No.1 EFL podcast predicts L1 table / predict yours

I often post what the Not The Top 20 Podcast say and will continue to do so over this season.

Here is their prediction for the final League One table, with the season starting today.

Have also included what they said about Cardiff City:


1 Luton Town
2 Stockport County

3 Huddersfield Town
4 Blackpool
5 Bolton Wanderers
6 Cardiff City

7 Wycombe Wanderers
8 Leyton Orient
9 Plymouth Argyle
10 Stevenage
11 Lincoln City
12 Wigan Athletic
13 Barnsley
14 Bradford City
15 Doncaster Rovers
16 Mansfield Town
17 Reading
18 Rotherham United
19 Port Vale
20 Burton Albion

21 Peterborough United
22 AFC Wimbledon
23 Northampton Town
24 Exeter City



Ali Maxwell:

"Cardiff are one of the most intriguing teams in the EFL this season. They went through a very protracted coach search which ended at the door of Brian Barry-Murphy.

I'm really excited to see how this goes, he's an intriguing option.

I spoke to him on the podcast last year. He did well with Rochdale initially before eventually getting relegated, Rochdale have now found their home in the National League. That relegation has aged relatively well given the financial situation at Rochdale and where they've gone since.

He's had a pretty amazing time since Rochdale. Learning with Pep Guardiola, Enzo Maresca and managing some special players.

This is a hell of a job to take because Cardiff are two things.

A very big club for League One level with squad that is very, very strong on paper.

But also a club through a combination of poor appointments, poor recruitment and genuinely unjoined up thinking have been relegated from a level where they felt fairly bullet proof.

So it's not an easy job to walk into for some reasons but is also a job where if you get it right then you can get a big club to fly back up to the Championship.

It must be pretty intoxicating.

Then there's the fact there's a lot of good players for him to work with. Barry-Murphy is someone who likes to develop players and particularly youngsters.

I'm looking at Rubin Colwill. For four years now I've been saying is it Colwill's time to really kick on?

His performances in pre-season friendlies have not helped my feelings that I really believe Colwill will be unlocked by Brian Barry-Murphy.

There's star potential in Yousef Salech, a great penalty box striker.

I'm excited that BBM will bring on and inspire a lot of these players.

They haven't signed anyone and maybe that's because there's takeover talk and they just want to chill while they see what's going on there.

Maybe it's because, and I like this option, Barry-Murphy just wants to work with the squad that's there to make sure he knows who wants to stay and can play his style.

I don't think that's the worst approach rather than coming in and ripping everything up to bring in 12 new players.

I'm just really intrigued by Cardiff.

The reason we have them in sixth is we don't know how well they'll adapt to this level as a club. We don't know how BBM will take to being number one at a club like Cardiff City.

The people who run the club, their performance hasn't led me to trust them.

I'm really intrigued and interested to see how it goes."



You can listen to the full podcast here: https://open.spotify.com/episode/70Onrk ... RmH24BUFPg




Feel free to post your table predictions

Pleased with their prediction for us, I've always said I think we'll be top six with this squad.

Fair comments on their summary too.

Hard to argue with any of that to be fair, I have us finishing 4th so we're not far apart

I'm sorry but anything other than promotion in my eyes is a failure and according to bbm he's going for promotion so 6th won't wash

I'm sorry but anything other than promotion in my eyes is a failure and according to bbm he's going for promotion so 6th won't wash

Will if we win the play-offs

Only problem is with getting to playoffs means there's 3 teams that were better than us it's a lottery
I believe he said we going to win the league was his quote I'm just intrigued how he's going to do that with a defence that conceaded 73 goals last season in not a great championship let's be honest sorry I don't have your confidence been here to many times over 50 years watching city it's never dull lol

Only problem is with getting to playoffs means there's 3 teams that were better than us it's a lottery
I believe he said we going to win the league was his quote I'm just intrigued how he's going to do that with a defence that conceaded 73 goals last season in not a great championship let's be honest sorry I don't have your confidence been here to many times over 50 years watching city it's never dull lol

He didn't say we would win the league because he's not Mystic Meg. Said we would try to win the league.

The main point that Ali Maxwell made, which I agree with, is that there are a lot unknowns in terms of how things will work.

