In Part 1 of our monster J1 preview, the Sapporo striker Jay Bothroyd leads things off by talking about his disappointment at Consadole missing out on the ACL places on the final day of last season, and how, despite the club finishing in its highest-ever position in 2018, that setback is driving himself and the team to go one better this year. Jay also chats about the offseason comings and goings at the club, his relationship with Thai forward Chanathip, and how long he will continue playing (to 20:05).

Then my co-pilot for the episode, Scott McIntyre, gives his thoughts on Sapporo, before I chat with Neil Debnam about two-time defending champions Kawasaki (to 44:30) and Scott waxes lyrical about Frontale, before we move on to Hiroshima and Kashima (to 58:55).

Ryan Steele joins me to chat about Urawa's improved squad depth (to 1:10:40), and Scott discusses Reds before we move on to FC Tokyo (to 1:22:20), then, on triple duty, Alan Gibson talks about the contrasting offseasons, and prospects going forward, of the three Kansai clubs - Cerezo Osaka, Kobe and Gamba Osaka (to 1:41:00).

Scott follows with his thoughts on the Kansai trio, before we finish the episode by running the rule over Shimizu and Sendai.

#NOTE# Part 2 of the J1 Preview is also now available for download, and covers Yokohama, Shonan, Tosu, Nagoya and Iwata, as well as promoted teams Matsumoto and Oita.

Follow my guests on twitter and the web:

Jay - @jaybothroyd

Scott - @mcintinhos

The Asian Game podcast

Neil - @frontalerabbit

Neil's Frontale Rabbit blog

Ryan - @steelinho

Alan - @jsoccermagazine

JSoccer.com