Season expectations 2017-18

[paul_e]

The old chestnut I won't bet against my team suddenly comes out when an opinion is questioned with pound signs.

If anyone genuinely thinks Brucey will fail then It's the easiest £50 you will ever make?

because people don't want to, it's that simple.  For me it's not about betting for or against my team it's that I don't bet with random people on the internet who are giving it the "you haven't even got the balls to bet on it" bullshit to try to win an argument.  It's a grown-up equivalent of my dad is bigger than yours.

[PeterWithesShin]

Yeah I can't wait for us to be shit and and quite possibly fuck up the future of the club for McGrath knows how many years just so as I can say "I told you so" to a few dozen people on the internet.

[Chinchilla Bathhouse]

Ciggies has been more than generous with you there, Snobs. I think you'd be wise to take his advice.

[AV5nobs]

Neither have I, hence why I'm willing to lose big on betting for them.

And yes I've put money where my mouth is....but I'm trying to illustrate that whilst I'm fundamentally against betting against our club, I genuinely don't believe the level of sceptics amongst this site, it's more to be right (which is 90% of football fans saying they won't hit their remit) than actually having a touch of optimism.

It's a cruel short life, why be so negative other than to be smug at being "right".

[AV5nobs]

Terrified is having a life threatening illness or not laying a mortgage payment, just remember whilst we love our football club dearly, they don't give a shit about us.

We will long outlive players and owners, but the moment we settle for second best and admit defeat we are no better than them.

[PeterWithesShin]

So you're against doing what you are complaining about other people not doing? One day you'll just accept people have a different opinion to yours. I haven't told you that you're wrong for betting 50p or 50K on us being top 2, or that you are wrong for thinking we will. Just that I don't see anything that makes me believe we will be. I'm not sure why the same basic courtesy is beyond you.

[cheltenhamlion]

Ok I'm taking £50 bets on us going up top 2, any takers? I'm very easy to find.

I can find you very easily and will take a fifty on a top  2 bet.

[paul_e]

Neither have I, hence why I'm willing to lose big on betting for them.

And yes I've put money where my mouth is....but I'm trying to illustrate that whilst I'm fundamentally against betting against our club, I genuinely don't believe the level of sceptics amongst this site, it's more to be right (which is 90% of football fans saying they won't hit their remit) than actually having a touch of optimism.

It's a cruel short life, why be so negative other than to be smug at being "right".

I think Bruce was and is a negative (some will say pragmatic) choice as manager and is inherently short-term as a choice, he's creating a team that will largely need to be replaced if we are promoted, playing a style that will need to be changed if we're promoted and keen to sell most of the players with the technique to do anything else to fund that.  I have consistently said that I think this approach to trying to get promoted is wrong and is based on this out dated idea that the championship is full of cloggers and you need to scrap in the mud for every point.

I believe teams who have been relegated and stayed down for a while or turned into yo-yo clubs are the ones who have filled their squad with championship experience and employed coaches and managers who know the league.  Teams that have rebuilt and come back stronger with a new identity (such as Southampton) are the ones who have taken a longer term view and have both restructured the club but have also concentrated on building a style which they can add to on promotion.  Even the Baggies have done that, even i the 'style' is to be the most tedious club in the premier league.

If you think that's being negative, pessimistic or smug then so be it but the truth is that I want us to be a club that wins stuff and I don't think brain melting backs-to-the-wall football is a required step to that goal, other people do, which is their prerogative but I'm fed up of people suggesting that thinking the Bruce is the wrong manager for us means I'm less of a fan or don't know anything about the game.

[Ads]

Yeah pre season didn't make any difference to Huddersfield last season

Or Reading.

[Ads]

We're not a team full of cloggers.

I find it difficult to reconcile what you say about Championship football when the past two seasons the automatically promoted teams play rigid, game management based football designed to eliminate errors, nick goals and grind their way to victory.

[PeterWithesShin]

Huddersfield did massively benefit as they were working to a strict strategy that the manager had started as soon as he joined part of the way through the season. Everything from the second he joined was done with his idea in mind. From double training, changing training times depending on KO times for the next game, building team spirit, bringing in players to do specific jobs etc. It was pretty hit and miss after he first joined but he stuck to it, and mainly hit last season.

[SoccerHQ]

I still find it difficult to believe there's going to be eight or nine teams who'll outperform us.

I look at the state Hull (selling their best players) and Sunderland (just being Sunderland) have come down in and like us 12 months ago I'd be surprised if even are in promotion contention.

Boro will be up there, Derby and Sheff Weds are always thereabouts given the money they spend, Norwich underachieved last season but have gone down the fashionable route by employing a German manager who no one has heard of and Cardiff with Warncock will be up there I'm sure.

We really should be in that pack. When you think about it our home form was pretty good last season, we regularly keep clean sheets and we have a 20 goal striker so surely the important ingredients are there to get at least play offs?

It all falls down by the complete lack of bottle and fight we show whenever we go a a goal down away from home. 3 away wins at this level was a scandal aswell as many of our performances. Just not good enough and what worries me is we finished at Blackburn away in exactly the same manner as in SB's early away games at Leeds and Norwich.

If we can't crack the away form no chance of promotion.

[ciggiesnbeer]

I still find it difficult to believe there's going to be eight or nine teams who'll outperform us.

Me too. When you look at the squads and the money spent its difficult to see how we can be anything less than top 6. We should be top 1 and winning the league is my expectation.

But I also said that last season.

I am still astonished, embarrassed and angry that we were unable to compete with teams like Huddersfield across the full season. No disrespect to them, but the gulf in resources should have made that very unlikely.

[PeterWithesShin]

Sadly, over the last 6 or 7 years Villa have managed to do numerous things i've found hard to believe. Law of averages says that has to change soon!

[Ads]

We have up 5 points to Huddersfield. It's a head scratcher.