Football Season Guide

Bury are coming off a rather turbulent season that saw them start well, only to get themselves into relegation trouble after a lengthy run of defeats. The Shakers kept struggling in the second half of the season and only started to improve after the arrival of the experienced Lee Clark who managed to steady the ship and guide them to survival but he will now have much higher goals. The Shakers have been very active in the transfer market during the summer, both in terms of selling and signing players. Most of those who left were bit-part players who the manager did not really want to hold onto, with notable exceptions being Anthony Kay, Tom Pope and, of course, James Vaughan. The latter was by their far best player last season and his performances earned him a move to Sunderland. However, it has been clear for a while that the Shakers are financially well-off and their list of arrivals once again contains several eye-catching names such as Chris Maguire, Tom Aldred, Joe Skarz, Nicky Ajose, Jermaine Beckford, Eoghan O'Connell, Callum Reilly and Stephen Dawson. Just like last season, Bury once again have a rather big squad and Clark will be hoping that the new group of players will be less injury prone than last season's squad, given that no other League One side was blighted by injuries more than the Shakers in the 2016/17 season. Of course, the big question is if some of their new strikers will manage to fill Vaughan's boots, with Beckford's best days being far behind him and with Ajose, who was the division's top scorer in the 2015/16 season, looking to bounce back from the disappointing campaign he had last time around. With all possible measures being taken to compensate for the departure of their top scorer, Bury even look a touch stronger than last season and will be expected to do much better than they did in the previous campaign.