Realistic Expectations

[Behind Bluenose Lines]

17th and the FA Cup will do me: hope springs eternal!

In the real world between 12th-17th...

[Smirker]

Remember Leicester winning the league in their second season back in the PL? We'll do it in our first. No problem.

[Villafirst]

The defence is critical to our chances. Overall the current team is weaker than last seasons play-off final team. Sort the defence and I think we'll finish around mid table. If not, a relegation scrap looms.

[Hinckley Dave]

I think finishing around mid table would be a good result. I do worry that we're not going to be winning as many games as we have been recently and some fans might not have the patience or the realism. There were after all a few mutterings about Smith after that poor run in the new year. I just hope that even if we are lingering in the bottom half we keep a good atmosphere at Villa Park and stay behind the team and manager, sorry, head coach.

[paul_e]

I think finishing around mid table would be a good result. I do worry that we're not going to be winning as many games as we have been recently and some fans might not have the patience or the realism. There were after all a few mutterings about Smith after that poor run in the new year. I just hope that even if we are lingering in the bottom half we keep a good atmosphere at Villa Park and stay behind the team and manager, sorry, head coach.

I didn't agree with it but I could sort of understand some of the criticism of Smith before, we had a good spell and then everything fell apart for a couple of months, in that situation it's a judgement call whether you think the manager is worth backing or not, when it happened with Bruce I didn't think he was worth it but I'd seen enough of a Smith team to think he'd come good and give him until the next Christmas and see where we were. Then he exceeded every expectation and got us promoted. That should be enough to see him get this season as a minimum and I hope the fans remember that if we have a tough spell.

[Villafirst]

I think it's obvious with that dodgy spell for a couple of months: no Jack or Tuanzebe and Chester playing with a bad knee injury. Jack coming back plus Mings and Tuanzebe getting fit made all the difference.

[Damo70]

Without looking up our results I seem to recall we made a reasonable start to the season the last time we were promoted. We drew our first home game 2-2 against Millwall, won 3-2 at Highbury in our first away game and went two goals up at West Ham and ended up drawing 2-2. I think we also drew 2-2 at Charlton early on in the season and beat Everton at Villa Park 2-0 with a good goal from Tony Daley. If I remember right we were doing okay until the start of the new year and then struggled and stayed up by the skin of our teeth.

[Sexual Ealing]

I think finishing around mid table would be a good result. I do worry that we're not going to be winning as many games as we have been recently and some fans might not have the patience or the realism. There were after all a few mutterings about Smith after that poor run in the new year. I just hope that even if we are lingering in the bottom half we keep a good atmosphere at Villa Park and stay behind the team and manager, sorry, head coach.

There weren't that many gripes with Smith in the bad run. I know because I was part of the vigilante squad that was ready to batter anyone into incapacity who didn't adhere to the H&V consensus. Stuart445 RIP.

[paul_e]

I think finishing around mid table would be a good result. I do worry that we're not going to be winning as many games as we have been recently and some fans might not have the patience or the realism. There were after all a few mutterings about Smith after that poor run in the new year. I just hope that even if we are lingering in the bottom half we keep a good atmosphere at Villa Park and stay behind the team and manager, sorry, head coach.

There weren't that many gripes with Smith in the bad run. I know because I was part of the vigilante squad that was ready to batter anyone into incapacity who didn't adhere to the H&V consensus. Stuart445 RIP.

I think there were more on twitter and facebook, I saw quite a few posts towards the end of January saying we should've kept Bruce and Smith wasn't able to handle the dressing room and the players didn't like him. I remember finding it bizarre that so many people couldn't see that the mess of a defence and Grealish being out had left is with no confidence at all.

[Sexual Ealing]

I think finishing around mid table would be a good result. I do worry that we're not going to be winning as many games as we have been recently and some fans might not have the patience or the realism. There were after all a few mutterings about Smith after that poor run in the new year. I just hope that even if we are lingering in the bottom half we keep a good atmosphere at Villa Park and stay behind the team and manager, sorry, head coach.

There weren't that many gripes with Smith in the bad run. I know because I was part of the vigilante squad that was ready to batter anyone into incapacity who didn't adhere to the H&V consensus. Stuart445 RIP.

I think there were more on twitter and facebook, I saw quite a few posts towards the end of January saying we should've kept Bruce and Smith wasn't able to handle the dressing room and the players didn't like him. I remember finding it bizarre that so many people couldn't see that the mess of a defence and Grealish being out had left is with no confidence at all.

Fair enough, though Twitter is a sewer.

[paul_e]

I think finishing around mid table would be a good result. I do worry that we're not going to be winning as many games as we have been recently and some fans might not have the patience or the realism. There were after all a few mutterings about Smith after that poor run in the new year. I just hope that even if we are lingering in the bottom half we keep a good atmosphere at Villa Park and stay behind the team and manager, sorry, head coach.

There weren't that many gripes with Smith in the bad run. I know because I was part of the vigilante squad that was ready to batter anyone into incapacity who didn't adhere to the H&V consensus. Stuart445 RIP.

I think there were more on twitter and facebook, I saw quite a few posts towards the end of January saying we should've kept Bruce and Smith wasn't able to handle the dressing room and the players didn't like him. I remember finding it bizarre that so many people couldn't see that the mess of a defence and Grealish being out had left is with no confidence at all.

Fair enough, though Twitter is a sewer.

I generally ignore twitter other than during transfer windows because it's a platform that seems to be designed to eliminate nuance and promote the most extreme response possible to generate followers. Facebook I use more but that's mostly to share stuff with family and observe the misery of most of the people I went to school with. I'm not sure what it is about east Birmingham that makes everyone post nonsense about fake friends and snakes all the time but given how bitchy most of them were at school it feels like karma.

[ozzjim]

17th. Look at our squad a month from kick off, we are miles off at the moment. If we finish 17th we have done bloody well this season. Then we need to kick on.

[Matt Collins]

We just need to stay up this year. Any more is a bonus

In the cold light of day, 5 of 6 play off winners have gone fmatraight back down. And our current squad is quite a bit worse than the one which got promoted. I can't think of many examples of teams coming up and having to do the degree of surgery we're doing. Maybe Watford?

I'll feel better once we've got two centre backs, a keeper and efensice midfielder in and start really drilling them in training

[Abbeyfealeavfc]

It's not that long, since we were in the premier league but I remember it as being a fairly sh-t league with anyone of 14 teams (there was the sky 6 and then there were the also-rans) capable of relegation. The refs were crap and blatantly biaised towards the 6 media darlings. I haven't watched it since our relegation, but I can't imagine it has improved all that much and see the only real benefit of it as the money it leaks, but this is usually swallowed up by ridiculous transfer fees and contracts for generally average players.
We were a relegation waiting to happen after MoN threw his dummy out of the pram and walked out on us. We are returning with stability from the very top right the way through the football club and with a head coach in Smith that I trust. With a few extra playing additions I think we'll be fine and will consolidate in our first season back. Thereafter my expectations are to make inroads into the top 6 and to become a challenger rather than an also-ran in order to make it worthwhile being back in the orem league. UTV!

[Matt Collins]

We're so far off the top 6

My worry is that too many of our fans expect us to be there withing two years