The League two season is finally back and it is looking like it is going to be an interesting one for us fans. There has been plenty of movement this off season with some teams really improving whilst others have lost some key players and have maybe surprised fans with who they have brought in as replacements. I am hoping we are in for a season where it really goes down to the wire again for who takes the league title and who ends up in the playoffs but at the same time I think this season we could end up with a real fight for avoiding relegation too that could even possibly go to the final game of the season for the final relegation spot. When you look around the league with those who were relegated and promoted at the end of last season I think we could see those teams coming into the league and cause a few shock results but I guess only time will tell. After having a look around the league here is what we think the table could look like at the end of the season...

Stockport County

Bradford City

Northampton Town

Leyton Orient

Salford City

Stevenage 

Tranmere Rovers

Crawley 

Colchester United

Doncaster Rovers

Walsall

Mansfield Town

Swindon Town

Crewe Alexandra

Newport County

Harrogate Town

Gillingham 

AFC Wimbeldon

Rochdale

Carlisle

Sutton United

Hartlepool United

Grimsby Town

Barrow

As we said at the start of the post we think it could be a very close season especially at the top of the league however, on paper newly promoted Stockport have really strengthened their squad ready to take on the new season and honestly they could cause some big upsets in the league and I think it they gel quickly and start the season on the right foot they could end up winning the league. I do wish I could have put Bradford City in the top spot but unfortunately I think they will get beat to this spot but will hopefully be promoted automatically this season, Hughes has brought some quality into the squad and they look way better than past seasons. Let's just hope this season is a good season to be a Bradford fan as after recent seasons we certainly deserve it. As for the remaining automatic promotion spot I really do think Northampton could push for this and again if they have a good start to the season I can see them just beating those around them to that final spot. 

The playoff spots are going to be widely contested with plenty of teams capable of putting in some great performances to gain the chance of being promoted to League 1 but I think at the end of the season we could be looking at Leyton Orient, Salford, Stevenage and Tranmere fighting it out for that final spot with Stevenage being the team to go up. As for at the bottom of the table I just can't shake the feeling that Barrow are going to struggle this season but also I feel like Grimsby and Hartlepool will be battling all season to stay above the drop zone with Grimsby losing out in the closing few games and heading back into the National league. 

Obviously these predictions have been made without a team kicking a ball yet this season so I am really looking forward to seeing how the season actually progresses and there will be a midway check in to see if these predictions are looking likely or way off plus a full round up at the end of the season with how far off the predictions were or if I got anything spot on. All I can say is I am really looking forward to this season as it has the possibility to be a great competitive one all round and fingers crossed it is the start of something good at Bradford City as that has been a long time coming.

Who do you think will finish in the top 3 and bottom 2 of League 2 this season? 

Watching the Premier League on the TV during the 2021/22 season finally felt like normality had returned to life with the fans returning to the stadium. We no longer had to look at empty stands and listen to pre-recorded fan noise, we finally got a sense of that fantastic atmosphere that games had seriously missed during the pandemic but please can we stop with the pitch invasions are they really needed? 

This season was a bit of a mixture really with plenty of lows especially for me as a Manchester United fan, but let's not go there just yet. The season was so close this time around with no clear winner right up until the final day and even down at the bottom the relegation battle went down to the wire which just goes to show how close the season was all round which for me is always the best I much prefer when it is constant battles rather than one clear winner. There were plenty of shock results throughout the season too with the team you thought would struggle actually coming out on top, I am quite glad I didn't place any bets this season as I would have definitely lost far too much money.

As for Leeds United this season they definitely got very lucky on that final day and honestly thought Burnley would have ended up scraping it and staying up not Leeds. I am interested to see how Leeds do next season as I think they are going to have to bring in some quality players whilst also try to cling onto some of the bigger names in the squad that are being looked at by bigger teams. 

Everton were probably one of the teams that shocked me the most throughout the season as I really didn't expect to see them in the relegation battle for as long as they were and to be honest I think they had a bit of a lucky escape due to the fixtures they had towards the end of the season compared to Burnley & Leeds. When you look at the Everton squad on paper with the names they have they should be challenging for European places so let's hope they can get back on track next season and perform much better. 

