League 2 2023/24 Odds

Swindon for me at 25s...  

Wonder what Stevenage & Carlisle were last season ?
Guessing longer odds than us this time out.

Ludicrous odds, be interesting to see what those odds look like at the end of the transfer window and compare

Quoted from mimma

Is that for the title Les or promotion?

The title.

All seem fairly sensible to me. As others have said it's guess work based on an estimate of what they'll do in the window.
I'm surprised Wrexham are as high as 7/2 cos they'll be signing some very very good players.

I know he is a bit daft but Steve Evans was on a podcast this week talking about how they got promoted.

He actually comes over well once you get over all the pantomine villain stuff , but more interestingly he said at the start of last season he recognised Stevenage could not compete with other clubs in terms of budget and building a squad compared  to a lot of the teams in league 2 but effectively 'loaded up 'the budget  on a quality first 11 with little after that and focused on keeping them fit and nursing players through with pretty little training .

It worked , and he's been pretty succesful lower down .
I am not suggesting we should do that , or that it would work all the time , but it shows how variably a budget can be used and one of the reasons why the table will no way reflect that odds table .

Quoted from Mappers

I know he is a bit daft but Steve Evans was on a podcast this week talking about how they got promoted.

He actually comes over well once you get over all the pantomine villain stuff , but more interestingly he said at the start of last season he recognised Stevenage could not compete with other clubs in terms of budget and building a squad compared  to a lot of the teams in league 2 but effectively 'loaded up 'the budget  on a quality first 11 with little after that and focused on keeping them fit and nursing players through with pretty little training .

It worked , and he's been pretty succesful lower down .
I am not suggesting we should do that , or that it would work all the time , but it shows how variably a budget can be used and one of the reasons why the table will no way reflect that odds table .

Hurst's way has always been to have a core of 16-18 players and then bulk out the squad with loanees who we traditionally won't be paying much for, so we're kind of following it already.

I'd look at it like this, what are the positions that make the single biggest difference in and of themselves? Goalkeeper and centre forward are the answers. If you push the boat out for those two positions, add it to the other 8-9, which are already, at the very least, competitive against anyone in this league and I think that's a lot of those points made up already.

Then we fill out the side/squad with equivalents of current players who are more physical. Having seen Wednesday, Luton and Carlisle go up this weekend, it seems like being big and physical is a necessity to compete at the sharp end of any division within the League. Hurst has alluded to that in interviews throughout the season so he'll be one step ahead of us on that one.

Long time since we won a league.  

Quoted from Mappers

I know he is a bit daft but Steve Evans was on a podcast this week talking about how they got promoted.

He actually comes over well once you get over all the pantomine villain stuff , but more interestingly he said at the start of last season he recognised Stevenage could not compete with other clubs in terms of budget and building a squad compared  to a lot of the teams in league 2 but effectively 'loaded up 'the budget  on a quality first 11 with little after that and focused on keeping them fit and nursing players through with pretty little training .

It worked , and he's been pretty succesful lower down .
I am not suggesting we should do that , or that it would work all the time , but it shows how variably a budget can be used and one of the reasons why the table will no way reflect that odds table .

Heard that and agree he does come across well, especially when he has the opportunity to measure his responses.  It's when he's caught on the cuff that his true colours shine through.  

He's also full of complete shite.  Stevenage will have had a decent budget for a squad, not just a bare eleven.  He wouldn't have entertained going to a club who were looking to do it on a shoestring.  Regardless of any personal opinions of him, he's a good manager with good stock.  He can afford to turn down offers that look too tricky.  

Yet to hear a player speak well of him, yet they all universally say that he's great at getting a tune out of players.  Even if they all hate him.  That's an art in itself.

Quoted from Son of Cod

Think they were top 7 over the course of the second half of the season, weren't they? They'll be spending again this window, so it makes sense the bookies will put them as one of the faves.

Massively weighted by 19 points out of 24 after their new signings came in from mid-Jan to late-Feb.  After that run, which got them clear,  22 points out of 45.  The first run is title-winning form, at a canter too.  The run towards the end of the season is higher mid-table form, would have got them 66 points over the course of the season.  Still 9 points off the top 7 and only 5 points above us.

Guess you can cut these runs of forms as many ways as you want, they did enough to get out of the state they were in but I'm not sure it's enough to suggest they are serious challengers based on it.