Season 2015/16 - What lies ahead for claret & blue.

[Clampy]

The question of whether selling Given for Bunn is good cost cutting depends on how expandable you see Given to be.  If he would play Given in all the Cup games at least then to me that would make keeping him worth while, if not then maybe not.  Of course he might do that with Bunn but unlike Given he is unproven.  I can see why Sherwood made that call, but I don't know if I would have. 

As for this season? I expect us to struggle again, but if we can hold onto some of our better players, and the squad gels more and one or two new players make an impact then fingers crossed we will look more secure than for most of last season.  Once again the standard of the league is looking pretty poor which should help us.  My main question mark is over the manager, he was a big gamble anyway, but as a short term manager to give the players a lift he made sense, but I'm not convinced that he has what it takes to move us forward in the long term.  How he keeps his head when the going gets tough and his flexibility when it comes to tactics could define our season I think.  Right now I think we will finish maybe one or two players higher than we did last season, and then of course it would be a bonus to have another decent run in the cup.  I don't expect much of an improvement in other words. 

shouldn't you at least wait until early August to see who we've signed / sold before trying to wind people up?

Not trying to wind anyone up just giving my opinion as it stands now which I made clear in the post.  To me the issue is Sherwood, the manager is the most important part of a football club being successful and we're going to find out over the next season if he is more than just a bubbley young manager.

The issue is Sherwood? What issue are you talking about?

[Tom_Mc9?]

I've had a long time to think about this and I think we're going to be fucking brilliant.

[Des Little]

I've had a long time to think about this and I think we're going to be fucking brilliant.

You'll do for me young Thomas.  That's the spirit

[Hookeysmith]

Talking to someone earlier and as we have kept Delph and added The Hat man to the replace 3 game wonder Cleverley. I think if we do not let anymore go or sign anymore the mere fact we have had a full pre season and with TS motivational skills I really think we will be well clear of the dog fight at the bottom.

Although could easily have lost both opening games 

[Ryu]

I'm cautiously optimistic. I think in all honesty with the squad we had last season Lambert underachieved and we should have been looking at mid table.  So if we add some quality like we're seemingly looking to we could have a much better season than the last few. Obviously benteke leaving is a wild card which could go either way with the money it would bring in against losing such a good player.

[Chico Hamilton III]

Well, on current form, we've lost the last 3, conceded 11 and scored 2.

I'm still not convinced about Sherwood at all but I'd take him over the last waste of space we had. That's about as positive as I can force myself to be at the moment.

[Clampy]

I think it's only fair to judge him after his first full season.

[peter w]

Bottom 18

[passitsideways]

I'm feeling comfortable with the idea of a 9th-13th place finish if Benteke sticks around. A little more leery but still fairly confident if he goes but we manage to replace him with two or three genuinely quality players.

We went 7/1/8 under Sherwood. Take away the cup games, and that's 5/1/7 - not great, but that translates to, what, just under 48 points over a full season? Yes, we had the entire max-effort thing and a Benteke hot streak which may have overinflated our performances. But on the other hand, we threw away points against Newcastle, Stoke, QPR and arguably Burnley (where nobody gave a toss), while winning deservedly against Everton, West Ham, Sunderland and Spurs (Baggies victory was a bit fortunate thanks to Foster's brain explosion); Gueye and Richards are already in and you'd expect a couple more to turn up regardless of whether Benteke stays or goes; and I'd hope that Sherwood expanding his selection options will do us good in different areas.

I think Sherwood's apparent all-or-nothing approach will do us good as well. I could see something like a 14-4-21 sort of season for us, where we're constantly turning 1 point into either 0 or 3 rather than just settling.

[ozzjim]

I think we will stay up if the window shut after Amavi signed, and fairly comfortably. We almost have 2 players for each position that you would say are better than bottom 3 material now.

Guzan is a solid mid table keeper. Bunn is 10 years younger and from what I saw at Nowich no worse than the 39 year old Given and only costs a quarter of it.

Right back still looks iffy but Hutton and Bacuna can cover there for another 12 months realistically. Left back

Centre half we look ok bodies wise, but Clark, Baker, Senderos, Okore and Richards have missed huge chunks of the last 3 seasons with injury etc, so I would like another, also allowing Richards to get back to being a right back by October when it dawns on Sherwood he can't play centre half. I also expect Senderos to leave at some point.