Being a Man Utd fan when it came to who won the league honestly I didn't want Man City or Liverpool to win it but in the end I am honestly quite glad that Man City won it as they actually looked great all season, the quality in their team is unreal really and they are only strengthening it going into next season which makes you wonder if they will be able to run away with the league next time around? Fingers crossed though there will be a few other teams really pushing and challenging for that top spot next time around though.

Chelsea seemed to have had a hit and miss season too but I think theirs isn't just down to the players as we saw the results start to change when the ownership issues begun, with players uncertain about their futures I guess things were always going to take a bit of a turn but at least they are resolved now and they can look ahead to a new chapter where they are playing as they should once more. I am gutted to see Rudiger go though as I always thought he was such a good player, I would also really love to see them give the youngsters a bit more of a chance next season too. 

Well I guess it is time to talk about Manchester United, what an absolutely terrible season they had and honestly I actually stopped tuning in to most of their games as they were painful to watch the majority of the time. Obviously they had all the issues with Greenwood which really didn't help but then again neither do the owners that just don't seem to do anything to help the club get back to where they once were. There are also players who seem to think they are untouchable and management helped them with that case by still picking them even after consistently terrible performances. I am just really hoping that bringing in the new manager will really shake things up and bring in some players that actually want to play for the club for a change. A lot of people are blaming Ronaldo for the issues but at the end of the day he has been back for one season now and these issues have been going on for a lot longer than just last season and a big rebuild is needed in a variety of areas at the club.

I really do feel for Norwich as they are one of those yo-yo teams who just bounce between the Championship and Premier League, I think a few people expected them to be relegated this season but fingers crossed that when they reach the Premier League they can stay up for a bit longer. They just couldn't seem to hit the ground running this season though winning just the 5 games. 

West Ham are a team that really surprised me this season. They ended up finishing a comfortable 7th this season and put in some great performances whilst also going a very long way in the Europa league which I don't think anyone expected. It is going to be an interesting off season for West Ham and I think if they can keep hold of some of those bigger names we could see them having another good season in 22/23. Tottenham are another team that surprised me as I really didn't expect to see them finishing in 4th place, Spurs seem to be a bit of a dark horse team lately and I think with the right recruitment in a few years we could really see the best out of them and maybe even see them start picking up some trophies. 

With the start to the season that Newcastle had I really don't think anyone expected to see them finishing in 11th place but the new owners and Eddie Howe really turned the club around and got them playing a whole lot better than anyone expected. I think if they keep hold of some of the big names and bring in a few new players to strengthen some positions and the squad overall we could really see a Newcastle team that are capable of anything, these new owners seem to have come in with a lot of promise so lets hope everything works in their favour. 

Brighton are another team that really stood out to me and put in some great performances throughout the season. Again they are a team that I didn't think would finish so high up the table as they finished 9th. They are another team that can be seen as a bit of a dark horse and again if they can keep as much of the squad together as possible whilst also strengthening other areas I think we could see some more fantastic performances from them, ones to rival that 4-0 win against Manchester United which honestly I still can't believe.

I think it is safe to say that during this off season we are going to see a lot of change at a lot of clubs with plenty of interesting transfers taking place and I am looking forward to seeing where a lot of players end up moving to and seeing who brings the most strength into their squads. Fingers crossed we are going to be in for another really close and interesting season for the 22/23 season but with the World Cup disrupting the season in the winter I guess it is all going to be which team can adapt and stay strong during a busy schedule, maybe some of those dark horses will make a big push during those periods especially if they have a lot of players who won't be playing all those extra World Cup games. But for now the countdown to the start of the new season begins.

Would you be interested in more Premier League content next season?

I think the majority of Bradford City fans will look back on the season like we have and just wonder what actually happened? What we thought was going to be a fantastic season didn't go to plan at all and had a few twists and turns before finally showing some promise however, it was a little too late in the end and we ended up finishing 14th in League 2, way off the mark of where most fans thought we would be. 

