With the team we're arranging, 5th and no trophies would be pretty poor. Hopefully, as avb showed last year, we'll meld the team slowly to not chuck too many in at once. With lots of new players in, I feel a slow start is more than likely. But, the CB sorted? 4th is good, but maybe we can do a little better... I'd love another big push for the EL, actually playing lloris and the best side for that particular match (whatever that might be)
5th and no trophies would be an utter failure for me with the money we've spent. Either champions league or cup glory is a must this year. Preferably both.
Totally agree - it would mean we are just standing still - and would have done nothing to a) attract the best players or b) prevent our best from leaving
A trophy is a success; 4th place is a success in league terms but no trophy and no 4th = no success I'm expecting no success!
Fair comments RCL. 5th and no trophies wouldn't surprise me at all with our current team. It still doesn't have the look of a top 4 team to me. If I was to predict now, I would say 6th, but wouldn't like to call the 'cups' at all, ATM. Dawson is a worry for me, so even with JV returning for, say Swansea, our defence will look more like a mid-table team in all likelihood, UNLESS we buy and buy soon. Currently the defence looks like that of a relegation struggling team, and is way off top 4. We'll know more after Espanyol, and so much more after Palace, of course. Why we've let ourselves get into such a defensive mess should astound me, but it realy doesn't. It just makes me angry, but I know that makes no difference to the powers that be. We'll sell out our home Lge games, make a stack of money from TV, etc, even if we 'only' finish 6th and potless.
6th? on what basis? The defensive issues are temporary. we've signed 3 quality players so far and you think we'll do worse than last season?!
5th at worst i would predict now. I just don't see which club has done enough to breach the gap to us and the top 4. Liverpool? Nope. Everton? Gone backwards. Swansea have had one of the best preseasons but in terms of league they have a LOT of ground to make up
But that's the crux isn't it. How long will this be temporary? Our season starts the following weekend, and at the moment, our defensive positions look precarious!
yeah, I agree. but enough to make such an impact that we'll finish 6th?! There's talk Vertonghen will be back for palace. Capoue is reported to be signing today, and also talk that the Chiriches deal isn't dead either. spot on Spurm. You can even add arsenal to that too. As it stands, they've not bought anyone to significantly strengthen them, where as we have. I'm sure things will change as there's a long way to go in the window, but that applies to us too.
I suppose that is the way Spurs have played in recent history, attempt to score more goals than concede! Should make life more exciting!
AVB's Porto weren't great at defending. They were pretty good at attacking though, which is kinda backwards to us last season. Hopefully we can balance the 2.
Hi Roo, on the basis that our defence is a mess. You say the issue is temporary that may be the case, but until we resolve it, I look at our team and think we're worse than we were at the end of last season. Signing 3 players when none of them are the CB/LB we need, hasn't solved the defensive crisis. Now, it MAY be that Capoue signs today, if so I'll upgrade my prediction to 5th, as I believe he can fill in at CB. It MAY be that JV is fit for Palace and we beat them, if so I may upgrade my prediction again. I don't make my final prediction till after the first post-window Prem game, but ATM I look at the squad and think 6th. TBH I looked at the Monaco game and thought 16th, but I know that was the nadir of our pre-season and we will improve on that without a doubt.
you can't draw much from Monaco. We won't play many games with Fryers and Livermore at centre back and even if we do they won't be up against the best centre forward in the world.
I agree, that's why I'm not predicting 16th, which would be charitable given our abysmal display. It's looking more and more like Capoue will sign, and I will be upgrading my prediction to 5th. I think he will be a fantastic signing, and all power to the Club IF we get him. We will still lack a quality CB and LB IMO, but at least we'll be a bit more solid, hopefully. The other main issue is Bale. Will he play like he did last season? We still don't know the score on him. The Palace and Swansea games will tell us so much about where we're heading, then the window closing, then finally seeing what our post-window team looks like and how many points we have on the board after that first post-window game. We effectively blew the CL in our first 3 games last season, giving Arsenal what turned out to be a 7 point advantage on those 3 games. We need to do better this time, or the same heartbreak this time round could easily occur come May. One of our chief problems will probably be psychological, in that many of our players have seen us crumble twice in these CL sagas. At least the new players shouldn't have those issues to deal with.
