At the beginning of the season, I expected us to finish 6th minimum and actually thought we could get automatic promotion. When Barmby was appointed manager, I immediately reduced my expectations to 12th, as much because I didn't think it fair to expect an untested manager to do as well a proven manager. How have other people changed their expectations over the last couple of weeks?
ive said all along midtable unless we sign a goalscorer and midfield enforcer in january, and i still think that..
Talking of goalscorers, we should definitely try and snatch Kenny Miller from Cardiff, been very impressed by him so far this season and he had a brilliant game last night against Blackburn. He went to them for a reported 900k how I wish we could have got him at such a bargain price.
I think we would have scraped the play-offs with Pearson in charge, Nickys on a learning curve as a manager so this season is going to be a transition one now, mid-table.
Clearly a change of manager particularly when we are doing well is gonna have some sort of effect on results. At this stage the top two looked nailed on for the two automatic spots (West Ham will finish top with the PL quality in their squad), therefore a playoff place looks all that on offer to the rest now IMHO. That said we are well capable of being one of the playoff contenders as are probably half the division as it stands at the moment. Do need to strengthen though in Jan if we are to compete at the top end - a GK (Mannone) and a midfielder (Jacob Butterfield) would be good.
Nobody knows or can tell what will happen. This league is a crazy league as has been said for weeks. Its far tio early to say who will do what at the moment. I will look at the league table on January 3rd 2012 and then see who is where and doing what. Plus what happens in January transfer market will also tell us alot. One thing City fans should take note of is where the Club was this time last season. Knee jerk supporters need to get a grip. Dont let highs get to high and lows to low. end of.
I also thought we would have a good chance of making the play-offs at the start of the season. However, I think it's too early to start making predictions as to where we might finish now as on current form we'll end up between 15th and 18th (four losses in the last five games). NB needs time to bed in and for the players to get used to the (subtle) changes that he is making. It also depends on whether or not we're still in the top ten come January to ensure that Papa Allam gives NB some money to strengthen. If he does and depending on who we bring in, we still have as good a chance as any team in this division to make that top six.
IMHO, its still to early to say who will be the top come may but both saints and hammers are in the driving seat. any 4 teams down to notts forest who are 22nd at the moment can make the play-offs. they are only 9pts off 6th and are 3rd from bottom. thats why the championship is so compelling and top-sy-turvy.
I still think we can go up if we get some luck. The score last night was as good as any other team have managed at Southampton and add to that we played part of the game with ten men. With all the teams so close the deciding factor on who gets promoted will come down to confidence and apart from the last two results there has been a lot of promising signs since Barmby took over. If we get over the teething problems now we could end up with a strong finish to the season. The only other question will be how much Mr Allam puts into the January transfer budget. He's said it will depend whether we are still competing for the play-offs so hopefully we can stay in touch so Nick gets the backing.
All I would say is that there are an awful lot of games left before the season ends and I would expect to see some very different looking tables come Feb and April time. I would like to think we can get some consistency back and hopefully be challenging for a play off position - Saints & Hammers have a great start and may continue their run - personally I think Saints will start to fade late into Jan. My heart says Hull for the play offs, my head says be good if we could finish top 10 and get ready for 2012/2013 push. If NP was still in charge I'd be saying good play off position with a potential to sneak runners up to West Ham. Anyway hope i'm being under amitious and we'll be there or there abouts with a 3 good additions in January. UTT. Should be a good one on Saturday - Pearson will get some stick but he's the guy who got us a good base to start from this season so good luck (but not too much) to him and his bank balance.
Under NP I felt we could push on for the play offs. We may not have been playing the most exciting football but we were solid and difficult to beat and looking like genuine play off contenders. Obviously with NP going this has disrupted things a bit, I wouldn't expect NB to get us into the play offs and this season could well end up in us been midtable and steadying things after NP's dpearture. That's not to say that I wouldn't like us to finish in the top 6, this league is pretty even so the play off places are up for grabs (West Ham and Southampton to take top 2 spots).
It's annoying because our players are as good as anyone in this league bar West Ham. We just got shat on by Pearson at the worst time possible when we were going so well. I don't know what to expect now, it's the same players so I'd still hope we could make the playoffs. If the likes of Leeds, Boro, Cardiff, Blackpool, etc. can make the top 6 why not us?
I think we should target a goalkeeper (Mannone) a midfielder (Butterfield) and a striker (Sharp) with that, we will definitley be challenging for a top 6 spot with eyes for top 5
I thought you said saints were a bunch of talentless ****ers punching above their weight. Did I miss something?
Just a few weeks ago most people were saying they were happy with the team, but look at the results of the last 6 or 7 matches, it doesnt look as though we should be happy with the present team. We need an old hand in there as captain and leader when things get tough, I think we need to buy one.
i dont want to be ungracious or anything after the saints nice comments about us, but i dont think theyl be top 2 from what i saw last night, i think theres better in the division, unfortunately one of those is this saturday
I think they're a very good side but I can't see them lasting at the very top. I have no doubt they'll finish in the top 6 but I sort of think thaat when things get tough with injuries etc. West Ham will start to pull away because they have such depth and experience. Unfortunately I can also see Leicester climbing up there too :/
