Plymouth Argyle:
Imagine the scenario, a manager leaves club he has just guided to promotion; said manager then becomes manager of recently relegated Plymouth Argyle and returns to former club to sign a number of players and leads them to promotion at the first time of asking.
The exact same scenario happened in the 1995-96 season when Neil Warnock led the Pilgrims to a Division Three play-off final triumph over Darlington, one year after leaving Huddersfield Town, who he had just led to promotion from what is now League One, and that is the challenge facing Ryan Lowe in 2019-20.
Lowe, 40, led Bury to second place in League Two last season but following a seismic financial collapse, which meant he and his squad went three and a half months of the 2018-19 campaign, him, his playing staff and much of his backroom staff were forced to look for pastures new. Such is the extent of the Shakers off-field woes that they will start their forthcoming campaign in League One with a 12-point deduction with their opening day clash with MK Dons suspended.
As well as his former assistant manager Steven Schumacher following him to Home Park and his fitness coach John Lucas, Lowe has also secured the signatures of five players who were an instrumental part of his success at Gigg Lane. Danny Mayor, Will Aimson, Dom Telford, Callum McFadzean and Byron Moore have all followed Lowe to Home Park and, like Lowe, they will have a second successive promotion firmly in their sights.
The signing of Mayor is arguably the pick of the Shakers quintet, as he was believed to have been attracting interest from League One side Ipswich Town.
Amongst other new arrivals for the Pilgrims is former Everton starlet Jose Baxter, who arrives on a six-month proven yourself deal. There were many at Goodison Park who had high hopes for Baxter before his career was curtailed by a drugs ban, but Lowe has out handed him a second chance in new surroundings.
Another change the 'Green Army' are likely to see is a change in approach from Lowe. Whereas his predecessor Derek Adams often preferred to play one up front- either as part of a 4-2-3-1 or a 4-5-1 formation, Lowe prefers a more attacking, high energy 3-1-4-2 system. This system resulted in quite a few high scoring games for the Shakers last season and even won praise for his style of play from Jurgen Klopp after playing Liverpool in a pre-season friendly.
Lowe's magic formula paid dividends for Bury last season, and the early signs suggest that it will also do the same for the Pilgrims in the 2019-20 campaign.
Exeter City:
After being chosen to succeed the long serving Paul Tisdale as Exeter City manager last summer, Matt Taylor had some big shoes to fill - but he has certainly gone about doing the job his own way.
Tisdale, a close friend of Ray Kelvin - the founder of the clothing company Ted Baker, was famed for his matchday attire, however Taylor's choice of apparel hasn't attracted the same level of attention, but the Grecians are still considered a force to be reckoned with in League Two.
Prior to Tisdale's departure for MK Dons, City had been beaten in the League Two play-off final in 2017 and 2018 against Blackpool and Coventry City respectively. Until Jayden Stockley's departure for Preston North End for a fee believed to be in the region of £750,000, an automatic promotion challenge appeared to be on the cards before they eventually finished in 9th place - one point off the play-off zone.
If Taylor can unearth a 30-40 a season partnership from his current roster of strikers that includes Nicky Ajose, Ryan Bowman, Alex Fisher and Matt Jay then another promotion challenge could be a distinct possibility.
And in young midfielder Archie Collins, the Grecians have another product of their youth set-up who could follow in the footsteps of the likes of Dean Moxey (now back at St James Park), Danny Seaborne, George Friend, Matt Grimes and Ollie Watkins.