The pre-season build up made all us fans pretty hopeful for the season ahead with Derek Adams coming out with plenty of promises and interviews saying the sort of thing he had in store for us but we saw just a few months into the season those promises were definitely not going to happen and morale in the squad had dropped massively. It didn't take long for fans to start turning on Adams & owner Rupp after performances were absolutely shocking and nowhere near what those players in that squad were capable of, it just looked like they didn't want to play. Still the club kept Adams around and even with his post match interviews angering fans even more due to his ego and the fact he didn't seem to care about the results he was still there to oversee the January transfer window. 

It is safe to say there were some fantastic loan signings like Jamie Walker and Dion Pereria (who we never even saw play under Adams yet turned out to be a fantastic signing when he did play) and then there were some more questionable ones like Daly who we just didn't get the best out of and Bass who somehow became a solid first choice 'keeper even after a fair few questionable mistakes. I think the biggest shock of the window though was us losing our captain Canavan right at the end of the window leaving us short of experience in the centre back position, this was clearly due to something in the background due to how it shocked almost everyone. 

Finally though not long after the end of the transfer window the club finally got rid of Adams with his ego seeming to get the better of him and we had a brief spell of Trueman being back in charge stepping up from the assistant role. What makes the Adams sacking even better is how he said 'you will never find a better manager than me' .... well step aside Adams as us Bradford City fans had a massive shock when the club announced the new managed to be Mark Hughes, no one expected it. In fact it was that much of a shock I honestly believed it was the parody account that had announced it not the actual Bradford City one and honestly I still can't get my head around that it is Hughes in charge now and who knows maybe we might get out of League 2 sooner rather than later with him in charge.

The best part about the Hughes appointment for me though was seeing those players who looked awful under Adams finally start looking like footballers again, they started to show up and actually play some football. They were moving the ball around and actually trying to score and creating some great chances whilst they were at it. At times with how they were moving the ball around it didn't feel like we were watching a League two team it looked much better quality and gave us hope for what the future holds at the club. even players who were missing for most of Adams reign seemed to slip back into the squad and make an impact. We saw Peraira magically recover from an injury that kept him from playing under Adams and he soon became a fan favourite after putting in some great performances. Even Gareth Evans returned to the squad after a long time on the sidelines and showed us what he was capable of  it is just a shame we have now released him as I think he could have done well under Hughes next season. 

Even though the players were starting to perform much better unfortunately results just weren't falling in their favour and we still weren't picking up those points that could have helped us climb the table a fair bit towards the end of the season but at the end of the day a 14th place finish is way better than we expected around the festive period.  

The team started to look so much better and honestly it has set the standard pretty high for us fans for the new season but I think we could definitely be in for a treat as the Hughes rebuild is well underway with us making some pretty good signings early on in the transfer window rather than leaving everything to the last minute plus we are keeping hold of some key players from last season. With a nice mix of new and old I think the season could go pretty well if the players settle into the Hughes way of playing early on and I think with more to be done in the transfer window we could see the club go from strength to strength in some positions where quality has been lacking lately. 

At the end of the day though last season didn't go to plan but it was nice to be back in Valley Parade watching the team we love with fellow fans rather than having to sit and watch it on a laptop screen through ifollow. I don't want to get my hopes up too high going into the new season as we saw how that played out last time but there is a real sense of excitement in the air at the moment so let's hope next season is so much better.

What did you think to Bradford City's 2021/22 campaign?

Well at least one thing can be said about the 2021/22 League 2 season... it was good to finally be back in the stadium, after the pandemic kept us out of the ground for so long it was just nice to be sat with other fans chatting & watching the game together rather than being sat at home watching games on the TV. You really can't beat the feeling & the atmosphere of those live games. It was a bit of an interesting season too with some teams doing a lot better than expected and others being nowhere near the mark, but don't worry Bradford City will have their own post coming very soon because what a season that was for us fans. 

