Season Preview: Cambridge United ready to be the underdogs once again

Cambridge United shocked fans and pundits alike by winning promotion last season, but they now find themselves as a very small fish in a ginormous pond.

League One looks to be an incredibly tough division this season. The likes of Sheffield Wednesday, Sunderland, Ipswich Town and Charlton Athletic boast some of the strongest squads the third tier has ever seen, while teams such as MK Dons and Wigan Athletic will also be vying for promotion after some impressive recruitment this summer.

Cambridge will find themselves fighting a very different battle.

Almost every pundit has tipped the U’s for relegation, with the vast majority seeing them as the weakest side in the division. But head coach Mark Bonner was defiant in saying: “I’ll be completely honest – I couldn’t care less what anyone thinks about us.”

That sort of mentality is what helped Cambridge win promotion in the first place, but maintaining their League One status will be a much harder challenge.

Transfers

Of course, the departure of Paul Mullin is the biggest transfer news to come out of the club this summer.

The 26-year-old finished as top scorer in League Two last season with an astonishing 32 goals. So it wasn’t a surprise to see him turn down a new contract offer from the U’s and leave the club on a free transfer.

What was a surprise, however, was the fact that he moved down a division rather than up. The Merseyside-born striker returned to the North West with non-league side Wrexham, who were subject to a recent takeover by Hollywood actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney.

He wasn’t the only player to leave the club after winning promotion to League One. Luke Hannant also turned down a contract offer to move to Colchester United, while goalkeeper Callum Burton moved to fellow League One side Plymouth Argyle.

Finding a like-for-like replacement for Mullin would likely be impossible, but former Cambridge United loanee Sam Smith returned to the club on a permanent basis in order to ease the attacking pressure on Joe Ironside. Shilow Tracey also returned to The Abbey after being released by Tottenham Hotspur this summer.

James Brophy was brought in from Leyton Orient in order to boost the U’s wide options, while Jack Lankester arrived on an undisclosed fee from Ipswich. However, the 21-year-old is expected to miss the start of the season after suffering a setback in his knee injury.

Bonner has promised that Cambridge will sign another defender before the end of the summer transfer window, but the club have already brought in two new faces for their back line. Centre-back Lloyd Jones and right-back George Williams both moved to The Abbey on free transfers after suffering relegation from League One with Northampton Town and Bristol Rovers respectively.

The U’s have only made one loan signing this summer, with Brighton youngster Jensen Weir joining the club until the end of the season. The midfielder is held in high regard by the Seagulls, and will now have the opportunity to play regular senior football for the first time in his career.

Goalkeeper Will Mannion is the newest arrival at the club, as he looks to compete with Dimitar Mitov and Kai McKenzie-Lyle for the number one spot.

Manager

Despite having spent just over a year in charge of the club, Bonner is worshipped by Cambridge United fans.

Of course, guiding the U’s back to the third tier for the first time in almost 20 years goes a long way in cementing his status as a club legend. But his legacy will run much deeper than that.

Bonner is a boyhood Cambridge fan, and has played a big part in the club’s academy since 2011. He’s spent years working his way up the ranks to become head coach, and has been an incredible success since being given the job on a permanent basis in March 2020.

Following Russell Martin’s move from MK Dons to Championship side Swansea, Bonner is now the youngest manager in League One. Having a promotion on his CV at this stage of his managerial career is one thing, but being the most inexperienced manager in the division will likely create some difficulties too.

That being said, he fully understands the obstacles that the club will have to overcome in League One next season.

“I think we’re looking forward to seeing how we cope with that challenge. It’s quite an exciting one. We’re no doubt underdogs, everyone will write us off and the more that do the better really.

“We’ve got no problem being the underdogs. We just want to be a confident one that thinks we can compete with everyone. But thinking that is one thing, we’ve got to go and do it.”

Bonner has created an exceptionally positive atmosphere at the club for the first time since they won promotion back to the Football League in 2014. His job now is to keep that going for as long as possible if the U’s are to stand a chance of surviving in the third tier.

Targets

Survival is the aim, by any means necessary.

Most bookmakers have Cambridge listed as the second favourites for relegation behind playoff winners Morecambe, while the majority of pundits have said that they don’t expect the U’s to handle the step up to League One. In many ways, this suits them.

After all, Bonner’s side were tipped to be nowhere near the promotion places last season. But come the final day of the campaign, they had secured a second place finish. Of course, that won’t be happening again this year, especially given the strength of League One.

Ipswich’s staggering summer recruitment is possibly the best example of the quality in the division this season, while Sunderland and Sheffield Wednesday have convinced the likes of Alex Pritchard and Lewis Wing to drop down to the third tier.

The U’s quite simply don’t have that sort of money or appeal, and most fans wouldn’t be heartbroken if they did suffer an immediate relegation back to League Two. As Bonner has said, the club wants to be competitive at this level, and if they do go down, they want to go down fighting.

Key player

For most fans, Mullin was clearly Cambridge’s player of the season in 2020/21. But there’s no doubting that he couldn’t have maintained his immense goal scoring form without Wes Hoolahan.

Despite being 39 years old, the Norwich City legend managed to play 32 league games for the U’s last season. In that time, he scored seven goals and assisted nine more. Remarkably, he’s signed a new one year deal that will likely be his swansong, with the upcoming campaign set to end less than a month before his 40th birthday.

It remains to be seen how regularly he’ll play over the course of the next nine months, but if he can replicate his form from the last season, the U’s will have a good chance of avoiding a bottom four finish.

Youth prospect

Picking a standout youth prospect for the upcoming season is pretty difficult. Bonner wants to keep the core of his promotion-winning squad together, while adding enough players with League One experience in the summer transfer window. As a result, you’re unlikely to see many of the club’s youngsters get an opportunity in the first team.

Lewis Simper and Tom Dickens have both left the club on loan, joining Yeovil Town and Chelmsford City respectively. The likes of Ben Worman and Liam Benntt have been training with the first team, but look unlikely to feature in the senior squad for the upcoming campaign.

Perhaps this could be Andy Dallas’ time to shine. The 22-year-old has struggled for regular game time since joining Cambridge from Rangers in 2019, and ultimately had to leave the club on loan for the second half of last season. He joined National League side Weymouth, scoring 12 goals in just 25 games.

Breaking into U’s starting lineup will be a challenge, especially now Bonner has opted to play with a lone striker rather than two. But Dallas has proven that he does have an eye for goal, albeit outside of the Football League. If he can maintain his good form from last season, he may be given more first-team opportunities.

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