League One, 2022/23

[The_Gun]

Portsmouth have signed 18 year old striker Dane Scarlett on a season long loan from Spurs. Very highly rated young player who I can imagine having a big impact at this level.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

So far I’ve looked at last season’s nearly-men: the three defeated play-off hopefuls. But I’ll now dive down to last season’s 11th-placed team, given our impending trip to IPSWICH (tripswich?)

Finishing 11th sounds mid-table, but that’s slightly harsh on a club who had a good second half of the season. Christmas came early for Tractorheadz when Kieran McKenna leapt off Ralf Rangnick’s spluttering Manchester United diesel train and took his first lead job, on 16th December. From January to season’s end, Town were the tier’s sixth-best side, indicating treasonable hope for a challenge; a busy summer indicates that the club’s hopes not be not so much thereabouts as there: ending the first dip since the 1950s into English football’s third tier after four seasons.

McKenna has lost a couple of notable loanees from last season. Macauley Bonne, the club's second-top scorer (one behind winger Wes Burns) with 12 in 43 league games, has gone back to QPR; Kosovan twinkle Bersant Celina - once linked with us, a lifetime ago - has gone back to Dijon after bagging 6 in 32.

Another two loanees Ipswich won't be able to use this season are two Jan-Jun loanees who featured heavily in McKenna's revival: Brentford left-back Dom Thompson, now at Blackpool, and Bristol City's Ghost-admired midfielder Tyreeq Bakinson, now at Sheff Weds.

Also off: Former Dons striker Joe Pigott has been loaned out to Pompey after a disappointing season in East Anglia, striker James Norwood was released at 31 and has now joined Barnsley, while former Spurs midfielder Tom Carroll is yet to find a new club.

So who's incoming? Some names with decent pedigree. Striker Freddie Ladapo joins on a free after scoring 43 in 107 third-tier games for Plymouth and Rotherham over the last four seasons (plus a decent nine in the Champo for the Millers). Winger Marcus Harness signed for an undisclosed fee – believed to be around £750,000 – from Pompey, with nearly 150 third-tier appearances under his belt and 11 goals last season. And another freebie is Dominic Ball, the classy QPR midfielder rated highly by our very own Ghost and Brommers.

McKenna has also reacted to losing left-back Thompson by signing two more. Greg Leigh, signed on a free from Morecambe, may not have been delighted to find himself followed by Leeds' Leif Davis for what has been described as a seven-figure sum.

Add in Tyreece John-Jules, the Arsenal striker (and nephew of the actor who played the cat in Red Dwarf - one for the teenagers there) about to start his fifth lower-league loan spell, and it's a proactive summer for Ipswich. So much so that commentator Ian Darke felt the need to tweet about the "massive pressure on Ipswich to be promoted given their spending.... Can their players live with the expectation? Last season - no."

That may be harsh – the club could just be spending the seven-figure fees they received for Flynn Downes and Andre Dozzell last summer - but there's something to it. McKenna enjoyed his side being the dark (dray)horses, coming from behind. Leading from the front, or at least being expected to, is it a different thing. They have a decent squad and a promising manager, but they've been here before: Paul Cook, with three promotions and an open chequebook, crashed and burned. Could McKenna?

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

It was all going so well for PLYMOUTH. On Tuesday 22nd March, under the light at an ecstatic Home Park, they recorded their sixth successive win to consolidate fourth place, just five points off the automatic places held by wobbling Rotherham and Wigan. With seven games to go, they had eyes on automatic - or at least being the form team in the play-offs.

Then they lost 1-0 at Ipswich and, although they beat Oxford, they didn't win any of their last five, scoring only once: 0-0 at Burton, 0-2 at Wycombe, 0-0 at home to Sunderland, 1-1 at Wigan and then, on a calamitous final day, slipped from 6th to 7th place with a humiliating 5-0 home loss to MK Dons. (Scott Twine scored four, Harry Darling the other.)

So who's changed from the squad that not so much limped over the finishing line as face-planted into the track two yards short?

Looking at last season's top appearance-makers, the most notable absence is Ryan Broom, a hard-working midfielder/wingback who played in 43 league games. He's gone back to Peterborough, who have transfer-listed him (as they do with players in the final year of their contracts); they haven't had an offer they like, and he has refused to even talk to suitors Mansfield. Swansea loanee forward Jordan Garrick also returned home after 41 games, largely as sub.

There were no notable departures over summer; Plymouth's impressive midfielder Pan Camara (40 league games, 4 goals) was listed after refusing to sign a new contract, but perhaps surprisingly appears unwanted by other teams.

In his first summer window as a manager, Steven Schumacher has signed five players. The most notable is Matt Butcher, the Accy midfielder we were said to be interested in. The other permanent transfer was also a freebie: underwhelming Rotherham forward Mickel Miller.

Coming in season loans are Aston Villa's Finn Azaz, a rangy midfielder who scored 7 in 42 League Two games at Newport last season; Bali Mumba, a Norwich fullback who played 10 times for Posh last term; and Morgan Whittaker, a Swansea forward/winger who scored 5 in 20 for Lincoln last time.

Schuss has pronounced himself contented - “All of the recruits we went for, we got, which I’m buzzing about" – and in a slightly curious pre-season, Argyle have drawn 2-2 with Plymouth Parkway, beaten a Gilbaltarian side 15-1, drawn 1-1 with Swansea, lost 1-0 to Bristol City and then returned to playing non-league teams, beating Torquay and Yeovil.

