Football Season Guide

Scunthorpe are coming off an incredibly frustrating season. They were runaway leaders for large parts of the first half of the campaign but slowed down over time and eventually had to settle for a 3rd place finish and they lost in the play-offs to sixth-placed Millwall. Despite the eventual disappointment, there is little doubt that the Iron showed big signs of progress in the previous season. Graham Alexander, who took over near the end of the 2015/16 season, has made them more consistent and pleasing to watch than they have been in years. However, their fans will be disappointed to see the club fail to make significant improvements over the summer and even end up looking a touch weaker than they were last season. The sheer number of players who left is worrying with the likes of David Mirfin, Luke Daniels and Stephen Dawson being regular starters. Interestingly enough, the Iron seem to have focused on replacing the departed trio and have therefore signed the likes of Rory McArdle, Cameron Burgess, Matt Gilks and Funso Ojo. The consequence of this is that Scunthorpe once again have a strong first-team squad that looks to be on a similar level to last season's one but they have less players on their books as their squad consists of only 20 senior players at the moment and this is something they may want to look into. While the summer has not been what their fans hoped it to be, it should not be forgotten that the Iron finished 7th and 3rd in the last two seasons so they have every reason to be confident going into the new campaign.