The season saw Forest Green Rovers finally make their way out of the league and into league one after finishing the season as league winner but it very nearly didn't go that way with it being a very close race between both Forest Green & Exeter for that top spot. Forest Green just about held on though and won the league whilst Exeter gained automatic promotion after finishing in second place. The 3rd and final automatic promotion spot was anyone's really but it seemed a bit far fetched for Bristol Rovers to gain it seeing as they needed to win by 7 goals in the final game of the season... somehow though Rovers did it by beating Scunthorpe 7-0 on the final day to sneak into that final automatic spot. Now a few have questioned this result with Scunthorpe's fate been sealed earlier on in the season but honestly I don't think you can take away from how well Bristol Rovers have done all season and it is nice to see them progress into league 1. The final promotion spot was eventually taken by Port Vale after their fantastic win at Wembley vs Mansfield who are a team that have really surprised me this season and I didn't expect them to finish as high up the table as they did. 

As for the relegation spots I think it is safe to say that the first was decided pretty early on in the season as Scunthorpe just couldn't seem to hit the ground running and they were far from the team we were used to seeing and I am hoping they don't stick around the National League too long and soon bounce back but I guess only time will tell with that one. It is also a shame to see Oldham drop into the National League because they are a club with a lot of history and one who provide a good atmosphere when they have visited Valley Parade, with the right investment I can't see them staying out of the EFL for too long but it is just a case of are they going to invest to get back to where they should be? 

A surprise team for me this season definitely has to be Sutton United, I honestly didn't expect them to be in the position they were in at the end of the season, if I am 100% honest I thought they would actually be fighting for survival but they finished the season comfortably in 8th and were really pushing towards that final play off spot in the final weeks of the season. I thought Tranmere would have done much better than they did too but I guess things just didn't fall into place for them and they finished 9th. Talking about surprises of the season I think the biggest one for me was seeing struggling Bradford beat Forest Green at The New Lawn, I definitely expected us to come away with a heavy defeat but we really stepped up and showed what we would have been capable of if we gave it our all throughout the full season but as I said earlier we will have a whole post on Bradford City very soon. 

We are only a few weeks into the off season and we are already seeing plenty of movement before the new season begins and I think with some of the recruitment we have seen we could be in for a very interesting & entertainment. add in the new teams that have been relegated from League One and those coming up from the National League us fans could really be in for a treat. 

We are already on countdown for the new season and will have more League 2 content coming before the opening weekend but for now you will be finding us glued to social media keeping an eye on all the transfers taking place in the league.

Will you be keeping a close eye on League 2 next season? 

I can't quite believe it but 2 years ago today we published the first blog here on Edge of the Area, This was a match report from our trip to watch Bradford City women vs Brighouse Town Women and it was our first step into properly watching the FAWNL and to be honest things have only gone up hill since then. when I look back on old posts I can only see how I have grown in my writing and how much I have grown when it comes to the content on the blog. For two years I have manage to write about the game I have always loved and I didn't even let the pandemic stop that, in fact my love for the blog actually grew during this time as I had a bit more time to focus on what I was creating even though we weren't able to go out and watch games. 

When we launched back in October 2019 we had high hopes of going to a lot of games for the 19/20 season but unfortunately 2020 had other ideas and games were very limited but we still found a way to get content out there we just had to adapt a bit and it worked. The blogs 1st year definitely didn't go to plan but it didn't stop us and in fact it just made us determined to smash all our goals in year 2 which we have definitely done even with the restrictions remaining for a part of that year. Year 2 has certainly been a year of growth and finding out what direction the content will be going in but it has been a fun filled year with so many positives and here are just a few...

Interviewed Some Brilliant People

In year 2 we managed to get through quite a few interviews with players from Bradford City Women and some backroom staff which has been fantastic. Doing this is helping me really build up my confidence and it is really fun when it comes to sitting down and working out questions to ask whoever I am interviewing. I have noticed that over the past two years my confidence has definitely increased and I think this is a big factor in that. 

Sponsored A Player

This was something we wanted to make sure we first started the blog and we managed to do it in year one and again in year two. We currently sponsor Bradford City Women's goalkeeper Hannah Richards and to be honest it is nice just knowing we are helping out a club we have loved for a long time whilst also giving back to a club who has supported us since the very start. 

