MANAGERS and players who ply their trade in Leagues One and Two could be facing the most difficult summer in memory, predicts Ronnie Moore.

The Tranmere manager expects the effects of the recession to squeeze budgets, cut down the size of squads at many clubs and force hundreds of professional players to seek work in non-league football.

Moore said: “I can see this close season being the toughest for many managers working below Championshipl level.

“The Premiers League and Championship clubs will be able to look after themselves financially. But it is going to be very difficult for the clubs in the two divisions below.

“The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. Down here, budgets are going to be cut. You are going to see clubs reducing squads sizes down to 18 to 20 players.

“The better players will get fixed up and the rest will be fighting to find employment. There will be a lot who don’t find a league club. There isn’t going to be enough room for all of the professionals looking for work. Many clubs in League One and League Two will try to run on a shoestring.”

Moore made his prediction as he begins to grapple with the consequences of Tranmere’s narrow failure to make the League One play-offs.

If Rovers had taken their promotion dream all the way to the Championship they would have been £2.5 million better off next season in revenue handed down from the Premier League to the Football League’s top division.

But League One clubs take just 12% of that cake, compared to the Championship clubs’ 80%, with just 8% going to clubs in League Two.

So the playing budget for next season Moore is due to discuss with Tranmere chairman Lorraine Rogers this week is sure to reflect falling attendances and rising levels of debt at Prenton Park.

That’s left the Wirral club in a difficult position as they prepare offers of new terms to some of the 15 players who will be out of contract this summer.

The squad that succeeded expectations by finishing seventh on 74 points last weekend, will probably be broken up.

The players about to become free agents include influential performers such as goalkeeper Danny Coyne, centre-back Ben Chorley, midfielders Antony Kay and Steve Jennings together with striker Ian Moore, the manager’s son.

Skipper Kay is already being linked with interest from Championship newcomers Peterborough United as well as Huddersfield Town.

Moore suspects the decline in attendances at many lower division clubs this season will be followed by a fall in season ticket sales for the 2009/10 campaign as the effects of the recession reduce the spending power of supporters.

He said: “Supporters are going to pick and choose which games they come to next season.

“It’s a frustrating situation for us. Our home record this season was the second best in League One. We won 15 games at Prenton Park and only Leeds United did better that. Yet our average gate this season wasn’t much more than 5,500.

“You could not complain about the entertainment because some of the football we played here was great.

“The product is there. The difficulty is getting spectators through the turnstiles to watch it when there isn’t much money about and people are losing their jobs.”