Centre mid I think we are ok to go on now, another attacking midfielder would be nice but unless Benteke goes the budget would be a luxury.

Wide/ behind the forward we have Gil, Grealish, Sinclair, NZogbia, Gabby? One of Chery or Townsend would be useful, but we don't need both really.... Joe Cole is almost a player coach/ mentor role anyway and doesn't really count. Selling NZogbia and getting Chery looks smart business there.

Up top Benteke is obviously the man. Kozak is a decent reserve to him. Robinson adds youthful hope. Gabby... yeah.

A striker would be nice, but if Benteke stays then not really needed. In fact if Amavi does sign you could make an argument that a first choice right back and centre half are more important than any of the attacking players because Gil and Sinclair were pretty decent additions in January.


I also agree with the post above. I think somewhere between 46 and 52 points next season will be got, which will be solid mid table fair, and allow next summer, with the TV money and probable sales, to rebuild much of the "squad" players into first team.

[Gregorys Boy]

The question of whether selling Given for Bunn is good cost cutting depends on how expandable you see Given to be.  If he would play Given in all the Cup games at least then to me that would make keeping him worth while, if not then maybe not.  Of course he might do that with Bunn but unlike Given he is unproven.  I can see why Sherwood made that call, but I don't know if I would have. 

As for this season? I expect us to struggle again, but if we can hold onto some of our better players, and the squad gels more and one or two new players make an impact then fingers crossed we will look more secure than for most of last season.  Once again the standard of the league is looking pretty poor which should help us.  My main question mark is over the manager, he was a big gamble anyway, but as a short term manager to give the players a lift he made sense, but I'm not convinced that he has what it takes to move us forward in the long term.  How he keeps his head when the going gets tough and his flexibility when it comes to tactics could define our season I think.  Right now I think we will finish maybe one or two players higher than we did last season, and then of course it would be a bonus to have another decent run in the cup.  I don't expect much of an improvement in other words. 

shouldn't you at least wait until early August to see who we've signed / sold before trying to wind people up?

Not trying to wind anyone up just giving my opinion as it stands now which I made clear in the post.  To me the issue is Sherwood, the manager is the most important part of a football club being successful and we're going to find out over the next season if he is more than just a bubbley young manager.

The issue is Sherwood? What issue are you talking about?

I don't understand your question? We all knew that appointing such an in-experience manager was going to be a gamble, and just because he kept us up that gamble doesn't go away.  It is much easlier to have the required impact in the short term than over the long term.  If we end up clinging on for our lives again at the end of next season then that might suggest that Sherwood isn't all he's cracked up to be.  I'm willing to give him a chance, but to pretend that he doesn't have a few things to prove is just naive.

[john e]

I'm really optimistic about the coming season, but then I felt the same way about the start to  Lamberts second season

My big worry is the start, we need to start well and that's where I have doubts
the worst time to play Bournmouth is the first match away when they are full of confidence and the crowd are up for it
Next come Man Utd we all know what happens here

So we could very easily be playing our third match stuck on the bottom of the league with zero points which would put the team and Sherwood under early pressure, and we arnt good at handling that

[Gregorys Boy]

I'm really optimistic about the coming season, but then I felt the same way about the start to  Lamberts second season

My big worry is the start, we need to start well and that's where I have doubts
the worst time to play Bournmouth is the first match away when they are full of confidence and the crowd are up for it
Next come Man Utd we all know what happens here

So we could very easily be playing our third match stuck on the bottom of the league with zero points which would put the team and Sherwood under early pressure, and we arnt good at handling that

Yeah its important to get at least a point at Bournmouth to give us something to build on straight away considering our second match.  I do like having Man Utd as our first home fixture as there will be a big crowd and it should get the players up for it.  The Palace game might be tough depending on what they do in their opening matches.  Four points from those first three would do me. 

[Holte L2]

There's 114 points to play for. I don't see any reason why we can't win it.  I also think we'll do the treble this year.

Do you want to bet against us?

[castlefields_villan]

"so - it's all to play for?"