It's a big season for Schumacher. Many might have expected Argyle to fall away once Ryan Lowe left and his former No.2 stayed behind, but they put together a fine run – followed by a sickening nosedive. His season, and possibly his career, could be decided by which version turns up this time.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Peterborough sell their No.10 (actually No.7) Sammie Szmodics to Blackburn. He was their third leading scorer last season - they've kept the top two, Jonson Clarke-Harris and Jack Marriott.

[Worthy4England]

Peterborough sell their No.10 (actually No.7) Sammie Szmodics to Blackburn. He was their third leading scorer last season - they've kept the top two, Jonson Clarke-Harris and Jack Marriott.

Hopefully the front two now run around aimlessly with no supply!

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Peterborough sell their No.10 (actually No.7) Sammie Szmodics to Blackburn. He was their third leading scorer last season - they've kept the top two, Jonson Clarke-Harris and Jack Marriott.

Hopefully the front two now run around aimlessly with no supply!

Just another supply-chain problem.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Alfie Mawson, who cost Fulham £20m four years ago, joins Wycombe on a free. He's 28.

[bw@bw]

Alfie Mawson, who cost Fulham £20m four years ago, joins Wycombe on a free. He's 28.

Played for them before

Only a 1 year deal??????

Something gone very wrong whilst at Fulham

[Worthy4England]

Alfie Mawson, who cost Fulham £20m four years ago, joins Wycombe on a free. He's 28.

Played for them before

Only a 1 year deal??????

Something gone very wrong whilst at Fulham

Maybe they can't afford Mawson alongside Fossey's wage demands?

[Prufrock]

Didn't really know where to put this, but looks like the Pompey away game will get bunted for international call ups. Gives us a little respite from what would have been MK Dons, Peterborough, Pompey in a row in the league, and means we can play a strong team away to the bin dippers in the Autoglass.

Probably rearranged for a Tuesday at some point which is sub optimal for anyone wanting to go!

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Seems a sensible thread destination to me, Pru.

Midweek Pompey - possibly doable for we capital-dwellers, but I don't much fancy those backstreets on a dark night...

[BWFC_Insane]

Seems a sensible thread destination to me, Pru.

Midweek Pompey - possibly doable for we capital-dwellers, but I don't much fancy those backstreets on a dark night...

I went on an evening once when Sheringham I think ripped us a new one - they’d just come up too. Was horrific.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Seems a sensible thread destination to me, Pru.

Midweek Pompey - possibly doable for we capital-dwellers, but I don't much fancy those backstreets on a dark night...

I went on an evening once when Sheringham I think ripped us a new one - they’d just come up too. Was horrific.

Was this the one where Campo played LB?

[BWFC_Insane]

Seems a sensible thread destination to me, Pru.

Midweek Pompey - possibly doable for we capital-dwellers, but I don't much fancy those backstreets on a dark night...

I went on an evening once when Sheringham I think ripped us a new one - they’d just come up too. Was horrific.

Was this the one where Campo played LB?

Honestly can’t remember. Sheringham scored a hat trick and their fans were unbearable is my main recollection.

We’d lost 4-0 to Man Utd in iirc ronaldos first game for them a week before too….

[TonyDomingos]

Seems a sensible thread destination to me, Pru.

Midweek Pompey - possibly doable for we capital-dwellers, but I don't much fancy those backstreets on a dark night...

I went on an evening once when Sheringham I think ripped us a new one - they’d just come up too. Was horrific.

Was this the one where Campo played LB?

Honestly can’t remember. Sheringham scored a hat trick and their fans were unbearable is my main recollection.

We’d lost 4-0 to Man Utd in iirc ronaldos first game for them a week before too….

Yes, I was at that game too. 0-0 at ht and then battered in the 2nd half. The trip back to London was spent in the company of my Pompey supporting bro-in-law ....

[Harry Genshaw]

I was going to this one if it was on but can't imagine me getting down there for a midweek fixture. Shame, as it's a nice city to spend a weekend in.

[Bruce Rioja]

We’d lost 4-0 to Man Utd in iirc ronaldos first game for them a week before too….

It was Nicky Hunt's debut as well, wasn't it? He'd had a good first half too.

It's a bit of a pisser them moving the Pompey game as I actually fancied dropping down for this one.

There was a time, of course, when games would get postponed because we'd lose players to some of the world's pre-eminent international sides, yet now we have them called off because someone's on the bench for Nicaragua or some such!

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

This has got me wondering which, if any, of our games during the World Cup might get postponed. ISTR last season the Pompey game was either postponed or was going to be because they had call-ups.

We're supposed to play Fleetwood and Brizzle Rovers during the group-stage phase, potentially along with a couple of cup games, then Shrewsbury and Exeter during the knockouts (although obviously as the number of nations still competing drops from 32 to 2 it's ever less likely it'll affect participants down at our Gumby Football level).

[Bruce Rioja]

^^

I think it's fair to say that none of our English types will be Qatar bound, which leaves;

Wales
Jones
John
Williams
Sheehan
Isgrove
Beck

Portugal
Santos

Australia
Iredale

And that's basically it from our end.

Though I see from my notes that Elias Kachunga plays for The Democratic Republic of Congo. What I'd like to know is does he drink Um Bongo? And if not, why not?

[sonicthewhite]

Seems a sensible thread destination to me, Pru.

Midweek Pompey - possibly doable for we capital-dwellers, but I don't much fancy those backstreets on a dark night...

I went on an evening once when Sheringham I think ripped us a new one - they’d just come up too. Was horrific.

The venue or the ripping?