Just been reading in the Daily Mail a preview of all the championship clubs and where they are likely to finish at the end of the season. According to Shaun Derry he predicts that we will finish 3rd! Of course I would bite his arm off to finish 3rd but I can't see it myself. We are still short on quality and although PJ has done some excellent business in pre season I think as fans we must be realistic on our chances. Where do you see us finishing? We are 20-1 to get promoted with most of the bookies so maybe Mr Derry knows something we dont!
http://www.fanhouse.co.uk/2011/08/04/championship-previews-brighton-leeds-southampton-reading-po/ These ****s have got us down as finishing 18th
I think it'll be a slow start , then about novemberish we'll get are act together then start pushing up the table getting in the playoff positions by march then finally finishing 6TH
Think he's wide off the mark going for us to be 3rd, but I think our best chance is to sneak a play-off spot, which would obviously be a great season for us. That said, our transfers in are looking better than most teams (Leicester and West Ham notwithstanding).
As others are mentioning, it could take time to gel and therefore maybe a slower start, but you never know. Also keep in mind that come January we will have funds available to further strengthen the team.
So are the views stated realistic or optimistic? As much as I'd want us to get into the play-offs are we running before we can walk. I think some of us may have forgotten how appauling we were at points last season. However, we started really well and were 2nd in October. Saying that, we did have a good run second half of the season until the budgie demolition job. I'm not sure if we should be content with a top 10 finish or are the play-offs the realistic aim? Hurry up Saturday for ****'s sake
I would for 3/4 the season we were getting points that a playoff side would be getting, It was that terrible run when Keane lost the plot did our season. confidence was shot, moral was down. I would say playoffs is a realistic aim.
I think next season one thing which is key is patience. Yes we can all be optimistic about next season. I think Jewell has done suprebly well in the transfer market but as said early, think how bad we were last season to add to that we've lost key players such as McAuley, Norris and Bullard. So if we hadn't of recruited heavily this summer I believe we would have been relegation material this season. But Jewell has bought very well, we desperately need to improve the centre of defence and still arguably nearly every other position needs strengthening. I'm not being pesismistic but I think in the general scheme of things the position we finish in the league this year for me as long as we are in the top half is not overly important. Its about building the club up again and getting back to playing the great entertaining football, so we can hope to challenge in the coming seasons. We may surprise some people and be up there most of the season but with this many changes over the summer, I think patience is the key. I am very optimistic for the future of the club, especially under Paul Jewell's guidence and would go as far to say he could potentially do better with us than he did at Wigan, I just think this season is perhaps to early in the rebuilding process and i may infact be better for us not to go up this year and get a settled competitive side to challenge in the coming years.
