Football Season Guide

Tranmere are entering the new season badly lacking in momentum, as they suffered a dramatic collapse in the second half of their previous campaign and ended up missing out on a Play-off place despite being the runaway league leaders during the first half of the campaign. Ronnie Moore managed to keep his optimism despite seeing his side displaying relegation form during the majority of the current year, and spent the summer trying to strengthen the squad and make the side capable of pushing for promotion next season. The only important player that left the club is highly rated left-back Zoumana Bakayogo, who joined Leicester as a free agent after refusing to extend his contract, but the Rovers signed a superb replacement in Hartlepool left-back Evan Horwood, who is probably a better defender than Bakayogo, and is a known threat from set pieces. Skipper James Wallace is expected to be fit for the season opener, and will be like a completely new signing, as he got injured in December and has not played in a competitive game since. Ronnie Moore failed to land a 20 goal striker that he craved for since Jake Cassify left the club back in January, but signed two solid strikers in Ryan Lowe and Akpo Sodje - neither of them is likely to net 20 times or more, but they are both proven at this level and should be an upgrade on the strike force that Tranmere had following Cassidy's departure. The other signings include Stephen Foster, who should prove to be a class performer at this level, and Chris Atkinson and Jason Rowe, who join from Huddersfield and Forest Green, respectively. All in all, Moore has definitely done a good job during the summer transfer window, but he will also need to make his players forget about the first half of the year as soon as possible.