Accrington's financial situation hindering them again?

Accrington Stanley could be set for another long, hard season after a transfer embargo, a lack of any income and the departure of virtually all of their star players over the summer. It's been a difficult time for a side who will enter their fifth year in the Football League, something that could turn out to be a bad omen.

I feel almost guilty predicting Accrington to struggle again this coming season. I had predicted them to finish rock bottom last season before they ended up going on a remarkable run that at one point looked like them getting into the Playoffs. It was only a bad run late on in the season that saw their potential Playoff campaign fall away. That world might seem miles away this season though.

The club are again in financial difficulties and as reported in the Lancashire Telegraph yesterday, they expect to fall behind on their taxes. They blame it on a lack of gate receipts and the fact they're under a transfer embargo doesn't help. Stanley infact only have four players registered to play for them at the moment, those being Phil Edwards, Andy Procter, Jimmy Ryan and Chris Turner. The summer has also seem them lose Michael Symes, Kenny Arthur, Darren Kempson, John Miles, Billy Kee and various other players.

Infact, there has been a lot of interesting developments with the departures of Miles and Kee. Kee, who has now joined Torquay United, was tempted to join Accrington Stanley but decided the facilities  weren't up to scratch at Stanley, with Accrington now agreeing to continue training at the Preston based UCLAN Sports Arena.

"I was surprised Billy said that. Billy obvious came from Leicester where they have state-of-the-art training facilities. But I think we will look to stay at UCLAN two days a week and train at the ground on Fridays," Rob Heys, Chief Executive of Accrington, explained to Teamtalk. "There are three or four clubs who use those facilities, and people use it for sports science fitness tests as well."

John Miles, Ian Craney and Peter Cavanagh decided to go to the ambitious Fleetwood, which left Coleman infuriated, whereas he was also disappointed by Arthur and Kempson joining Grimsby Town. However, the outgoing transfer that will hurt Accrington the most is the transfer of Symes (below) to Bournemouth.

City were also interested in the striker, although the Imps reported offered only £500 before he went to Bournemouth. The striker scored 19 times for Accrington Stanley and was one of the division's leading goalscorers, although he rarely got the headlines due to the other strikers in the division. He won League Two's player of the month in December, something that prompted two bids from Grimsby Town, the second of which was a six figure some.

To sum up Symes' impact on the side, if you take away his goals then Accrington would lose 13 points and finished 22^nd on goal difference. It's a similar impact to that of Kee, whom on loan from Leicester scored nine League goals, gaining Stanley 11 points. Then you get onto their other striker, Robert Grant. The young striker's 15 League goals gained the club gained a whopping 18 points to the club, shadowing his fellow team-mate's achievement, so much so that the lack of his goals would have seen the club relegated.

Even when the transfer embargo is lifted, Coleman would have an extremely difficult job replacing the impact of those three, especially that of Symes and Grant.

The one thing that Accrington do have in their favour is that Coleman does make them exceptionally difficult to beat. In the last four meetings between the clubs, Accrington have outplayed the Imps one three occasions and yet only come away from those games with three points. When the Imps beat them 5-1 in December 2008, many forget that Accrington could and probably should have been 4-0 up at half time. Then there's not to forget last season's game at Sincil Bank between the clubs, with only a decent last 8 or so minutes seeing City get a win that they didn't really deserve.

Accrington fans will probably read this review and not be surprised. Without trying to sound disrespectful but I'd imagine their fans are used to people under-estimating their club and to be fair, this is Accrington's best weapon. If you read the comments after my preview of Southend's season, you will see the arrogance of how some fans believe that Accrington are walkovers.

Many forget that Accrington were the only club to win at Notts County last season and strangely they won away at three of the top four. Out of the top 10, they only failed to get any points against Bournemouth and Dagenham and Redbridge. However, they had a very mixed home record and have done since they entered the League.

Since joining the League in 2006, Accrington have won just 37 of their 184 home games, losing a total of 42 home games in the process. Only once have they actually won more home games than they've lost in that time and in the 2007/8 lost more home games than anyone else in the division that season.

Accrington's season will heavily depend on how/if they replace Grant, Symes and Kee, and that's even before you take into account the other members of the squad who have lost and I think that could be the ultimate deciding factor. You can't just lose your three main strikers and expect to do well.

Here's another interesting omen for you. In the past six seasons, Kidderminster, Rushden, Boston and Chester have gone down in their fifth year of the Football League, Barnet only just avoided the same fate in their fifth season.....this is Accrington's fifth season.