Got To Work With My Favourite Club

I never imagined when the blog first started that we would be in our second season of writing content for Bradford City Women's match day programmes but here we are on our second year and it is absolutely fantastic. Bradford City women have been really supportive and have provided us with some absolutely fantastic opportunities which we are so grateful for. But we also have to have a special mention to Brighouse Town women who have also been really supportive for this whole journey so far too. 

Met Some Amazing People

Edge of the Area has also helped us meet and chat to some absolutely amazing people in the women's football community. It is amazing just how many great people are in the community and support each so much. There is the whole team at Since 71 who are brilliant and encourage you a whole lot when it comes to creating content and giving you a confidence boost, there is Emma Shone from Man City Women's Fancast who I actually managed to briefly meet at a game which was fantastic. Fingers crossed sooner rather than later I can meet up with a whole lot more of these people at games too especially now it is going to be much easier to get to places. 

So that is a few of the highlights from year two but now it is time to look ahead to year 3 which is hopefully going to be even bigger and better than the previous two years as hopefully we won't be restricted half as much as we have been and we can travel a little bit more, I am determined to get more miles done in my car. So here is what year 3 will hopefully hold...

Attend More Games From Various Leagues

We already have our tickets purchased for a variety of games for Euro 2022 next year but fingers crossed we can get some more games for the tournament. We will also be trying to get to some more FAWSL games as it we haven't seen one of those live for a while. Fingers crossed we can also get to more none league and FAWNL games throughout the course of the year too as there are so many teams on our doorstep where we could easily head to on a weekend when either Bradford teams aren't at home. 

Interview More People 

Fingers crossed year 3 will also be filled with a whole lot more interviews with a variety of people from within the game. I don't want to just stick to players, I am hoping we can cover backroom staff and all the other people who make the game possible or make the game more accessible especially for the women's game. Who knows these interviews might actually get done in person too as my confidence grows rather than just being over email. 

Go To More Events

There seems to be quite a few events going on in the world of football and especially in the football shirt community so fingers crossed we can get to a whole lot more of those. Not only to get the name of Edge of the Area out there a little bit more but to also meet people who like the same things that we do. As it stands we are hopefully off up to Scotland for Football kit con in early 2022 so fingers crossed we can manage to get there as that was originally an event scheduled for year one. 

New Projects

I have been toying with a few new ideas for content recently and who knows year 3 might be the time that finally happens. As my confidence is growing I want to create a few more avenues for Edge of the Area rather than it just been a blog and social media. The thoughts at the moment are either a podcast or starting vlogs etc on YouTube, maybe just one of those would happen in year 3, maybe both will happen on maybe none will but we will soon see. 

Merchandise

Here we go the main event and the main reason behind this post. We are hoping to release a whole lot of merchandise in year 3 and we have a few bits we are considering but to kick everything off for our 2nd birthday we will be releasing a very limited quantity of the custom football shirts in the image above. These shirts have been a long time in the planning and we are really pleased with how they have turned out. We will be releasing more details on Twitter & Facebook later on in the week on how you can get hold of these but for now here is the first look at the shirt. We are hoping that we will be able to order more of these in the near future but for now it is going to be a limited release to see what sort of reaction it gets before we invest in more of these. 

It is safe to say that year 2 has been even better than the first year and we are really looking forward to seeing how year 3 turns out. Let's hope everything goes to plan and we can get out to a whole lot more games from a variety of leagues whilst also carrying on with the content we have currently been creating recently as we are certainly loving talking about shirts. 

Thank you everyone for the support so far and lets get cracking with year 3. 

Here we go again with another favourite shirts post. This time we have our favourite away shirts from those big leagues overseas and it is safe to say this was a post that was hard to write as I struggled to narrow down my overall favourites due to there being some absolutely brilliant shirts released for this season. There are some teams who just missed the cut and those were Porto and Inter Milan as their away shirts this season are brilliant however, the ones in this post just stood out to me that bit more. So here are our favourite away shirts for the big leagues overseas this season... 

