Luton, in terms of parachute payment finances will be hard to beat, plus they have experience of these lower leagues, like Plymouth so should settle easier than say Cardiff, who I think may struggle. 
 

Despite our promotion, I rarely watched many matches where I felt we played much better than the previous season, with many league 2 clubs far weaker than what I saw in league 1. If we recognise the need to strengthen and do it then anything is possible.

If we go in with a few tweaks, with less than 5 more league 1 standard players it will be a bit of a battle. Although even with what we have I think 5th weakest squad is probably about right at this point. 

Edited May 26, 20251 yr by TJHValiant

I think with these sort of odds the main thing that goes into them is estimated playing budget.

Keep looking for Walsall's name but can't seem to find it. 🤔

 

(I know but I can't help it 😂🤣😂🤣)

Some tough looking games there.

There's not many 'smaller' clubs left there. Lots of established league 1 clubs with a smattering of championship. It's going to be tough but I think there'll be at least 6 or 7 with a weaker squad than ours. We need a kind fixture list to start well and then who knows?

I think Moore will understand the urgent need for shoring up our central defence and he knows how to grind out results. I think we'll do ok. He is also obviously firmly of the opinion that loan players should be cover and not starters, not leaving you in a sticky situation in Jan if, for example, Stoke recall your 40-goal-a-season striker... 😂

I'm realistically hoping for something around 12th-15th, but anything other than relegation will do for a first season back. On the unrealistic side I'm hoping Carol chucks £30m into the transfer pot and we do a Wrexham!

I’ll take anything that sees us finish above 20th with 52+ points. We are much better equipped than last time around, but still need to build on it. 

On 26/05/2025 at 20:32, ollyandpatch said:

We are currently 5th favourites to go down with the bookies.

Was expecting this. Burton are already down apparently.....🤔😂

5 hours ago, sheffield61 said:

Was expecting this. Burton are already down apparently.....🤔😂

Haven't they been down at the start of every season since they've been back in L1? 🙂

59 minutes ago, Dommo said:

Haven't they been down at the start of every season since they've been back in L1? 🙂

Down at Christmas, 5th Bottom in May every single year! 

Obviously it will be a challenge and we will need to establish ourselves as quickly as possible but IMHO I don't see us as likely relegation fodder - we are now too well set up for that. It's a completely different Club all round since our last sojourn in League One.

Looking at teams and probable budgets, if we can finish anywhere around 14th/15th we will have had a very good season and it'll give us a really good platform to push on from. 

I think Rob Page was the last Vale manager to finish with > 50 points in the third tier.

For me that’s our first target.

50 minutes ago, Santa said:

I think Rob Page was the last Vale manager to finish with > 50 points in the third tier.

For me that’s our first target.

I think that is reasonable. Although looking back that squad was rammed with established league 1 players. We used to moan about the likes of Danny N’Guessan but he was still a strong league 1 player. Scored a belter for us against a promotion chasing Gillingham in the away fixture. 
 

I think the actual league placing is a bit irrelevant for me. I’d like to see consistency throughout the season. No more do ok til Christmas and fall off in Jan. 
 

It was the last season before Smurfwaite lost his marbles. 

That first half of the season we had under DC before the wheels fell off would be perfect for me, just replicate it over a full season. Beat the dossers that we need to finish above, and then a couple of brilliant wins against the likes of Plymouth and Derby. (Cardiff and say Bolton this time). Just enough to keep the interest going. We've seen with Vale fans before that we seem to get our worst gates when we're just plodding along and not challenging either end of the table. Fans need a bit of drama.

Plymouth have just lost their manager whose just been named Schalke04 manager