Football Season Guide

Southend have had a very difficult 2018/19 season, having managed to beat the drop on goal-difference following a win over Sunderland on the last day of the season. Their risky move to go with the inexperienced Kevin Bond as their manager in the late stages of the campaign paid dividends and they decided to reward him with a new contract following the end of the campaign. Their new manager has the opportunity to make the squad his own and has opted against bringing in proven League One players. The three players who have signed so far all lack experience in the division, while the Shrimpers have several players on trial at the moment and are expected to sign at least some of them. The list of players who left is fairly lengthy, but it was mainly a case of the club not offering the men in question new deals. The exceptions are Sam hart and Taylor Moore, who were regulars and performed well last time around, but are now back at their parent clubs. It needs to be noted that Southend's last season's struggles were at least partly caused by their injury situation, as their managers often had to pick from squads missing nine or ten players through injuries. If the situation improves in this regard this time around, the Shrimpers can be expected to do better than they did. However, Bond is still an unknown quantity at this level and it remains to be seen how he will do in the division when not filling a role on a short-term basis.