Interesting. I thought clubs would be falling over themselves to secure his signature but - outside of our own bubble - it seems the rest of the football world isn't so convinced there isn't much of a step up between tier 5 and tier 4.
Yesterday on talkSport they were anticipating that Wrexham would be facing a reality check and that they'd have to spend a lot more to be challenging again next season. Stockport aside, clubs that have gone up from the NL since we've been in it have struggled to make much of an impact, none have yet managed to get promoted to tier 3, so maybe they are right and this will also generally apply to individual players who haven't previously graced this level.
Barrow
2022/23 - 9th/24
2021/22 - 22nd/24
2020/21 - 21st/24
Harrogate
2022/23 - 19th/24
2021/22 - 19th/24
2020/21 - 17th/24
Sutton
2022/23 - 14th/24
2021/22 - 8th/24
Hartlepool
2022/23 - 23rd/24
2021/22 - 17th/24
Stockport
2022/23 - 4th/24
Grimsby
2022/23 - 11th/24
Makes for sobering reading
One difference between Notts, and the others including Wrexham, is that we're already playing a quality of football that sets us apart from most other teams at 'this' level. Hopefully LW will continue to develop and continue to develop the team, and we've no reason to expect he won't. As brill as Macca is, he's not irreplaceable as it stands (how weird is it to even think that after his haul last season!!?!?). My worry is more that LW will be poached like an egg.
Sobering but also important reading for us fans.
We are a bigger club than all of the aforementioned, much bigger than 4 of those 6, so we should do alright, but those predicting it's going to be us and Wrexham battling once again for top spot are probably getting carried away. More likely battling for the last play off spot, but seasons following promotion are always the hardest to predict. There are examples of us both struggling and challenging at a new level in the last 50 odd years, it usually is one or the other - rather than mid-table consolidation with Notts.
There’s not much point speculating on where we’ll finish until we see what the squad additions/losses are.
One thing that’s in our favour this season is that, for once, the National League playoffs finished relatively early. Last season, Grimsby beat Solihull on June 5 and had to play their first EFL game on July 30. Given that, I’d say they did well to finish 11th.