THE LEAGUE One line-up for the 2026/27 season was confirmed over the Bank Holiday weekend as losing play-off finalists Stockport County stayed in League One and were joined by promoted Notts County.

The teams the Reds came up against last season certainly felt like a significant drop in quality from previous third tier editions but perhaps that was just a one-off rather than a general trend.

It is difficult to tell at this stage how the division will shape up because some of the clubs coming into it are big names in English football but in dire condition. Sheffield Wednesday and Leicester City have both been in financial turmoil and it is unclear what kind of budget either will be operating on this summer. But there will be the usual pack of clubs with decent backing and crowds who will expect to compete for the top six.

There were several teams who had strong second halves of the season under relatively new or young managers who, if they have a good summer, could be well in contention next season.

Luton Town and Plymouth Argyle are the obvious examples but you could also add Blackpool and Wigan Athletic.

Bradford City and Stevenage will look to build on seasons in which they outperformed expectations while MK Dons have extremely wealthy owners so will surely expect to at least compete for a second straight promotion.

The majority of the clubs in the league will have one eye on the top six, especially after Lincoln City won the title when no one expected them to do so. But the third tier in general feels very unstable on a financial level.

Accounts from the 2024/25 season showed that clubs were spending on average 102 per cent of their profit on wages while players’ average weekly salaries went up from £4,000 to £5,200.

That is partly due to the spending of the likes of Birmingham and Wrexham in that season but it is also a worrying trend which the EFL have looked to curb by reducing the percentage of a club’s earnings that can be invested into the playing squad. Barnsley feel a levelling of the financial playing field will benefit them as, despite blunders over the years, they still back themselves to recruit cleverly, as they have at times in the past, and compete higher in the league than the last two years.

There is a lot to sort out in-house for Barnsley.

The Reds should feel a huge sense of frustration to be sitting at home – or more likely spending time on holiday – while the League One play-offs take place, for a second successive year having been involved in the previous two.

In the week of the tenth and 20th anniversaries of their play-off final weeks in 2016 and 2006, they are in the process of figuring out how to bridge that 16-point gap to sixth place last season when they finished 15th.

The re-appointment of the popular Daniel Stendel appears to have gone down well with the majority of fans.

There is an opportunity to add plenty of players this summer who suit Stendel’s style to a talented, if thin, squad which already contains many who could carry out his style after a pre-season of intense work on the training pitch.

But there are so many gaps in the squad that it is unlikely they will do all the work needed within one summer, especially given the Reds’ habit of missing out on a much-needed forward on the final day of the last several windows.

There is also the uncertain over many of their talented midfielders who are under contract and last season’s top-scorer David McGoldrick who is a free agent being linked with other clubs.

The Reds risk being outbidded for McGoldrick but may not want to spend a large chunk of their budget on a 38-year-old. A long-term view makes some sense but his 18 goals last season may be very hard to replace in the short-term.

They have kept faith in the majority of the defence which was incredibly leaky last season, choosing not to do a full rebuild in that area.

But, despite all the reservations, there is enough promise in the players, head coach and a recruitment department that brought in Reyes Cleary and Patrick Kelly for free last summer, to at least hope for a substantial improvement on the last two seasons. They had a mid-table budget but have been boosted by windfalls in the transfer market while a few big-earners have been released. The bare minimum aim must be to be competing for the top six, to have a recognisable and exciting style of play and to be far better defensively, while continuing to blood young players from the academy or the transfer market.

If they achieve all of that then it will at least be a step in the right direction for a club who have been wandering aimlessly in the wilderness for a couple of years.