Nobody aims for consolidation. We'll try and win every game and go for promotion. However, what a lot of us think is that we won't regard midtable and above as a disaster. Long term success should be our aim, not a flash in the pan.
why delay success for a year? there is no logical reason for it. all you lot saying "oh its too early, lets consolidate for a year" are forgetting that we only have 3 years left of the 5 year plan. so not going for promotion this year would only leave 2 years. cutting it a bit fine. cortese is a serious man, if he says he wants us back in the premier league then that is what he will strive to achieve, sooner rather than later. it makes no logical or financial sense to be languishing in the championship any longer than we have to. you think cortese was happy that it took us 2 years to get out of league one? nah. i fully expect some big signings this summer. and seeing what norwich have done with far less resources than us will give cortese incentive to spend if he didnt have before. it is fully achievable to get successive promotions, all we need to do is a bit of squad tweaking and we're there.
I would absolutely amazed if we got promotion this season. This league is getting stronger by the day with McClaren going to Forest, West Ham SOMEHOW signing Kevin Nolan (I'll never understand that one) and teams like Birmingham already having strong squads, we'll have to do hugely well to compete up the top.
This coming season the pressure's off. Very few really expect us to get promotion and there's a few clubs ahead of us in the betting. So we can start building on what's already a good team, making some unhurried additions in key areas and not being ripped off because we're desperate to buy. At the same time I'm a great beliver in maintaining momentum. Winning matches feels great and Norwich are a good example of a club which carried through momentum from one season to the next. So we need to be competitive and keep that winning mentality. Hence I think we do need to add to the squad but not urgently. I think close season boredom, with a bit of panic thrown in is to blame for some of the comments on here.
McLaren's record with club management isn't bad. The England job is impossible.
I'd challenge that. He spent roughly £100 million at Boro and achieved the square root of nothing, apart from the flukiest run to a final of a competition since Portsmouth in the FA cup. Every season at some point Boro fans wanted him gone. At Twente he did OK, but the side was built by the previous manager, and by all accounts was running itself, (and Dutch football at the moment is a bit of a joke). And at Wolfsburg he took a title winning side into a relegation battle. Imo that isn't a great record.