remaining dead wood and bring in 2-3 quality additions, without losing more than 1-2 of the ones we want to keep, and we'll be set.

 

[Didcotox]

Difficult to say when we haven’t signed anyone and we don’t know the strength of our competitors, but our goal should be promotion, whether automatically or via the play offs.

 

[Morris Oxford]

We will give ourselves a much better chance of a good start and ultimately where we finish by implementing a professional preseason and a coordinated recruitment strategy.

If we have learnt lessons from last summer’s shambles then I’m quite hopeful and my expectations are for playoffs at a minimum.

But of course the great unknown at this stage is the quality and balance of the squad, plus how well a very inexperienced albeit high profile head coach will perform.

 

[Jim Chimcheroux]

Top 2 minimum

Top 2 minimum

You’d be happy to settle for second Sarge? Really? I think the heat’s got to you

 

[90syeIlow]

Automatic promotion.

We can't allow ourselves to get stuck in this league for years on end and if we keep our best players and make astute high end league one signings, I feel confident that we can have a great season.

 

[OxRox]

Top 10.

It all depends on who we can keep.

 

[Colin B]

Promotion.

Anything else is failure to achieve our clear objective.

 

[Mojofilter]

I don't feel like I can vote. Have no sense yet of what the budget or transfer policy is like ans whether we are being backed or not. The taps have been inconsistently on and off in recent windows. All comes down to attitude of ownership which right now I can't gauge

 

[Rach]

My prediction is that we'll win some and we'll lose some. We'll cheer and we'll criticise. Players will delight us and players will frustrate us. We'll have some glorious days out and some miserable afternoons. We'll look like winners and we'll look terrible.

And I, for one, will bloody love it.

 

[Billyox]

Promotion needs to be the aim, and I expect us to be challenging at the top. But (and I said the same with Bloomfield), that doesn't mean that we have to hit the ground running from the first game. I am happy to see us building something a little more sustainable, both in terms of the squad, and the style of play. There are no prizes for where you are at the end of August, October or Christmas. Its about building over the season to a top 6 (minimum) in May.

How you start the season(first 10 games) will pretty much dictate where you roughly end up
In the past 5 seasons 27 of the 35 teams who were top 7 after 10 games still finished in the final top 7. Also, in all five seasons, the eventual champion was already in the top 3 after 10 games. That is not a fluke; in League One, a strong first 10 games usually matters

 

[Billyox]

My prediction is that we'll win some and we'll lose some. We'll cheer and we'll criticise. Players will delight us and players will frustrate us. We'll have some glorious days out and some miserable afternoons. We'll look like winners and we'll look terrible.

And I, for one, will bloody love it.

So your sitting on the fence

 

[EastStandKieran]

If we can keep the likes of Mills . Currie . De Keersmacker , Helik , Brown , brannagan , cumming , Spencer

And add a decent striker I think Harris will be fine in league one but we need better than just fine

Get players like Emakhu and McDonnell firing because there's quality in those players

Then I feel like we will be top 2

 

[Ox1893]

Absolute dominance, 100 plus points in this Sunday league against nothing teams.

We are used to playing teams like Wrexham, Preston and Portsmouth, we should be smashing the likes of Leicestershire and Sheffield Thursday (what sort of team is named after a day of the week?).

Apparently we have played at this level before, must have been back in the 19th century or something because I can’t remember it.

Some of the Australian league team names are even more comical.

 

[Oufcrealist]

So now we have our manager in place, we have the fixtures, I know we haven’t signed anyone yet but what is everyone’s early expectations for the season ahead?
For me personally it needs to be at least a play off place.

Far too early to make any expectations/predictions. Park this for a month and then revisit again !!

 

[Steve Gilbert]

Far too early to make any expectations/predictions. Park this for a month and then revisit again !!

'what is everyone’s early expectations for the season ahead?'

This is why I said the above and included the word early. Even before a signing has been made I expect us to be making the play offs with the core squad we have. Come the 1st August and we have signed 3 or 4 absolute quality players on paper then the expectations may go up. On the flip side of that, if we fail to get the required players in and also sell off all the crown jules like Mills, Currie, BDK then expectations will go down.

 

[SirAndyOfCrosby]

 

[Jason]

Top 2 please.

Many thanks.

 

[Oufcrealist]

'what is everyone’s early expectations for the season ahead?'

This is why I said the above and included the word early. Even before a signing has been made I expect us to be making the play offs with the core squad we have. Come the 1st August and we have signed 3 or 4 absolute quality players on paper then the expectations may go up. On the flip side of that, if we fail to get the required players in and also sell off all the crown jules like Mills, Currie, BDK then expectations will go down.

Exactly, all if's and but's at this stage.