Or - you expect the new man to take you higher in the future - but accept that success may not come in an instant. I am sure Levy and the Board would not have got rid unless they had aspirations for higher than 4th in time - not a long time but not necessarily this season. If you believed that to achieve more success you may have to take one step backwards might you not consider it?
That is all very well, but Levy got rid of a team that was already delivering him top 4 football. You'd only get rid of that if you want to get top 3 or 2. Top 4, therefore, ought to be a minimum. Unless there was more to Redknapp's rapid departure than we have all be told. But, until and unless we are told, I expect Levy/AVB to deliver, at the very least, what we had before. I do not think I am being unreasonable.
Gotta laugh a bit at everyone demanding top 4 - who are we going to displace? Chelsea? They're ridiculously strong Man City? Occasionally produce some weird results but their squad is ridiculously good Man Utd? Nope Well there's your top 3. 4th will be Arsenal I think - Cazorla alone has strengthened their MF and Podolski is good enough to score the goals for them. The other contenders will be us and Newcastle I think - I'll go for us finishing 5th and having a good cup run/good time in EL. That'd be enough for us - AVB needs a decent season and then I think we'll start to see an end product.
I agree completely. Success for me means significantly better than we could have realistically expected if Harry had stayed. Champions League qualification for next season (3rd place in the league, minimum. We saw where aiming for 4th got us last time!). Win FA cup. Win Europa League. I actually think the squad is of suitable depth and ability, plus I'm sure there will be additions / changes come January.
Realistically though we were outspent by the 3 teams above us in the summer whilst Chelsea spent way more than us too. We're intending to bring improvements through AVB's tactical understanding which will take time to tweak and ultimately perfect. I think we should expect to be a similar position in the table this season but I think the significant improvement would be very difficult to get in terms of results this season. I do however expect us to be showing it on the pitch by the end of the campaign.
We need not worry who we will displace. We just need to be better at winning our matches. Man City didn't ask for permission to be champions. We shouldn't be asking permission to beat teams either. According to your logic we'll never challenge.
Okay, let's look at it another way. We punched above our weight with Redknapp. Perhaps Levy wanted to bring in a better manager who wasn't going to have us punching above our weight, but would deliver us top 4 footy off our own merits. Either way, I cannot see why on earth any sensible chairman would get rid of a man who have delivered us two top 4 finishes and a top 5 finish in his three full seasons, and bring in someone who was going to deliver us less. If you believe otherwise, then you are nothing more than an apologist for bad football management and administration.
It's not about 'asking permission' - it's about looking at who we're better than. In my opinion, we're not better than Chelsea, City or United. We're about level with Arsenal but they've still got a better mentality than us in terms of getting over the finish line. Next season will feature me demanding top stuff from AVB, after he's had a full season with us plus a few transfer windows to mould the squad to his liking.
I hear you. I'm not demanding top four. I'm simply stating that I define success as an improvement on last season. If we finish 5th I won't be calling it a successful season, and I'd be insulted if AVB does. Mentality is surely something that should change with the manager's work with the squad. It's his job to improve the mentality of the team so that we learn to dislike and reject losing in the same way that champions do. If we manage to resist losing to the likes of Man United, City and Chelsea (As Stoke and QPR did over the weekend) and we manage to win when it counts, we can achieve. We are capable. We can do better than last season. I hope that AVB and the team have less patience than you do.
Put it another way. If some of you are prepared to give AVB time to get us to where we were last season, why the hell did Levy sack Redknapp in the first place, when we were already there?
It's already been said that Redknapp had us punching above our weight. Levy sees AVB as the man to take us to the next level - and this season is a 1 step back so that next season is 2 steps forward.
whilst I agree with this HIAG, it's not that simple. The theory is correct, but these are human beings we're talking about. top players have left and a new fresh set have come in. We've definitely got some top quality, just like SOS has been bangin on about in his domestic with Spurf () but it might not happen this season. - Especially when you consider how strong we all know city, chelsea and united are clearly going to be. Arsenal are the only ones (IMO) that are slightly weaker and we might beat to that final CL spot. Therefore, I would be happy with 5th for AVB's first season. anything lower would be a real shame. we've been better than the likes of Everton and Newcastle over a 38 game season for the last few years now, so 5th is where we should at least be finishing, IMO. As for the cups. - I don't think we can deal with 4 competitions, unless it's literally the kids playing in the COC and FA cup. I'm of the opinion that we should be putting the kids out in both of those competitions. 4 comps is way too many for the senior players to deal with, and it'll help bring the youngsters through and give them some experience. For the COC, I'd like our most experienced player to be someone like Tom Carroll, and for the FA cup, someone like Livermore. I also believe it's the EL that we should be taking seriously. we've gotta play on thursdays and travel half way across europe for the foreseeable future, so we might as well make the most of it and try to win the thing. We're capable of doing so. I think this approach lets the club see what potential there is in the young academy by throwing them in at the deep end, as well as having a set of senior players rotating between 2 competitions on Thursdays and Sundays to keep them fresh. hopefully this'll allow us to compete each week for a top 4 finish, give us a chance of winning a european trophy, as well as getting to see what's to come from out youth/reserves in the future.
No, they are cyborgs from the 24th Century, sent here to seal our doom. And they absolutely will not stop - EVER - until we are all dead!
HIAG is spot on with this, we have sacked our most successful manager since the premier league started, the only manager to get us champions league football....for what? a year of transition and a top 8 finish...i don't think so! ...if avb is as good as some you of you believe, then this season we will finish in the top five (min) and next season we will finish in the top four at least. Redknapp set the standard, so the only reason for hiring a new manager is to match or improve, not go backwards as I know some think we may have to go backwards to jump forward, yet thats a highly dangerous plan, as what if we don't go forward? thats a wasted year or two.
Top 4 and a trophy - fantastic season Top 4 is a success. Any trophy is a success. being in serious contention for the top 4 come the last game of the season would be very good. Top 6 acceptable (with no trophy) Outside top 6 and no trophy would be a poor season.
This is a time of transition for us, both in terms of key players, and managerially. I accept that a hopefully success ful transition will take a little time. For me, we have the squad to finish top 6, even allowing for this transition. Outside of that, I would consider that the potential of the playing squad has not been properly utilised.
I think this thread says a lot about the mentality of us fans. The question was 'What would you consider as a successful season?' NOT 'Where do you expect us to finish this season?' This one step backward, two forward talk is fine, but it has nothing to do with how I define success. My expectations may change, I may lower them, but my definition of success shouldn't be lowered, it should be raised. I hope that Levy brought AVB in because he defines success at a higher level than Harry did. I NEVER want to hear AVB say that we are punching above our weight. We need to think and act like heavyweights, because this is what we are aiming to become. It's the only way to get there. Transition time is fine, a few games, but not a whole season please!!! If we only earned two points from our last eight games when AVB came in, I'd accept 8th or 5th as success for a 'transition' season.
Maintaining a top 4 ( which I know is very, very hard but that is the standard that has been set) , or a cup would be a success. Anything else logically is a step backwards. We cannot afford to take two steps back to go forward in the future as we have limited resources to compete and would be further behind as each year comes on. Levy is either a genius or is suffering from small man syndrome.
I think we are close to a consensus. Top 6 is acceptable, lower is underachievement, but 4 or 5 is where this squad should finish. So whereas 5 would have been a step back with Harry, 5 with AVB will be ok provided we see the signs through the season that we are improving, then next season we expect more than we could have expected with Harry. Plus a cup win would be considered an acceptable if not even welcome improvement. Can we all more or less agree with that?