I don't know what has gone on at Manchester United but for once I can easily say I am very happy with how their summer transfer window has gone. I am not sure if last seasons fan protests and criticism has helped but for the first time in a while we have seen them get the players they were actually targeting and actually bringing them into the club which is great as they have managed to get some very big names at the club. 

It makes you wonder if their recent run of good results and moving up the table to actually challenge those top clubs again has really helped and as a fan it really does give me a bit of hope for the future and makes me a bit more hopefully of seeing Manchester United lift a trophy some time soon. Ole has definitely strengthened the squad but whilst doing so he hasn't lost much which is always a good sign that players are wanting to stay at the club rather than wanting to jump ship. There might not have been a lot of permanent departures but this time we have seen a lot of loans especially for the younger players to go out and get some experience which is always nice to see. So lets take a look at how Manchester United's summer transfer window ended. 

Out's

James 

Joel Pereira 

Jacob Carney

As I mentioned earlier there weren't actually many permenant departures which is great to see. Two of those departures (Pereira & Carney) are goal keepers so it is nice to see them move on to hopefully get playing time as for some reason Manchester United seem to have far too many backup goal keepers who never get a chance. They also lost Daniel James to Leeds but I think James is going to really benefit from this move as his game time would have been drastically reduced with the players brought in so at least now he might finally get to show us just what he is made of. 

Loans

Devine - St Johnstone 

Bishop - Mansfield Town 

Chong - Birmingham City 

Fish - Stockport

Bernard - Hull City 

Pellistri - Alaves

Tuanzebe - Aston Villa

Galbraith _ Doncaster Rovers 

Laird - Swansea City 

Levitt - Dundee 

Andreas Pereira - Flamengo 

Williams - Norwich City 

Garner - Nottingham Forest 

Mellor - Salford City

There has definitely been a lot of loans taking place this transfer window with a lot of youngsters getting the chance to go out and catch the attention of Ole at lower league clubs to start to make a name for themselves. At least by going out on loan they are getting the chance to get some game time under their belts and show people they are capable of playing in the first team. For me though I am just looking forward to seeing how well Williams & Tuanzebe do in the Premier League with other sides, especially Williams as I think soon enough he could be a first team regular for United as we have seen just what he is capable of and regular game time is only going to help him get better. 

In's 

Tom Heaton

Sancho 

Varane

Ronaldo

Now here is the best bit, the players Manchester United actually brought in. There are 3 fantastic signings and one a bit random but hey we will take it. I am not quite sure what the thoughts behind getting Tom Heaton was as I mentioned earlier the goal keeper position is one we seem to be over run in but in case of any big injuries it is nice to have more experience backed up. Then we finally managed to sign Sancho, after always missing out in previous transfer windows to finally secure his signature is great and I think we could see him have a pretty good successful future at United. I have always been a bit on the fence about who lines up next to Maguire in central defense so to see us sign Varane was fantastic as he is a brilliant defender who I think could link up really well with Maguire and help stop us conceding whilst also grabbing some goals himself. Now the main event, one of my favourite ever Manchester United players has returned and I couldn't be any more excited. Cristiano Ronaldo has finally returned and with him not showing any signs of aging and still being an absolutely fantastic player I can't wait to see how well he does back in United colours. Ronaldo is one of the first players I really noticed and looked up to as a player and he was the first name I got on the back of a United shirt so to see him back is just fantastic.  

It is going to be interesting to see how the squad will work together and if it lives up to its potential as on paper this is a squad that should be winning no matter what, the talent is huge and it is about time we saw United get back to winning plenty of trophies and really challenging for that Premier League top spot. With all they have brought in this summer I think it is safe to say January will be interesting as they might not even try build on the squad but then again they might have a few extra targets if some positions are falling short. I think by the end of the January transfer window though we could see a few more departures, mainly down to lack of game time. Overall I am very happy with the transfer window dealings this time around and fingers crossed it all works well.

What do you think to Manchester United's summer transfer window?