Grumpster
7:26 Thu Jul 28
Re: Realistic Aspirations For Next Season
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Think the race for 3rd and 4th will be a lot more interesting than the race for the title which I'd imagine City will piss now they actually have a striker and a fucking good one.
Clearly arsenal, spurs and man utd have all improved, so unless our players have a season of worldies, probably looking at 7th as the main aim again, unless obviously we go out in the next month and sign a couple of top drawer players, especially a left back.
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fraser
7:24 Thu Jul 28
Re: Realistic Aspirations For Next Season
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RM10 - wash your mouth out...
Eerie, they've had decent managers before.. But fear you may be right, especially now Pogba has left.
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RBshorty
7:23 Thu Jul 28
Re: Realistic Aspirations For Next Season
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Spurs Dark Horse’s.
Been hearing that shit for half a century now.(Mainly from Tottenham fans.) It’s always nice to know you can rely of some things in life. Death. Taxes. And some deluded muppet from N17. Calming THIS is going to be their year.!
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Charoo
7:19 Thu Jul 28
Re: Realistic Aspirations For Next Season
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Eerie I think anyone that thinks they will be top 3 will be shocked.
That club is toxic and it will take more than a few signings to turn it around so quickly.
In my humble opinion of course.
Plus I hope I’m right and you’re wrong not because I want to be a clever cunt on an Internet forum but because they are a fucking hateful club who have had more than their fare share and I hope they rot 😊
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RM10
7:17 Thu Jul 28
Re: Realistic Aspirations For Next Season
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In that they get a trophy for their cabinet!
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Eerie Descent
7:10 Thu Jul 28
Re: Realistic Aspirations For Next Season
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Spurs are dark horses? I think most people expect them to do very well this season, the only surprise would be if they didn't.
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RM10
7:04 Thu Jul 28
Re: Realistic Aspirations For Next Season
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I’m afraid the top 6 will be the same again in a different order. Spurs will be the dark horses,
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Jasnik
7:03 Thu Jul 28
Re: Realistic Aspirations For Next Season
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I never get why in preseason we play Masuaku on the wing only to stick him on the bench for the rest of the season.
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Eerie Descent
6:41 Thu Jul 28
Re: Realistic Aspirations For Next Season
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Anyone thinking Man Utd will have another shit season will be shocked, they'll finish in the top 4 this year, if I had to be exact I think they'll finish 3rd. They have loads of talent, and now a proper manager.
We missed our chance to properly kick on, and our poor form from the back end of last season has carried on into pre-season, worryingly. We are so weak down our left hand side, which will be targeted, so 2 left sided players needed & an attacking midfielder, just to finish 7th at best imo.
Any ideas above that, then another centre back, centre midfielder and back up striker on top. And pray that Declan Rice stays fit.
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Crassus
6:39 Thu Jul 28
Re: Realistic Aspirations For Next Season
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southbankbornnbred 6:11 Thu Jul 28
*applause*
Bank, I remember when The Arse/Man Utd were in their pomp David Dein was interviewed about the then rise of Newcastle and asked if he feared their emergence - have never forgotten his response, almost word perfect below
There is only one team I fear rising and that is West Ham, geographically perfect with a vast and loyal supporter base, if they are ever taken over, have Newcastle style investment and ambition we will have cause for worry
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Charoo
6:38 Thu Jul 28
Re: Realistic Aspirations For Next Season
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Out of the top 6 I think the most catchable at present are Man U, still not sure what they will bring this season, I think Arsenal and Spurs will kick on a bit and Chelsea will go in and out of form.
If we make 2/3 more good signings we can be on the coat tails of the top 6 again.
I think Leicester will drop down a bit, Wolves over achieved a little last season, Palace will be decent, Newcastle and Villa improved.
Forest will have a good run of results like Brentford did last season, Brentford will suffer a bit this season - if Fatty stays in charge Everton won’t do much, Fulham will enjoy a decent run and be ok, Bournemouth will struggle as will Leeds, Brighton will be well organised but still bottom half and Southampton will ghost in and out of form.
Man City
Liverpool
Spurs
Arsenal
Chelsea
Man U
West Ham (with more signings)
Newcastle
Villa
Wolves
Palace
Leicester
Brighton
Fulham
Forest
Southampton
Everton
Leeds
Brentford
Bournemouth
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swindon hammer
6:37 Thu Jul 28
Re: Realistic Aspirations For Next Season
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Southbank,
With the squad of players we currently have we have overachieved.
There are better squads and players that have finished below us over the past 2 seasons.
It’s also criminal that former European champions Nottingham Forest have been out of the top flight for over 20 years.
Former European Champions Aston Villa have been yo yo-ing between the premier and the championship for quite a while while Newcastle are a massive one city club who haven’t won anything in 50 years.
We haven’t a divine right to be successful especially when there’s clubs who have more history than us in the same boat.
John Lyall and Ron Greenwood are rightly regarded as our best ever manager’s but in top flight football they have both finished in the top 7 only once each.
The aim should be to have the best seating possible but the first target will always be to get to 40 points first.
