That’s it, we’ve been relegated again. Back to back demotions, and our third in fivc years.
League One clubs finally were able to vote for the season to be finished on a points-per-game basis, with the vote passing by 19 clubs to four. It means our demotion is confirmed, and we can’t really complain about it, we’ve been awful for most of the season in trying circumstances and any situation would have ended with the same outcome, whether that was we resumed the season, unweighted points per game (which was used), weighted points per game, or Tranmere’s method which included hundreds of mathematicians from a dozen countries which funnily enough would keep Tranmere up.
As hilarious as null-and-void would have been, too much of the season has happened for it not to count at all, and so next season we’ll be in the bottom tier for the first time since the 1987-88 season.
It begs the question – what now? It looks as though as there could be a lot of change, there have been rumours that there could be a shuffle at board level, while doubts have also being raised over the future of Keith Hill. Hill certainly doesn’t come across as the type of manager that would fit into a sporting director type structure that Wanderers were seeming to go for when Tobias Phoenix came in.
Then there’s the squad. Matt Alexander, Ryan Delaney, Liam Edwards, Adam Senior, Harry Brockbank, George Thomasson, Sonny Graham, Finaly Lockett, Dennis Politic and Muhammadu Faal are all signed on for next season, but those 10 aside it could be an otherwise blank canvas. Hopefully, Ronan Darcy will sign on, while Remi Matthews and Jason Lowe would be good to keep if possible, but otherwise there’ll be a lot of work to do in the transfer market.
Then there’s actually the process of getting football started. Are we aiming for a normal August start, if the virus situation improves (in spite of the government’s efforts) it would be great for League Two to get a head start on everyone, especially if crowds were allowed back even if just in part, or will we wait until mid-September, which appears to be the target start date for the 2020/21 season.
Hopefully, even given the financial situation, we must be looking at immediate promotion. We’ll be the biggest club in that league and the financial situation brought about by the virus will be felt by most clubs. We should still have the ability, although not a god-given right, to put together a set-up capable of getting out of that league at the first time of asking, and not in the wrong direction.