We've made progress, and look a really comfortable top half side. 2010/11 we were promoted from League One, 2011/12 from the Champ, last season we came 14th and stayed up, and this we are comfortably 8th. How it can be classed as a failure is beyond me. Sure, we should have won a few more games, but that shows we have room for improvement, and hopefully next season, under Mauricio, we can keep progressing and break into the top 7.
All about where you've come from United have gone from 1st to 7th Tottenham from serious champions league contenders to limping into the Europa league. We will hopefully go from 14th to 8th
Don't count on that man. We're a long way behind the top 7, so the board would have to share Cortese's ambition to make "up" even a remote possibility for next season.
A polarised division maybe, with a Top 7 set in stone, and the rest!! Let us hope we have not reached the ceiling, Dan but I get your point!!!
No guarantees that Man U will be any better next season either, especially if we don't sell them any of our players. And what happens to Arsenal if Arsene Wenger decides to go in the next couple of years?
I'd imagine united will strengthen significantly, and arsenal will still be able to function without wenger
A success. We have definitely caught the attention of the wider footballing audience for our style of play, home grown players and international call ups, but I do agree that if you look a little closer we haven't had it all plain sailing, our inability to hold leads and the disappointment of going out of the FA cup when it looked all so promising have certainly put a downer on it for me. Our squad certainly looks a lot of stronger this summer than it did last, with and without the signings. Hopefully keep hold of who we need and a good pre-season will do good for the likes of Wanyama, Ramirez, Gallagher etc.
Spurs could drop out, yeah, but I'm talking more about that next kind of level of teams rather than actual league positions. Having to sneak it kind of betrays the idea of being competitive with the next lot after the title challengers (Everton, Arsenal, Utd etc)
How would the team do against these guys..? ------------------Niemi------------------- Dodd----Lundekvam----Svensson----Bridge -----------Delap--------Marsden---------- ----Fernandes---------------Svensson---- --------------------Ormerod-------------- -------------Beattie----------------------
How anyone could even consider calling this season a failure is beyond me. We're as high as we were ever possibly going to finish in our second season in the Premier League, had no worries about relegation through the entire season and got some fun results at Anfield etc. 8th is massive for us and although we've certainly had some disappointing results recently, it doesn't take away from the fact that we are watching some amazing football, and we're probably going to finish up 'the best of the rest' in the PL. I would have snapped your hand off for 8th at the start of the season. Very pleased.
A curates egg for me, it was supposed to be the Season of Consolidation in the original master plan, and without the off-field distractions, poor Officialdom and injuries it could have been so much more. I predicted that we would be 13th and anything better would be a bonus, well we have exceeded that by a long way, so hardly a failure!
Okay we're having this discussion... This season has been nothing but a success. We've played some great football, had some big results, impressed lots of people with how we go about things. I don't think we could expect to break the Top 7 anytime soon, so we just need to keep building and make sure that, should someone above do a Liverpool and fall out of the European places, we are there to pick up the pieces. I think that's all we can hope for right now.
Can we have a poll please? Id say success. Were consolidating this season, have generally been v good. Palace have fought for their lives and pulled off an amazing feat.
I think this sums up fans these days, people expect instant success and expect improvement season on season. We have to realise that there are a lot of teams investing a lot of money and to be competing with some of them is a great credit. I think only Liverpool and Everton fans are happy: Arsenal complain about their manager not winning trophies, Chelsea and Man City complain about their manager not winning the Premier League, Tottenham fans complain about Sherwood being clueless, Newcastle want Pardew sacked for declining since January, West Ham and Villa don't like their managers for their style of football and Man U fans want Moyes out and none of these teams are in danger of relegation. Obviously this is a hyperbole/generalisation but is any manager safe and are fans expectations excessive?
