Stockport County dropped out of the League One play-off race against Leyton Orient, leaving them focused on promotion to the Championship next season.
Missing out on the jump up may not be the worst thing for the club, allowing them to gradually improve the squad to give them the best chance of survival if they do earn promotion further down the line.
But to get that benefit, they must first get their recruitment right.
Here, Football League World looks at three situations the Hatters will need to focus on this summer…
Improving Dave Challinor’s terms
Taking County from the National League to challenging at the very top of League One – completing the vast majority of owner Mark Stott’s seven-year plan early – has already cemented Challinor as one of the Hatters’ best-ever managers.
But he could strengthen his legacy even further by taking that final step to the Championship, and the club have a huge role in making that happen.
The 49-year-old last signed a contract in 2023, keeping him at the club until at least 2026.
However, entering the final 12 months of his deal and having narrowly missed out on the Championship, clubs with a vacancy in the dugout will be alert to his credentials, and there’s no guarantee he doesn’t receive an offer too good to refuse.
To protect against that, one of the first things the club should look to do this summer is strengthen and extend Challinor’s contract at Edgeley Park.
Strengthening at right-back
Challinor is relatively fluid with regard to team setup, switching regularly between a back three and a back four.
That means, ideally, that a right-sided defender for the Hatters needs to be comfortable attacking as a right wing-back, defending as a right-back and, occasionally, tucking in as a right centre-back in a back three.
Kyle Knoyle fit this bill perfectly but, to the shock of many fans, the club revealed recently that the 28-year-old will be departing Edgeley Park on the expiry of his contract this summer.
Knoyle for Stockport this season, as per WhoScored
Starts (Sub)
15 (9)
Goals
0
Assists
1
Tackles per 90
0.8
Dribbles per 90
0.4
Pass success rate
74.3%
Journalist Pete O’Rourke also revealed recently that right wing-back Macauley Southam-Hales will be joining Knoyle at the exit door, before the club confirmed they are still in dialogue with Welshman.
Whatever transpires with Southam-Hales, he has had a torrid time with injuries, so those availability concerns combined with Knoyle’s departure, and Brad Hills’ return to Norwich City, who played at right-back sparingly, makes this a key area for the recruitment team this summer.
Recruiting centre-backs
Knoyle also offered cover as part of a back three; a system that has looked strained at times this season with the Hatters running close to the bone in terms of defensive numbers.
With Hills returning, Knoyle departing, Sam Hughes in contract discussions with his loan club, Peterborough United, and out-of-contract duo Fraser Horsfall and Ibou Touray still yet to sign the new contracts they’ve been offered, the Hatters currently have just Ethan Pye, Jay Mingi and Callum Connolly with any experience of playing at centre-back, the latter two’s natural positions being elsewhere on the field.
Plainly, regardless of what happens with Horsfall’s and Touray’s contracts, there’s work to do to bolster the defensive unit.
If Challinor wants the option of running a three-at-the-back system regularly next term, you’d expect the club to want at least five or six players comfortable playing there.
There is also the ever-present risk that Pye, who swept up Young Player, Players’ Player and Player of the Year at County’s end-of-season awards, attracts interest from further afield.
Much of the discussion among fans centres on capturing a lethal goalscorer, which may well also be looked at, but there are greater gaps in defence to attend to first.
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