I would like to distinguish between expectation and ambition. our ambition mid term should be, over a realistic time period to be competing for promotion to the championship. we are a long way from that so avoiding the drop and improving season by season should be our expectation. People sight Orient as an example, but for every current orient there are also current bristol rovers, northamptons etc struggling and another 30 or so teams of similar size middling along. and in that group each team will have there moment in the sun ( and shadow) over the next 20 years or so. For teams like us to reach the championship it will take a perfect storm of many factors and a bit of luck. last time we did it we had massive momentum and positive dyanamic from bouncing back from nearly going under combined with a decentish investment from scally and the current premiership manager of the season to put the foundations in place. so as bristol says staying up and proving the bookies will be a success, if combined with improvement in performance. But equally as BSG says- without ambition what's the point. so the aim should be to ultimately to compete for promotion, even if not this season or next, but bear in mind there are another 30 or clubs with similar resources and ambition who have equal chance over the next few years - and no matter how well each is run they all cant all make the play offs.
Aha if you want this club to consolidate in leagues one and two for the rest of its existence then fair enough, me on the other hand, whilst not launching any promotion bid for 2/3 years, believe we should try and push on! There are clubs in the championship that used to be of a similar size to us, they got off their backside and showed positivity, I want and believe we should try and do the same! Not yet though of course, I'm not stupid, the squad last season was nowhere near good enough to be anywhere near the top 6 but slowly build, lay the foundations with a good youth structure ( which I believe we already have) and eventually go up in a sustainable and positive fashion!
Just about every poster on here has put valid points for us (hopefully) staying in this division and maybe moving up or (dare we say it) even flirt with the play-offs. Long-term sustainable improvement seems to be the go. But come the first game in August there will be a chorus of derision if we lose
Liam, League One is even stronger next season not weaker, I expect the likes of Sheffield United, Preston North End, Peterborough United, Leyton Orient, Walsall, MK Dons, Swindon Town, Coventry City, Bristol City and the three relegated clubs of Barnsley, Yeovil and Doncaster Rovers to have ambitions of automatic promotion or the playoffs next season - Fleetwood Town, Scunthorpe United, Rochdale and Chesterfield came up from League Two and rarely do clubs who come up get relegated in there first season (we were the exception to the rule in 2010). I don't expect Gillingham to challenge for promotion or the playoffs next season but that does not mean next season is a failure of doom and gloom, if we can make some smart acquisitions in the transfer market and start 2014 / 2015 better then last season then a 12th place finish is defiantly achievable next season, where we defiantly need to improve is our performances in the cup competitions because we really can do with a cup run or two.
I'm not convinced all of those teams you've listed will be up there, nonetheless an improvement on 17th as I've said before is a realistic target! I agree about the cups though, for the life of me I cannot see why we don't show the JPT much attention, a day out at Wembley is a day out at Wembley, regardless of the quality of competition! Similarly the league cup can see us draw a decent championship side home or away in the first round if we're lucky. As for the FA Cup, we have to of course beat two teams before we have a chance of drawing one of the top sides, hopefully we take them all seriously!
Don't think at this point in the year you can truly say if the league will be weaker or stronger but I do feel it will be more competitive. The teams that have come up (apart from fleetwood) all have relatively fresh memories of this league and won't be keen to return to league 2 so quickly and those that have come down will be able to mount a realistic promotion campaign again (maybe barring Yeovil) let's see who we sign before we start trying to guess how we will do as I imagine the starting eleven come august will be impossible to guess right now and hence impossible to guess where we will finish
