Back OT, my expectation is safety this season albeit I think it will be a ****ing dog fight to the death but I feel a hell of a lot more optimistic about it than I did at the end of Dec. Next season (assuming we stay up), I would hope that we strengthen further in the summer, get rid of the dross and have more of an identity in terms of the behind the scenes side of things, SD, DoF or whatever you wanna call him (or her) as well as some much needed changes in the scouting dept (SD or DoF should take care of that....or at least one worth their salt should). I also hope that some of the targets we identified this month but never got anywhere on are kicked in to touch and we move on (you snooze you lose). If we stay up we need to be aiming for targets higher than Alli, Lingard, Ekitike etc...all of whom may have improved our team/squad as things stand but we're aiming for world ****ing domination here now....we need to set the bar accordingly Realistically speaking though, if we can finish in the top 6 next season that will have been an unbelievable achievement...probably an overachievement to be fair. I'd be happy with somewhere between 6th and 10th but in all honesty i'll just be happy to not be watching my team not try to finish 17th. We don't ask for much really do we ?
If we can stay up I'd say that being in the mix for a Europa spot and at least some decent hope in the cup would be a good season next year. It's a massive step to qualify for CL and one I think we should expect to be ready for. It's a massive achievement if we managed to finish in the top 8 coming from where we are.
Stay up this year and be competitive next year, hopefully sneak a top 10, decent cup run. Basically I want to see progression in all aspects of the club
Even with the new money I think it will take time. IF we do stay up this year then I expect next year will simply be phase 1 of the long term project, including some degree of trial and error in both the transfer market and in tactics/performances. I expect we'll be somewhere around mid-table next season and probably the one after. Hopefully with decent cup runs and not worrying about relegation battles. I think from about year 3 we can genuinely expect to start competing for European places. If it happens before that, then I'll take it as a bonus.
Yeah that's all I want,safe by Christmas and maybe a cup run but more importantly not looking over our shoulder from December like the last 10 ****ing years.
Yes. You start with an uncut loaf. You then cut a slice off said uncut loaf. You then repeat as many times as you wish subject to loaf size. Not rocket science. See above Professor Rocket Scientist. Where you been Fat Boy? You need to lose a bit of that weight. The transfer window is 31 days long and you still miss it. Hope you're keeping well as Well has nowhere to live.
All of these will start with "avoid relegation". That said, in the summer I'd prefer to see 2-3 big upgrades rather than 5-6 little ones. CD, CM and a striker. We will at least be in the mix for the likes of Lingard who improve our team without a big outlay. Big money needs to be saved for players under 25 who can be the core of our team in 2-3 years time when we'll be looking to try and establish ourselves in the top half. I reckon... 16th, 12th, 9th, 7th. I'd be pretty happy with that.
Stay up. Then I think we can quickly go top 10 next season, maybe even top 8 purely because we clearly have the pulling power and finances to add high calibre players. That immediately lifts you. Winning trophies is a bit of a different challenge. Getting into the European money spots is a different challenge. Those things could take anywhere from 5-10 years. The league cup could be in range within 3 years but this season will impact how long things take. We will get there, looking at how serious these guys are. The likes of Arsenal and Spurs will be ****ting it because over the longer term we have potential to seriously impact them. Which is why they fought so hard to keep the Saudis out. They can hide behind human rights all they like, this window has confirmed what the real issue is. We’ve pulled a chair up at the table and we are already eyeing prime cuts of meat
Thought this was a nice time to remind those that posted that the season has gone way above their expectations whatever the outcome now.
