I disagree that we should be aiming for 50 points now and not 40......look at the teams below us who are bigger clubs that cant reach 40 points.....our first target should always be 40 points and anything else is a bonus....
For our first two years, we were pretty much at 40 points with 9/10 games left - both times we blew it by having terrible run-ins. Last year, was an exception as we just weren't picking up points. This is the 3rd time in 4 seasons that we've reached 40 points this early. It's time to kick on and get 50 points. I'm not saying it's a failure if we don't get to 50 points every season, but we should be pretty accepting that, as a club, we seem to be pretty good at getting to 40 points pretty quickly, but then our squad tend to switch off for the last 9/10 games. It's time to kick on and actually get to 50 points. The only way to do that is to aim for 50 points from the off - because, otherwise, when you get to 40 points, everyone lets out a collective sigh of relief and waits for their summer holidays. EDIT: I should also add that, as fans, 40 points is all we care about - that won't ever change. But it's the players that need to want to hit 50. If they relax even slightly, the last 10 games are going to be pretty terrible. You've seen the fine margins that Leicester and Burnley lose by - it only takes a tiny dip in level to be on the wrong side of 1-0 results.
I think BK is saying that we are now an established side in the league and we should be a little more ambitious and looking to aim a little higher than the 40 point mark. Aiming for 50 points is now the natural progression for our club. Edit: Just seen BKs reply.
How big are we....? the aim for all clubs not in the top 6 is to get to 40 points they dont think about getting to 50 until they make safety. clubs would be classed as arrogant if they expect 50+ points before reaching safety first....Everton is a class example of a big club who never expected not to be in the top half by now...Every point we get now is a bonus and testament to monk and his players for reaching 40pts this early especially when you consider the standard of most of our players....
Is that the same 'many' who thought we'd be relegated along with Southampton this season? We have a strong squad worthy of a top 10 finish and a chance of a push at a EL spot.
To break the 50pt barrier would be a great achievement for us, I think bigkidderz is right, we should be looking at 50pts being our points target each season.
I think you're slightly missing my point, Dai. I don't see 40 points as a target. 40 points is an absolute minimum. If we don't achieve 40 points in any given season, we are in with shout of going down and have failed. But it's not a target. It's the very least that we must achieve. So 50 points should be the target every season. It doesn't mean that we think we're a big club, and it certainly doesn't mean we've failed if we end up on 40-45 points, it just means that we're aiming a little higher at the start of the season. Given that we've achieved 47 and 46 points in our first two seasons, I don't think it's beyond the realms of our capability to hit 50 points. In the two seasons that we achieved 47 and 46 points, we ended the season with 8/27 points and 6/30 points. Those are terrible points returns and show that if our players had actually played to their capability during the run-ins, we'd already be a 50-point club, and we'd be going for 50 points for the third time in four seasons. In both of those seasons, our players thought the job was done at 40 points and trundled to their summer holidays. The only way to make our players play hard to the end of the season is to set them a higher target at the start. It's no good getting to 40 points early and believing that the hard work is over. It's nothing to do with how big a club is, it's how good are your players at picking up points. Our players have proved to be pretty good at picking up points in the first 28 games, now it's time to learn how to pick up points in the last 10.
I don't believe the reality is we should be getting 21 points but I love your expectation of our team, I think we will get about 12 points... I am not so keen on my pessimism, but teams like Stoke and Newcastle are capable of producing a win or draw against us.
Who has said we are punching above our weight? Most say we are punching at our weight because unlike most we are a club that pays the Premier League salaries and makes money at the same time. We are not the lowest earners in the league, more people around the world are aware of our club than the likes of Nottingham Forest, Leeds and Sheffield Wednesday. Oh wait, are they the ones saying they are bigger clubs? They can't even pay an electricity bill let alone claim to have a more developed revenue stream outside of TV cash.