It could click straight away and we could be a few places higher. Or it could struggle at the start of the season and we could be a place or two lower.

So I think 6th is a good starting point in terms of predictions.

I guess time with tell worcester

I believe we will be in and around the play off’s rather than automatic or league winners.

I see a lot of people though “expecting” us to get promoted from League 1 and anything else is failure. I don’t really understand where this comes from and don’t think it’s that straight forward as the team were abysmal for 90% of last season. The majority of the team lost their bottle when things got tough and a lot on here were saying the players were not fit to wear the shirt.

I get Riza isn’t here anymore but it’s still the same squad as there haven’t been any signings. If the season doesn’t go as planned, are we going to see the same players bottle it again???

If the takeover is sorted I can see us getting automatic promotion

I've done us part of an e/w accumulator which means we can finish 1st or 2nd. And belive we have the squad to do it. Despite the criticism and doubts from a lot of fans. As I've stated before. If we signed players like Robinson salech colwill etc we would be ecstatic. But wayhay they already here

Saw Bolton last weekend in a friendly up here against Hibs. Looked very decent so no surprise they are up there.

We should be aiming for playoffs minimum.

I live in Lincoln as some of u may well know and i occasionally go over to watch them with my partners son who is a Lincoln fan and I have noticed that the quality in this league really is dreadful and Lincoln are a team who have been in and around the play off spots in recent seasons so at this level one of the better sides.
With the players we’ve got if BBM can get their confidence levels up and playing high press attacking football in my opinion there’s no reason why we can’t piss this league !!!!!

This is a great post.

Can’t disagree with any of the really intuitive details about the club status from the podcast.

Regarding table predictions, I would agree with Luton

Well summed up for us on the podcast. Don't think we are anywhere top 6 though. Surprised Plymouth weren't higher but agree with luton.

No way will Plymouth finish that low. They have experience of getting out of this league not so long ago.

We are fascinating as if our young players hit their straps we could be anything from 8th to top 2. We will have an energetic exciting team but will we have the grit and steal to be consistent

No way will Plymouth finish that low. They have experience of getting out of this league not so long ago.

We are fascinating as if our young players hit their straps we could be anything from 8th to top 2. We will have an energetic exciting team but will we have the grit and steal to be consistent

The point they made on the podcast about Plymouth is that they've lost their three best players and have brought in a whole bunch of players but unsure if any of them will improve them that much.

Loads of signings doesn't mean you improve the team.

Gosh that play off four have fallen from grace and glory . We must think and behave positively and go up as Champions, we have enough in and around the squad now to make an impact.

I’d be happy with top 6 this year. Even if promotion isn’t achieved this year, hopfully with new owners and a plan in place we can kick on and progress next season and beyond.

If we keep our current squad and dont sign a leader at 6, at least 2 in the defensive lineup and some freshness/pace in attack... I think we're 7th or lower.

On paper, we're a championship squad. In reality, we're a slow, leaderless squad who leaks goals.

I dont think we need much; but we definately need arrivals.

Top 6 has to be the goal. I cant see that, UNLESS we recruit.

My prediction as we stand here today: 8th

Can't really disagree with these placings.
I think Plymouth and Wycombe may be in and out of the play off zone throughout the season also.
If only we could sign some of the quality that the manager has wanted, I would feel more confident.

Prefer it done at start season when got all or most of players in!
In championship got sheff wed 8th!! A team with no players or manager ...

I see us as a Top 2 team if we keep our current squad and add a few decent loans.

Reason being (and I am aware plenty disagree) this squad was capable of a mid table finish last season and should have been there or thereabouts. So many players underperformed, it doesn't necessarily make them bad players or gutless, they had such amateur coaching and the whole place had a cloud over it from day 1 vs Sunderland at home.

BBM is unproven but for me looks like he has brought the squad back together, the football they are playing is better (albeit in friendlies) and the players just look happier.

A new keeper, Lawlor, Roberton & Colwill plus Salech make a great spine of a team and Chambers, Robinson, Turnbull, Willock etc are all above this level too. Sounds arrogant but it is true. Last season was dreadful, this squad is largely a mid-Championship team, with a few top Championship too.

Win the 1st game, start off positively for confidence and we are going to be an extremely difficult team to stop in this league.

Hopefully a few new additions will arrive in the next few weeks too.