Football Season Guide

Rochdale return to League One after a two-year absence from the division and after finishing their last season's League Two campaign as third in the table. The Dale played some positive football under Keith Hill last season, and will be looking to do the same in the third tier as well, with Hill being known as a boss who likes his side to keep the ball on the ground and play quick, counter-attacking football. However, the Dale were victims of their own success in a way, as their Player of the Year, forward Scott Hogan, left the club to join Brentford for a fee thought to be around 750,000 pounds. According to Hill, the money earned from the sale of the striker will be used to secure the mid-term future of the club, and will not be invested in new players. Due to Dale's limited resources, it is hardly a surprise that the list of players who signed for the club is rather underwhelming. They made only three captures so far - former Sheffield United defender Sean McGinty, and strikers Calvin Andrew and Jack Muldoon, with the latter having no League One experience whatsoever. The Dale badly lack League One experience in their squad, but should be expected to score a decent amount of goals despite Hogan's departure, as they have some solid attacking players, such as Ian Henderson, Matt Done and George Donnelly. All in all, Rochdale currently seem as one of the prime candidates to go down, and survival in the division would be seen as a major success for them.