If we have a bad start to the season then we could easily get sucked into that relegation battle. Same thing applies to big clubs like Newcastle, Everton & Villa. It’s just being realistic.
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southbankbornnbred
6:15 Thu Jul 28
Re: Realistic Aspirations For Next Season
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Terry Fucking Brown on 2002/03: It was "OUR TURN" to get relegated.
What a complete cunt. It said everything about his leadership.
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Lee Trundle
6:14 Thu Jul 28
Re: Realistic Aspirations For Next Season
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southbankbornnbred 6:11 Thu Jul 28
Well said.
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southbankbornnbred
6:11 Thu Jul 28
Re: Realistic Aspirations For Next Season
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We haven't "massively" overachieved in the past two seasons at all: we've been where we, as a club, ought to be a little more often than we've achieved historically.
We are the seventh biggest club in the country by revenue. We consistently hold that position in the Deloitte money league. So while football is not played on spreadsheets, we should really have been more competitive than we have been until Moyes came back and suddenly got a grip of a club which genuinely has high potential (which we, as fans, have known for decades).
As Moyes has done, we need to start setting the top six or seven as an achievable goal on a reasonably regular basis. It won't always happen, of course, but it's a reasonable target to set ourselves. Those many seasons when we finished outside the top ten or worse - that has been us under-achieving for too long and too often (lack of investment by owners etc).
It is criminal that a club our size - with the players we have developed etc - has not won a major trophy in 42 years. 42! Too many of us have become conditioned into thinking it can't happen/won't happen.
I also despise the idea that the benchmark for us is to think about the cliched 40 points to stay up first. Not least because we got relegated with more than that this century. It smacks of the lack of ambition that has held us back since Lyall went.
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swindon hammer
5:30 Thu Jul 28
Re: Realistic Aspirations For Next Season
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Honestly I would be happy with a top ten finish and another decent run in Europe.
We have massively overachieved over the past 2 seasons and it’s probably given a lot of our fan base too much unrealistic expectation going forward.
For the players and small squad we have it was an unbelievable achievement 2 seasons ago to finish above Tottenham & Arsenal and qualify for Europe proper for the first time in decades.
To then beat the likes of Seville & Lyon to reach the semi finals while at the same time still finish in the top 7 of the PL and have a chance of playing in Europe again next season was just as impressive despite running out of steam at the end.
With the likes of Tottenham & Arsenal strengthening and Villa & Newcastle spending money it’s going to be very difficult to stay in that top 6/7.
For any team outside the “Big 6” the first objective is always to have a good start and get to 40 points as quickly as possible and then see how far we can go afterwards.
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southbankbornnbred
5:14 Thu Jul 28
Re: Realistic Aspirations For Next Season
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That's why I think players like Downes are clever signings. Young, hungry and desperate to improve. He might not walk into our strongest starting XI, but equally he hasn't just joined for a payday.
We should perhaps look at some other championship types. When it comes to back-ups, I'm more interested in that sort of player than a risky Vlasic/Arthur.
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Side of Ham
5:12 Thu Jul 28
Re: Realistic Aspirations For Next Season
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goose, I also think we are short if Antonio or Bowen get injured, not many great crossers for the new striker either......
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southbankbornnbred
5:11 Thu Jul 28
Re: Realistic Aspirations For Next Season
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If we are in a position to rest players once in a while, rather than exhaust our best players to the point of almost breaking them, as has happened in the past two seasons (particularly last season), then I see no reason why we can't threaten the top six again.
But we need extra depth for that.
Our best XI will be strong and we'll give anybody a game. But they won't be able to play every game.
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goose
5:09 Thu Jul 28
Re: Realistic Aspirations For Next Season
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I think we are 2 or 3 players away from having a strong squad.
Left back (obviously)
Centre mid (competition for Rice/Soucek)
Attacking creative option
even with all that you are still hoping for someone to implode if you wanna break into that top 6.
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southbankbornnbred
4:58 Thu Jul 28
Re: Realistic Aspirations For Next Season
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I'm with many on here in thinking we still need one or two quality additions to the squad if we're even going to match what we've done in the last two seasons.
Last year was a superb effort, but we got away with having such a small squad and that isn't usually the case for teams fighting on domestic and European fronts.
Aguerd needs to return sharpish - and settle in quickly: big ask.
Scamacca needs to start banging them in regularly, which he's capable of doing. Having a proper striker in the side/squad will make a difference.
Downes needs to step up a level, and I think he is capable of that.
We need more out of Benrahma than he's shown before, and I'm not sure we will get much more.
Vlasic has to show up this season. He has been way below the standard needed to justify that fee.
Left back is still an issue. Cresswell is slowing down and looked like Noble(!) pace-wise at times last season. Got especially caught out by canny European sides who clearly identified his lack of pace as a weak link. Other sides will have taken note.
Definitely need some extra depth in attacking midfield, too.
If we address left-back depth and attacking midfield, I'd say we can threaten top six again and go well in Europe. That's what we should be aiming for.
If we don't, we could be overtaken by the likes of Newcastle and Wolves domestically, so something more like mid-table mediocrity beckons.
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