Football Season Guide

Burton Albion

In


Callum Reilly (mid, Birmingham City), Calum Butcher (mid, Dundee United), Darius Charles (def, Stevenage), Timmy Thiele (att, Borussia Dortmund II), Tom Naylor (def, Derby County), Mark Duffy (mid, Birmingham City - loan)

Out


Adam McGurk (mid, Portsmouth), Stefan Maletic(def, released), Mickael Antoine-Curier(att, released), Joe Doyle(def, released), Lee Bell(mid, released), Ian Sharps(def, released), Jimmy Phillips(mid, released)

After comfortably winning League Two last season, Burton will start life in unfamiliar territory of League One with hopes of achieving something more than mere survival in the division. They are a well-run club with funds to spare, but lack experience of playing in League One, as this will be their first-ever season in the third tier. However, the Brewers, who are coached by former Dutch international Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, will be rather confident of at least staying in the division, not only due to the fact that they won League Two last season, but also because their squad contains numerous players who are proven in the third tier. They have managed to keep the core of their squad together during the summer, while making some interesting signings, with Darius Charles and Mark Duffy particularly looking like men who could make a difference for them, as they are both well-known players at League One level. Somewhat uncharacteristically for a newly-promoted club, Burton also have quite decent strength in depth and should not be too affected by periods of fixture congestion. All in all, they seem to have the foundations well set to stay well clear of trouble, and are expected to have money available to strengthen if things do not go according to plan.

Target


Expecting them to fight for a play-off place would probably be too optimistic, but they will certainly expect to comfortably finish inside the midtable places.