There is no doubt that Portsmouth manager Paul Cook will have had the biggest transfer budget in League Two this summer.
Pompey (9/2 with bet365) were favourites for the title last season but inconsistency, especially at Fratton Park, cost them dear and meant they had to settle for a place in the play-offs. Expectations are high again this year and their squad has several players who are probably better than League Two standard. Summer signing Curtis Main is one as his goals more or less kept Oldham in League One in the spring. Main was not wanted at parent club Doncaster and will be looking to prove a point when his new side face newly-relegated Rovers this season.
Bet365 also have the best odds on Darren Ferguson’s Doncaster (9/1) but the South Yorkshire team, who have also been busy in the transfer market and quality in their ranks, received a huge blow this week when Northern Ireland international Luke McCullough was ruled out for the entire campaign. Fergie junior’s managerial record since leaving Peterborough is a real worry considering his team’s odds and the same could be said about Andy Hessenthaler at Leyton Orient.
Another club with a big budget, the O’s should cause teams problems in the basement division with forwards like Jordan Bowery, Jay Simpson, Harry Cornick and Armand Gnanduillet but are priced accordingly for the League Two title (11/1 is the biggest) and Hessenthaler’s teams are often vulnerable at the back.
NOTTS COUNTY are a general 25/1 but pulled off a real coup in persuading John Sheridan to leave Oldham and take over the reins at Meadow Lane.
Sheridan took the Latics’ top scorer, Jonathan Forte, with him and has also inherited the free-scoring Izale McLeod as well as former Premier League strikers Jon Stead and Alan Smith. County are simply too big when you consider that Blackpool, a club in turmoil and freefall, are only 20/1 to win the title. Plymouth Argyle, last season’s play-off final losers, are 16/1 with Skybet who have newly-promoted Cheltenham and Grimsby at 25/1 in the market.
For probably the first time since regaining their league status, ACCRINGTON STANLEY aren’t favourites for relegation.
They reached the play-offs last season and would have achieved automatic promotion had they not slipped up on the final day. However, the heart has been ripped out of their squad over the summer and club legend John Coleman has almost had to start again. He was still trying to bring players in on the eve of the campaign and now may be the time to back Stanley for the drop at a massive 12/1 (Skybet).
EFL League Two Title Best Odds
Portsmouth (9/2), Doncaster (9/1), Luton (10/1), Leyton Orient (11/1), Plymouth (16/1), Carlisle and Cambridge (18/1), Blackpool (20/1), Colchester (22/1), Notts County, Cheltenham, Grimsby and Wycombe (25/1), Accrington, Crewe and Mansfield (33/1), Exeter (40/1), Barnet, Hartlepool, Stevenage and Yeovil (33/1), Crawley (80/1), Newport (100/1), Morecambe (150/1)
