Where will we finish? 2025/26

Can't remember what I posted...

 

I’ve not changed mine but I decided to wait until we’d had around 10/15 games, and having seen what miracles Sergj has provided with an injury ravaged squad I’m quite confident that he’ll get us to at least the play offs. I just hope we can hang onto him. I know Acun jumped in and extended Rosie’s contract at the wrong time (as it turned out) but I’d be more than happy with him extending Jak’s, as this has a totally different feel to it.

 

I was really skeptical after about 6 or 7 games but we’ve been storming ever since. If we keep our form up we’ll have more points at Christmas than we did under Rosie. In fact, any other time we’ll have been that high at Christmas we’ve gone up. I’m not going to get carried away because there’s a lot of season left, but Jakirović has been an astute piece of recruitment so far.

 

I don’t think the contract extension would have been a problem had we not signed a bunch of players and disrupted the chemistry we had the time. If we’d made one or two astute signings we would have been really happy with that season. Instead, we moved the goalposts and expected too much too quickly.

 

^Timestamped to our bit.

 

Goodness me. I think we have a really exciting and capable side, but I don’t see us finishing in the top six. There are much stronger squads looming in the rear view mirror, and we’ve yet to have a genuine bad spell. I reckon 12-14th is about right, which is probably going to be 6 or 8 points short of the top six because it’s such a tight division this season.

 

Played far too much in our own third for my liking but each to their own.

 

I think this next run of 6 games will tell us a lot about our prospects this season. We've been a touch fortunate we haven't really played too many teams in the top half so far - but we play a chunk of them in the coming weeks.

 

I think there's an interesting conversation to be had about how strong our squad is. I feel as though it's one of the strongest squads we've had at this level, but I am prone to overrating our squad and only realising it in hindsight.

 

In fact looking at our fixtures we're even arguably fortunate over the next 9 games we have both our fixtures against Boro. Probably the best time to catch them while they're in flux. You could look at it as they'll get a new manager bounce but could also see it as a great time to get them while they're still figuring out what they're doing.

 

It's a really interesting one, and comes back to the debates some of us had last season when the squad was severely underperforming under Walter. Some claimed it was a **** squad and wouldn't improve much even with a new manager while others thought a lot of the players were underperforming. Of that squad last season under Walter, Millar and Belloumi obviously got injured, Jones and McLoughlin departed, but Pandur, Giles, Coyle, Drameh, Hughes, Slater, Palmer were all reasonably regular players last season and have been again this season. That's not an insignificant chunk of the side. And I'd say all if not most of those players have been significantly better this season.

I think what I'd conclude is that Jakirovic is arguably a more important element/factor than the personnel. That the players can look like worldbeaters or relegation battlers depending on the coach and the mentality of the group. While I think it would be over the top to think we'll have a battle holding on to Jakirovic in the short term, I do hope the club is recognising his value to the club and futureproofing the club - whether that's tying him to a deal with a big buy out, but also lining up potential replacements that can continue the style of play/philosophy he's got the club buying into.

 

It’s a decent squad but not that strong I don’t think, not relative to the rest of the division.

Of our entire squad I think the only players every team in the division would really want to have are Giles, Joseph and McBurnie.

A good team but I do feel we are currently punching above our weight in terms of strength on paper.

 

Yes we get it, you're having a lot of fun with the Joseph discussion. Does it need to be incorporated into every one of your posts? Sometimes less is more in the world of comedy.

 

In terms of permanent players we have that every other team would be keen to get I think Hughes, Giles, Belloumi, Millar, McBurnie would all be of interest, and then I think Crooks, Ajayi (if kept fit), Pandur, Slater, Joseph and Drameh would interest a lot of clubs but perhaps not all. Of loanees obviously Gelhardt the stand out.

I'm not sure any of the other squad regulars - Amir, Lundstram, Egan, Ndala, Akintola, Destan, or Gyabi would have a huge pool of admirers at this stage.

Of players we have out on loan I think Burstow would be gaining a fair few admirers with what he's achieving with Bolton.