I was talking to a Wrexham fan today and asked him how many players he thought they need to make the step up to the championship he thought 4 which surprised me as I think a lot more.
if we get promoted how many of our current squad can be competitive? I think maybe 7
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They built a squad in the National League that was good enough to be competitive in League 1. They've tweaked it since then. Putting aside all the irritating showbiz stuff, it's a very well run club. But we've played to our potential since Christmas and have been better than them. If we'd found our feet a month earlier we'd be going up in second.
We will struggle next year if we go up, as I don't think we'll be throwing money at it. And I hope someone's warned Wrexham's owners about the financial differences between League 1 in the Championship, because they'll struggle as well without major investment. I don't see many in their squad that I think world make a big difference for us next year.
Having said that, and possibly contradicting myself a bit, if you look at the sides that finished between 15th and 21st in the Championship this year, you don't need to spend millions to be in an even fight with them to stay out of the bottom three.
Previously i would've said the step up was big, but having seen the 3 promoted clubs all survive this season, including Oxford, and i don't think any of them really spent big, it makes me think that maybe the gap between top 6 in league one and the bottom half of the Championship isn't that big after all.
Unlike the Premier league where certainly recently the promoted teams have all been coming straight back down, in the Championship teams have been staying up. In the last 4 seasons only 2 of the 12 promoted sides came straight back down.
They have a much bigger squad, a lot of whom are over 30 (or well over 30) who won't make the step up or are no longer good enough for that level but will be under contract. We have more young players capable of stepping up. Still plenty of gaps that need filling and you need a bigger squad in the championship than we have currently. Depends on who we keep but I think TC, Leaburn, Godden, Berry, Cov, Small, Jones, Ramsay, Edwards, Gilly are all capable of stepping up. Others like Doc, Manion are find backups/squad players.
No doubt we’d bring in signings, but part of this ownerships plan is to bring academy players through, so there will be gaps in the squad where NJ feels we can make room for an u21 player. As long as it’s not forced on him and the players are genuinely good enough then that’s a positive thing.
In time I also see us funding a bigger budget via player sales. We’ve signed some good players in their early to mid 20s like Ramsay and Edwards will be worth a lot more than the amount we paid for them, and plenty of academy players are progressing, even if at this stage it’s only obvious with TC.
I think we'd be in a lot better of a position if promoted then they will be.
Gillesphey couldn't get a game at Plymouth who were relegated.
I think Edwards, Jones, Ramsey, Coventry, Small and TC all could step up. Doc & Godden would be fine squad players. Leaburn it's unclear. We would need 10-15 new players on top which would be a sea change of investment for our owners whilst also ensuring we passed FFP rules.
Mainly frees with a couple of £400k-1m signings for Oxford. Maxed out on loans.
Main signing was £2m on an Indonesian international striker from Holland - makes sense with their owners.
According to Transfermarkt then INCLUDING loans (number of loans in brackets). No idea how many might have been for u21 squads etc of course.
- Oxford in 24/25 have 21 new signings (4)
- Plymouth who were already in the Championship for a year made 16 new signings in 24/25 (6)
- Portsmouth in 24/25 made 24 signings (7)
- Derby in 24/25 made 19 signings (6)
Has had rave reviews for his time up in Scotland.
Equally you may have to start looking abroad for players because the quality of the players needed will be too expensive if we remain buying from other EFL clubs at that level but its also a gamble to spend money on foreign players who are unproven under the demand so f the English football season.
I m o we will need seven new faces at least. The midfield and strikers need a right overhaul, an experienced keeper and central defender. If you've seen the relegated Prem teams on the TV and /or the promoted clubs into the Prem, they would all murder us if we played them now.
As said above, the money and resources available to their managers leaves us looking like paupers.
If/when we go up, whoever we can sign, survival will take a mammoth effort
Step 1, buy 3 or 4 players and try to survive.
Step 2, buy 6 or 7 players and try to establish.
Step 3, buy 10 or 11 players and try to springboard.
I suspect we'll do step 2.
For me it would be:
NEW GK, Mannion
NEW RWB, Small
Ramsay, A.Mitchell
Jones, Z.Mitchell
New CB, Gillesphey
Edwards, NEW LWB
Docherty, NEW CM
Coventry, Anderson
NEW CAM, Berry
Godden, NEW ST
Campbell, Leaburn
Wildcards/backups of Kanu, Dixon, Mbick, Enslin
Moved on/not retained: the loanees, AMB, Watson, Taylor, Aneke, Ahadme, Hylton
That would be the majority of the team held together, but with 4 distinct upgrades in the first XI, and hopefully stronger depth in other key areas
Goalkeeper, CB, CM/10 and Striker. The rest can be made up of loans and young players. IMO
Jones has said he doesn’t like loans but I think that attitude changes a lot if we go up. When you have one of the bigger budgets in the league like we do now, it’s easy to not have to rely on loans. In the championship our budget will be much smaller than most teams so we will need to use the loan market more than we have this season
When we went up last time we missed out on staying up by goal difference and a poor late ref's decision at Barnsley with a situation that looked like we were trying to fail. What we can also look at within all this talking up the level is that the three promoted teams from last season stayed up. I'm not saying it won't be hard but maybe it won't be as hard as we think and anything is probably possible.
I think we'd need at least six new good ones and hope that the youngsters keep improving.
Then it will be down to form, managerial skill and luck with injuries.