If Jay and Charlie can remain injury free and hit their top form, then there is potentially 30 plus league goals between them, not to mention Shane, Dusan and Nathan. The most important signing this Summer is a top quality RB as that position badly let us down last season. A goalscoring creative midfielder would be great too, but apart from that I think it is still a decent squad. A lot depends on how quickly Puel's methods and coaching affects the players, but I see no reason why we can't finish top half and have a shout in the cups.
Current squad? Bottom half. Presumably we aren't going into next season with the current squad, however.
20th with lowest ever points total playing a team of u15s for the season as we would have sold all our elder players off for milk and nappies for our u2 development team.
The same answer as I give every year. And who fans of all clubs should give. I'll let you know what I think on 1 September.
Getting wins over and finishing above CHAVS, Manchester United and CHAVS 2 (West Ham) will make me happy.
My worry is that we cannot resist a mountain of cash. OK Mane was angling to go but if we sell Pelle then the lions share of goals from last season has gone. Whilst a reported £13m can be argued as good business the continuity of the team is more important and is probably worth at least that money and more.The only way i countenance the departure of Pelle is to go out and get a proven replacement - why are we not in for Benteke for instance? .....and i know Austin is probably better but do we think is knee will hold out over the whole season? sadly i'm not sure Jay will get back to his past form. Anyway prediction is 12 = same as i thought last year
We won't pay players the sort of money they will be looking for if they are proven PL quality, especially if they are coming from teams like Liverpool where they pay big wages. Whether or not this comes back to bite us, it is obviously too soon to say, but it is the main reason we lose players in my view, and the main reason we have to "gamble" more with signings who haven't played at levels as high as the PL.
I think a few teams who underperformed last season may step up next season, so it will be hard for us to improve or even maintain 6th. Not doom mongering, but the league will be tight and the odd slip up can make all the difference and we may drop a place or two...especially with the extra European matches. On the other hand, a good European run may provide the oomph in the league. I keep hearing people talking about how the EC will cost us, but I don't see the logic of not wanting to be in Europe because the extra games may cost us a place in Europe based on league position. Makes no logical sense. We may not qualify next season....this is our big chance. I would hope for a good run in the Europa and the other cups and a top 10 finish (hopefully 6-8th).
Good run in the Europa and a high league finish. Not fussed about the other Cups as Saints never do well in any case.
It's an utter disgrace that you don't think we'll win the JPT with the under 21's. Give me that positivity baton back!
Yeah. This thread is about 5-6 weeks too early for me too. In fact, probably be best if we bump it around next May.
