Will Joseph Mills be back at Saints stronger and better

Whilst Saints fans wait with baited breath regarding the survival of the Club, it may be cheering to look at the squad that will remain next season and contemplate our chances of promotion.

The departure of most of our higher paid players will allow money to be freed up to build a decent squad to mount a promotion challenge, when you bear in mind that Scunthorpe finished twenty point behind champions Leicester and 13 behind second placed Peterborough even the ten point deficit shouldnt preclude us from challenging for a play off spot.

The key though will be blending in our crop of youngsters and backing them with a core of experienced campaigners at league 1 level.

Most of youngsters were good enough at Championship level so we should have a sound base, one who didnt quite cut the mustard was Joseph Mills, although he had the skill most thought that he lacked a little bit of strength and experience and wasnt quite ready only being 17 when the season started, it also didnt help that most of his early games were spent in a backfour that went from one extreme from another with youth and experience on a weekly basis.

However Mills seems to have been a hit at promoted Scunthorpe, after his loan move in February he was pretty much a regular as Scunthorpe powered to the play offs and this could be to Saints advantage he will have gained the experience needed in that division and hopefully with the added bonus of playing in a side winning regularly he will have also the found the confidence that he lacked at St Mary's

The problem last season was that the balance of youngsters was too much and had to be the case, given as we have all now realised the fact that we had to ship out too many high wage earners on loan and slash the wage bill in order to keep the club going.

Next term it will hopefully be different, whether it will be Mark Wotte in charge is debateable, but Saints do need a manager who can bring in the right blend of experience to go with a plethora of youngsters who could bloom at league 1 level, Joseph Mills has shown that they can.     

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