Well now everyone - exactly half way through our first season. 15/16 games without Ross Stewart a dozen without any recognised No. 9 of any description. So here we stand in 12th place with an alright total of 31 points. So is it unrealistic of me to welcome Ross back and an expectation of another 31 points in the second half of the season. And is a first season of these expectations what we would have taken last July? Or have expectations changed/grown ?
Honestly anything that doesn’t include us in conversations in March / April about who might get relegated would be delightful.
Having our last 5 or 6 games 'on the beach' so to speak would be brilliant. Home and away with the inflatables, atmospheres would be brilliant and sold out etc. It would be superb
Newly promoted side, a lot of the players having never played at this level, 3 points off the play offs, room for improvement of course but I’m happy with how it’s gone so far
Young team, very little previous championship experience. Results have varied wildly but when we look good we look a match for anyone in the division. I expected mid table and that's what we'll get. 45-50 points will see teams safe most seasons, so that's the next milestone to hit. We are just six points away from our total last time we were in this league....
If we don’t win the World Cup tomorrow I’ll be pissed off Oh! Seriously I’d be more than happy with consolidation
Our players match up better than the vast majority than the others in this league. This league is much worse than I thought it would be. We have young players who are technically top 6 in this league IMO. I think we have went below the bar with Mowbray and points returned match this. We will end up mid table but I have to be honest, there is an opportunity to attack the top 6. I haven't seen us outclassed in many halfs this year. Burnley, Swansea are stands outs. Other than that no. Depends on the ambitions I guess.
It's been a while since we've had a boring end to the season where we've had nothing to play for, I wouldn't say no to one this season
Next month is massive for us! The squad on the 1st of Feb could be very different to what it is now We have some very very good players that could easily fit into sides in the league above. Will be interesting to see what we start ‘the second half’ of the season with
Define “very different”? Do you honestly see 5 new incomings and a large number out? I don’t. I think we’ll sign a striker (hope) at least one!! But I don’t see wholesale changes at all. I think we’ll sign players who are right fir the model. And if a £15m offer comes in fir Stewart, I expect him to be sold.honestly think he’s worth more by todays market (think he’s one of the best in his position in this league) but I expect the club will invest that money correctly as they did in the summer
Like Maja and Bent etc we will go backwards as a club if we sell Stewart and who will replace him ? Mitrovic yes but will that happen ? to be honest i hate Jan transfer windows.
Stating the obvious but we need to be patient. This time next year this team will be a year older with 40 more games of championship football under their belts. I don’t like to see us throw away points. But I don’t think promotion was quite achievable. So I will settle for these players learning lessonsZ The fact we are even talking about whether we should have been pushing for top 6 just shows what a tremendous job Speakman and Harvey have done
My expectations were always 12-16th. A nice, comfortable and boring season. Win one, lose one, draw a couple. For me, the essential thing for so many reasons was that we stayed up. It feels as though that's not going to be an issue, but I don't see us troubling the play offs. I'm happy for this squad of players to grow together and get us to a place where we can compete in the PL when the time comes. I'm done with seeing us scratch around for 9 wins a season and 4th bottom
If we’re in 12th come end of season I’d be delighted. We have a novice squad bar 2 seasoned pros & 3 players who have been at this level but with mixed results. our top striker only just back. This shows through in the inconsistency of performances, but we can play some brilliant footie- only one goal from a set piece tells you that. Our back line is very strong with lots of options. but I’d still bring in Porteus if we can, esp in case of injuries to Batth/Ballard. Let Wright go. We have to sign another physical striker & 2 midfielders to compete & push on. The current players are going to be fatigued v soon (you can see it already with Clarke) and we need to be able to switch things around more. Ba, Matete, Michut too diminutive /inexperienced & samey for me. Obviously depends if we keep Ross & Pritchard in place. But: Wright for Porteus Matete out on loan - replace Dajaku out on loan - replace Simms returnto sender & replace - if possible , I’m not convinced by his work rate This will allow us to consolidate and maybe even push top6. Stay as we are and I fear we will slide down the table.
I'm more than happy atm with where we find ourselves. Imo as a club we are not ready to challenge, could take a couple of years. I'm 60 years old and probably seen more years out of the top flight than in it. 23/24 . Going along OK tho.
