Want to back a manager who's been there and done it? Paul Warne has won promotion from League One four times, with two different clubs already.

They've already got strength in depth in the squad; the team they built in their League Two promotion last season had this season in mind, already operating with a wage budget towards the top end of League One.

The 2.63 on them to finish in the top six also appeals.

Leicester and Sheffield Wednesday are top of the market, after going through serious off-field issues and cannot yet be relied on to produce consistent, competent performances, with squad depth a concern for both sides where it absolutely isn't for MK.

Warne has built a reliable squad he's familiar with and has a repeatable on-pitch method that has worked wonders in League One before.

He's got promotion pedigree and will be backed in January if they're in the mix; at 14/1 it's worth a shot with an each-way payout if they finish 2nd or 3rd.

Argyle were the best team in League One after Christmas last season who didn’t win promotion.

They ended up two points short of the play-offs after a remarkable revival, flirting with relegation early on, and they're still shrewd operators in the transfer market for the level.

They've got towards £5 million from the sale of Lorent Tolaj from Bristol City to reinvest.

Despite coming 9th, they actually had the 2nd-best away record in the league last season.

They're fifth-favourites for the league at the moment, but there are serious question marks around all the teams above them (Huddersfield, Luton, Sheff Wed and Leicester).

They won League One just over three years ago and have the stability on and off the pitch to push again.

They've shored up the defence that held them back last season, and 5/1 on a team that look destined for a play-off finish (2.30 to back that) to get top two is a nice runner to cheer on for the duration of the campaign.

If they can convert their underlying performance data into on-pitch results, Wycombe will ruffle some feathers at the top end this season.

In the sample after Michael Duff took over from Mike Dodds in September last season, Wycombe ranked as the 9th-best team in the league.

Intriguingly, they had the 5th-best goal difference over that sample (+14), and even those encouraging statistics include a poor run from the end of last season when they had nothing to play for.

In the 2024/25 season, Wycombe landed this bet with a nine-point cushion inside the top six, and they were actually 2nd when they lost Matt Bloomfield to Luton in the January of that campaign.

There's a good chance that if they got the Bloomfield replacement right first time, they'd have been promoted to the Championship either in 2024/25 or 2025/26.

Duff is an ambitious coach and has already taken a side to the play-off final in League One, while at Barnsley in 2023/24.

4th last season, arguably winning the transfer window at the time of writing. Treble my stake if they get Top 6 - go on then.

After six seasons in League Two, Bradford returned to League One with a bang last season, finishing 4th and losing out to eventual play-off winners, Bolton, over two legs.

That's decent course form to carry into this campaign, but it's the transfer business that really caught the eye.

They're upgrading the squad really nicely all over the pitch.

Jon McCracken in goal, 2nd-best goals prevented figure in the Scottish Premiership last season - across 35 games for Dundee.

Adam Phillips from Barnsley, arguably the best goalscoring midfield in the third tier in recent years.

Macaulay Gillesphey and Callum Connolly bring League One promotion-battling experience to the backline.

Jake Beesley up top had the 6th-highest xG in the league last season, and scored 13 goals, playing for Burton, who came 17th.

Graham Alexander is approaching three years in charge and will be targeting a Championship return.

Barnsley are trending downwards, yet the bookies have 11 teams as more likely to go down than them - looks like an opportunity.

There could be a chance to get them at a bigger price to go down; if they beat Bromley at home on the opening day, their relegation price will increase.

It’s one of the kinder first games, with Bromley a newly-promoted side, and the Tykes are odds-on to win it.

But I don’t even trust them to do that.

We’re five years into Barnsley's steady decline; in their four seasons since dropping to League One they’ve finished 4th, 6th, 12th and then 15th in that order.

They only won three of their last 15 league games last term, and all of those wins came against sides that went on to be relegated.

At board level, they've run out of ideas and gone back to Daniel Stendel as manager, who they sacked in 2019; he arrives following a spell at Hannover 96 II in the five-way regionalised German fourth tier.

That’s questionable recent work experience for a job at a sinking League One side.