In the eyes of many, Chesterfield had a successful season in League Two upon their return to the EFL after six seasons in non-league.
Had you offered Spireites fans a play-off position last summer, almost all would have snapped your hand off, and even more so after seeing the mid-season injury crisis the club suffered.
However, Paul Cook and his team of coaches will be targeting automatic promotion in 2025/26 and will need to make several improvements to the squad to achieve a top-three finish.
The Blues used the second-most players in the division last year, with 39, three fewer than relegated Carlisle United, and had the third-highest average age (27.2), behind Morecambe and Tranmere Rovers.
Cook will be targeting youthful additions to his side as they look to fight off the injury issues and bring more energy into their game.
Out of last season’s squad, 10 players are still under contract while another six had extension options triggered.
A further seven were in discussions, with Ollie Banks now having moved on to York City, and a total of 10 players have been confirmed to have left, including loanees.
Therefore as it stands, Cook has 16 players to work with, although a few are likely to agree on new deals, and will need to find improvements in certain areas.
Here are five positions that the Spireites need to target in the transfer window.
Goalkeeper
Perhaps the most important position to work on is the club’s number-one goalkeeper.
2024/25 saw Ryan Boot and Max Thompson share the duty, making 28 and 18 appearances in the league respectively.
The former regained the starting spot for the final 18 matches of the season and made some crucial saves at times, but if the Blues want to earn promotion back to the third tier then an improvement needs to be made.
As of now, neither are confirmed to be at the club next season, after Thompson’s return to Premier League Newcastle United and with Boot’s negotiations over a new contract still ongoing.
The former Solihull Moors stopper kept nine clean sheets in his 28 games (32.1%), which was only the 15th best out of all keepers to play in the league; Thompson was a further five places behind at 27.8%.
Boot also fell quite far behind his competitors when it came to goals against per 90 minutes (GA90). He let in 1.07 goals per game on average, with Thompson at 1.33, leaving the former in 10th place.
When compared to the number one keepers for the rest of the top seven teams, Boot had the fourth-best GA90 but had a worse clean sheet percentage than all but one (Doncaster Rovers‘ Teddy Sharman-Lowe).
He also had only the 17th-best save percentage (67.4%) in the league, putting him behind almost every other keeper from a top-half side.
If Chesterfield want to finish in the top three then they need to have one of the top three keepers in the league and, based on last season, Boot is not one of them.
Right-back
The right-sided full-back was the Blues’ most troubling position throughout the season, as winger Liam Mandeville had to be deployed there for the final nine matches after injuries to Devan Tanton, Ryheem Sheckleford, Vontae Daley-Campbell and Janoi Donacien.
Sheckleford and Daley-Campbell are both confirmed to be at the club next season while Donacien is in negotiations. Tanton returned to parent club Fulham in January due to a set of injuries.
Out of the four natural right-backs, Sheckleford played the most minutes with 1,273 (equivalent to just over 14 full games), as the other three totalled a combined 1,438.
For the three automatically promoted teams (Doncaster, Port Vale and Bradford City), their three most-played right-backs (Jamie Sterry, Kyle John and Brad Halliday) averaged 2,959 minutes across the season.
The clear weakness of Chesterfield’s right-backs to keep fit has to be improved and, even though two of them are set to stay next year, a regular, fitter replacement has to be found.
Centre-back
Another position where Chesterfield suffered with injuries was central defence, where six different players started at some point in the campaign.
In particular, the left side of defence is an area that Cook will need to target this summer.
Club captain Jamie Grimes headed into last season probably not expecting to be the team’s first-choice centre back but that is how it ended overall, having played 2,446 minutes and started 24 games, which was almost double second-placed Ash Palmer.
Loanee Harvey Araujo has returned to Fulham whilst Kyle McFadzean seemed uncomfortable at times on the left side, as well as Cook preferring a natural left-footer in the left-sided centre-half role.
Whilst Grimes performed well statistically in aerial duels and ground duels, winning 70.6% and 62% of them respectively, he is not quite as natural on the ball as is needed in Cook’s system and will turn 35 next season.
Therefore, a new defender who can regularly partner with the returning Chey Dunkley has to be signed.
Central midfield
The Spireites’ midfield needs plenty of replacements after the departures of Ollie Banks, Darren Oldaker and Jenson Metcalfe.
With just Tom Naylor and potentially John Fleck, depending on whether he agrees to a new deal, left for the two deeper midfield positions, energy and youth are both heavily required to freshen up the area.
With the duo both turning 34 this summer, they cannot be relied upon to be able to start the majority of games next season, especially Fleck, given his fitness issues.
Naylor played more minutes than all of his teammates (3,374), but there were still 60 players across the league who played more than him.
A young and hungry midfielder, similar to Metcalfe, needs to be brought in to take the load off Naylor and Fleck and also improve the team’s ball-winning ability, which was an area that they particularly lacked in last season.
The Blues made the least tackles (651), least interceptions (276), least clearances (1,030) and third least blocks (149) in League Two last year.
Although this will partially be down to their high possession stats, meaning they are required to win the ball back less often, they still fall behind Notts County, the only team to average more possession per game, in all four categories.
Metcalfe, who was the team’s best ball-winner, replaced veteran Mike Jones, whose role as a sitting, tackling monster in the National League title-winning season was so important to the team’s play.
Jones only managed 16 league minutes last season before needing surgery on his achilles, which ended his campaign, and without him, Chesterfield were far too frequently hit on the counter-attack by defensive teams who went on to score.
Therefore, Cook will need to recruit someone who can sit at the bottom of midfield and break up opposition attacks to help improve the Blues’ defensive record.
To his credit, but also showing the side’s midfield weaknesses, the Spireites’ best tackler was winger Armando Dobra, who made 74, although that was still less than half of Grimsby Town‘s George McEachran, who was the league’s best tackler with 152.
Naylor fell behind Metcalfe, Banks and Oldaker in the tackling stats, making just 33 throughout the season, so it is obvious that a young, ball-winning midfielder is needed to improve Chesterfield’s team and allow Naylor and Fleck the freedom to play their natural ball-playing styles.
Striker
The forward position was also one where the Blues were targeted by injuries, with Will Grigg and Paddy Madden both having long times out injured.
Both of them are also approaching the end of their careers and are not quite as mobile and physical as they once were.
Bim Pepple was brought in on loan from Luton Town in January and impressed with his energy up front, and Cook should look at bringing in a similar type of attacker.
However, the ability that Pepple lacked was the conversion of shots to goals. The 22-year-old finished his half-season spell with a 17.86% conversion rate, significantly lower than Grigg’s 41.38% and also behind Madden’s 22.73%.
And although he appeared to be a more physical presence in attack, Pepple actually performed worse than the other two when it came to winning aerial duels.
The Canadian won 31% of his, compared to 33.1% for Grigg and 38.7% for Madden.
All three strikers were quite far behind the promoted teams’ forwards in this department. Doncaster’s Joe Ironside (47.3%), Port Vale’s Jayden Stockley (57.2%) and Bradford’s Andy Cook (53.5%) all won a significantly higher amount of aerial duels than any of the Spireites’ forwards, making it obvious where an improvement is needed.
With Cook looking to build a promotion-winning squad, it would be a surprise if he did not sign a more physical and dominant striker to provide a different threat to opposition defenders.