I'm interested to gauge how we Saints fans are feeling about the coming season under the new owners. This time last season I thought that we might push towards the top ten but the poor last third of the season has dampened those hopes a bit. This season I would like to see us consolidate and not have any extended poor runs of form. So 13th-14th place would be a reasonable target this time.
I've put 13/14th mainly because it's a bit depressing even contemplating another season of being out matched and struggling like we did last season. Still at least 2 signings away from being a better team than last season so I'm not super optimistic. I like the way we're heading though.
As the question asks what would I be happy with, rather than what my expectations are, have gone for 11th-12th. I think we should consider 13th-14th to be about par for us (assuming we bring in a few more). Anything above that I am happy, anything below I think questions should and will be asked about Ralph's position.
The way the question is worded I put avoid relegation, as I’d be fine with that as the minimum. I don’t think anyone really has much idea of how we will do this season as the signings are all pretty much unknowns and unproven and we were so **** for the last few months of last season. Most of the “knowledgable” predictions I’ve seen so far on YouTube etc have us going down but they probably are seeing us signing players they’ve never seen and our form last season and gone for the safe pick. I actually think all three promoted teams will go down and we will finish roughly where we did last year, somewhere like 15-17th, which I think the club would be happy with
At the moment, I think I'd be happy with 13th-14th. But I know we're not done signing players so that may change. As the minimum, I'd accept avoiding relegation but that's not the same as being happy with it.
Bit too early to tell with the transfer window still open. A decent striker is the difference between us being in the relegation fight and pushing for the top half imo. Defence wise I am happy with the signing of Bella-Kotchap but not sure that will be enough to improve our defence in the short term while he settles in, however I feel the club aren’t likely to be doing any more business in that area. I will be happy if we make progress towards the top half being the first full season of a new project, maybe 12th-13th and a decent cup run, just want to see evidence of some kind of progress.
My starting point is always "avoid relegation". If there had been encouraging signs from last season, I might have been tempted to vote higher. At times last season it was some of the best Saints football I had ever seen but for the majority of the time it was relegation standard. Who knows who the real Saints (real with a small r, not Real Saints) are but their default level seems to be relegation standard. Hopefully they will surprise me.
There are 5 games before the transfer window closes, or 15% of the season. I would hope we have a striker in before the first game ideally
Hard to say until the window closes but you'd have to say that we should improve on last season seeing as this will likely be the biggest spending Summer in our history and we've not lost any of our best players.
We still have quite a bit of business to do, so it’s difficult to say. Think it might be a bit of a transitionary season for us with so many new faces and young players. Not expecting too much but as a minimum I’d be okay with survival and not being caught up in the relegation battle. I kinda see this year as building the foundations for us to push on next season into a team that is competing for top half. Think it’ll take more than just this transfer window for that to happen, especially with the changes we are trying to make.
But if you look at last season Everton hugely underachieved in most peoples eyes and Leeds have spent a fortune (all be it losing their two best players). I don’t think it would be much of a shock to most if they both finished above us this year. Brentford as others have alluded to could suffer second season syndrome and losing Eriksen. Palace might be not very good, but outside of those and the three promoted teams I can’t see anyone else we can say with confidence we are better than even with the net spend so far. For me it’s a 7 horse race atm for relegation (subject to change with the rest of the window still to go). You could even make a case that Palace and Everton probably shouldn’t be included in that, Palace especially
Right now I'm hopeful for 10th to 12th. But that hope is based on us making a couple of significant improvements to our side between now and 1 September. If we don't, and instead go in with largely what we've got at the moment, I'd be expecting 15th to 19th.
Interestingly Brighton haven't spent hardly anything, and look likely to lose Cucurella (be it for a large fee, which will give them some wiggle room on spending). I really rate Potter, but they need goals even more than we do.
At the age a lot of us are at we should just be hoping we don’t die or get relegated However, my aim is to party like its 1999 and get into Europe Even if it’s just a short break to Ghent (We have literally had a Eurostar ticket for 3 years now)
