Maybe I'm being a bit over enthusiastic but I think with a few quality signings, not selling any key players and keep injuries to a minimum. I think we could qualify for the champions league next season?
Assuming Arsenal win today, we'd have needed another 25 points over the season to finish fourth, which considering we have 55 currently is an absolutely huge step up. We'd need to add significantly the depth and quality of the squad, and I think realistically, that will take three or four years, and that's if we can keep all our best players.
If we win today, we would have needed another 22 points to finish above Arsenal. As I said above, don't use our current points total as a baseline, use what we could have been on with a stronger squad, where injuries to key players weren't so crippling. We had a great start to the season and could have maintained that form for longer with more cover, and maybe a bit of luck in some games, like Cardiff at home, or even Man Utd and Man City away. Those games when we should have won but drew, or should have drew but lost. Add another 15 points to our current total and then tell me the gap is unbridgeable.
Minimum target: always be in top ten for next 5 years. Realistic target: get into Europa Cup next year with investment in a larger, quality squad. Unrealistic target: CL within 3 years. I think it would be wonderful to see a team succeed with decent investment (as opposed to stupid money) and nurturing of young talent.
Well done Chilco. I agree with your ideas here 100%. Lots of people here are mistaking what they think will happen in 5 years for a 5 year plan. The difference between your post and many others is that you have set out a target to aim for. Not some meandering wandering within the Premier League. Another thing. Nobody questions how Everton are supposed to achieve their top 4,5,6 positions every season end, do they. Yet they are supposed to exist on whisper thin amounts of money. And still they manage to be up there. Why not us..? I would like people to start asking the questions of why not, rather than giving their opinions on why we can't. Thanks for being different, Chilco.
Lets have a 5 week plan first. Get Poch to sign a new deal. Get 3 player's he wants and prove to the squad we are going forward. Include big bonuses for getting into Europa/CL for all players. Record a new answering machine message and set out of office to Sept 1st for all outgoing transfers.
I think your spot on - Everton were competing for it and they are not £100m better. 3 or 4 more signings and we are knocking on the door
But I think that's the point - we need a new 5 year plan in order to make the 5 week plan happen. Set the end goal and work backwards.
how are the kids doing now? I know everyone is waxing lyrical about sims, and someone called callum, but is the production line still in full swing? I know results are not the be all, but they have been average this season. Chelsea are boasting that they have the youngest team in each age group and are the top of the U21s, while Fulham with Jennings and Elias on staff dominated last season.
The results really are not that important. Hesketh, Rowe, Targett, Sims all seem to be considered good prospects, plus I like Seager too.
hesketh looks like a bit of a talent yes there's one. targett is the same group as shaw though so it doesn't seem indicative of the conveyor belt continuing. rowe seems to have been about for ever.
For me, the biggest thing is that we cannot build the team as if consolidation is the aim, and certainly not as if it were a given. Lose a significant player and we cannot simply replace them and declare job done, or we're likely to find ourselves 12th or 14th, at which point any talk of plans and ambitions exit stage left alongside our key contributors. We don't need to spend a fortune, but players brought in have to be ones we can envision starting in European competition.
we've not got the luxury of easing our players into the team over several years of lower league football now either. prowse has been disappointing and gallagher doesn't look ready. not sure how the academy model will work in the premier league unless we keep producing luke shaws.
Not so much on this particular thread, but I've heard and read a lot over the past weeks and months (both from Saints fans and non-Saints fans) about us now hitting a ceiling etc. Whilst I agree that top four is still far away, I certainly do not believe that we are currently limited to 8th. To put that into perspective, we lead Spurs 1-0 at home this season and 2-0 away. We did of course go on and lose both, however had we hung on for victories in both then we would have gone into today's game knowing that three points would have secured us 6th place. We may have finished 13 points behind 6th, but in reality the difference was a whole lot finer than that. And that's before I mention all the points we dropped against Villa, Cardiff, Sunderland, West Ham and Norwich, all of whom finished in the bottom eight.
Of course. But if we can be that close to 6th, when actually finishing 8th, then there clearly is scope to continue pushing on higher up the league without needing to spend silly money just yet.
