Sam Hoskins – Northampton Town

Hoskins was part of Chris Wilder’s superb Northampton side, a player the now-Sheffield United manager tied to a two and a half year deal in February 2016. Two and a half years soon passes though and this summer, Hoskins looks set to leave the Cobblers. They’ll be relegated if they don’t win their final game of the season and overturn a seventeen goal swing. Or to put it another way, they’ve been relegated.

Hoskins has never been truly prolific but I am of the opinion that often, the best strikers have not been. Jack Marriott hadn’t been prolific when he left Ipswich, James Collins scored very few before going to Crawley and simply looking at someone’s goals return isn’t sufficient to judge their usefulness as a player.

Whilst billed as a striker, Hoskins is more of an attacking midfielder, but an advanced one at that. he’s fit nicely into the 4-4-2, the 4-3-3 might see him at the top of the midfield should Lee Frecklington be missing out for any reason. He would thrive in the 4-2-3-1, the final formation Danny likes, as the centre piece of a three-man attacking midfield.

He’s 25 and has tasted success at this level before.

Tom Hopper – Scunthorpe

Boston born and, if I’m informed correctly, already Lincoln based, Tom Hopper would be a great signing for City.

Firstly, let’s get the bad bit out of the way. Hopper was one of three players sacked by Leicester City once the ‘racist orgy’ video emerged a couple of years ago. As a young player he made a bad choice and paid the ultimate price. Up until then he’d been on a collision course with stardom, rising through the Leicester ranks after joining them from Boston United.

Since then, he’s got his head down and worked hard, again not ever proving to be prolific but still forging a decent career. He’s had three seasons playing for the Iron, all of which have seen him score goals, 8,6 and 7 respectively.

This season he was on the cusp of leaving Scunthorpe on loan in January, only to bag in consecutive games and convince them to keep him around. He’s since scored two more, but with the manager’s position up in the air it looks as though he’s going to be on the move.

He’s 24-years old, 6ft 1in tall and a balls-out front man. He can play target man but also drop off a big striker as he’s handy with his feet.

Of all my League One shouts, this is the player I’d most like to see arrive at City.

Ben Coker – Southend

Coker is a left back, a position I think we’re going to be looking to add to. That’s no disrespect to Sam, but we’ve suffered due to not having one for each position this season and whatever we hope to achieve next season will rely on having a good, balanced squad.

28-year old Coker has been with Southend a while now, but came up through the non league scene with Bury Town and Histon. He’s played 21 games this season after recovering from injury at Christmas and has 167 starts behind him in League One and League Two. He’s also been at Colchester where he made 40 League One appearances.

What I like about Coker is the versatility on the left side and the fact he’s come up the same way as Danny and Nicky. He’s got lots of League One experience too, making him a perfect player to bring in when his contract expires.

Simon Cox – Southend

If we picked up 31-year old Cox on a free transfer we would be performing a massive coup. Cox might be in League One now, but his career has taken him to the Premier League and Championship, notably in spells with Nottingham Forest and West Brom.

He hit 16 League One goals for Southend last season and has added ten to that tally this time around. He’s most definitely more @Matt Green’ than ‘Matt Rhead’, offering mobility and pace around a big man. He’d be perfect in the 4-3-3 as one of the wider forwards, or in a 4-4-2 as a partner for either Green or Rhead.

Cox wouldn’t be cheap, but if we were looking to make a big statement with the free agents from League One, he would be one who stood out head and shoulders above the rest.

Other notable names out of contract in League One: Erhun Oztumer, Danny Graham, Craig Conway, Jay Spearing, Gabriel Zakuani, Josh Wright, Wes Thomas, Nigel Reo-Coker, Lee Martin Nathan Delfouneso, Conor Townsend and Ryan Taylor

All contract information is taken from www.transfermrkt.com and is correct to the best of our knowledge. Secondary reports, where available, have been checked to confirm accuracy.

Please vote for me in the Football Blogging Awards 2018

I’ve reached the final ten in the ‘Football Club Content Creator’ category in these highly prestigious and exciting awards to be presented at the Alexandra Palace in London on May 17th.

I NEED YOUR VOTES

You can vote two ways, one is online, the other is via Twitter.

The on site voting is here.

To vote on Twitter, please copy and paste the Tweet below. Please, don’t just retweet as they don’t count, you must produce an original tweet.

I am voting in @theFBAs for @staceywestblog to win the #FBAfootballclub category #FBAs