No tongue in cheek here mate, sell your best for a pittance, bring in a few frees (admittedly they are an improvement, hence 5 points....) If we'll sell Mig for 9, we sure as **** won't spend 12-15 on the likes of Bony. Eternal mediocrity.
How can anyone have expectations with a huge transformation of the squad and players coming in most of us have never heard of, let alone seen ? As usual - more in hope than expectation I'd be happy with mid table and no relegation battle; though I suspect and dread it's going to be another struggle ! 48 years of mainly suffering as a SAFC supporter suggests to me we'll be bottom half again..................
I'm going for 8th - 9th position. The Sky money is massive this year. I think Ellis will spend a lot more than people think. I'm more excited about the coming season than I have been in years. New Dof and chief scout on board so must be an excellent plan otherwise why leave Inter Milan and a well paid agents job? I really believe that Ellis has the best interests of the club at heart.
I expect to see some much more consistent performances. Not losing to teams that we should expect to easily beat, especially in the cup games. Winning games by more than 1 goal. I expect/hope this will bring us a good cup run to maybe a semi at least and a mid table finish where we will be mathematically safe with a handful of games to go. And to beat the mags home and away of course.
What I would like to see is something totally different but the OP question was realistic expectations, so, here goes - Realistically I expect a bit of a shaky start, (the fixtures would suggest this anyway but I feel a new, fitter team will deal with this better than the last one). November - December plenty of time to settle and we should be seeing which of the new players are gelling and living up to the hype and those who are not. From the above, PDC to adjust as necessary, more astute use of the January window. Relegation fears gone by about mid March. A comfortable mid table table finish with sure signs of improvement in the players and system. Obviously everything is guesswork as we know buggerall about the new input but I don`t think Short would have brought in this new regime without a great deal of thought. He must be confident of their abilities. Well that`s what I think anyway.
If the club came out & said sess is not for sale we are not desperate to sell him for 8million we don't need the money that much I would be a lot more optimistic. We have an opportunity to build on what we have now & a better infrastructure in transfer ins, but good old safc are starting from scratch again.
Agree the first part. Would certainly have sent out a better message. Don`t agree the last bit. Managers have consistently changed parts in the past and, under at least the last 2 managers, if anything, made matters worse. Absolute necessity for a complete overhaul imo.
Think anything 15th or above can be viewed as progress. I expect a season of inconsistency but without worrying. For the last god knows how many seasons we have had seriously consistent spells. Only problem is we were consistently losing.
As this will be a transitional season I'll settle for survival before a few games to go, then kick on and hope to improve the season after! As long as the players have a better mentality, play a bit more entertaining football, and Di Canio doesn't EXPLODE, I'll be happy! If despite of this we still get relegated, so be it! It was worth a try!
**** knows. Exciting, worrying and all the usual SAFC pre-season stuff....but we could just surprise everyone and do well. i hope so, and I'd rather have a go at that than suffer mediocrity.
