Realistic Expectations

[kipeye]

Got to be honest, I think I'll struggle to enjoy a bumpy ride that finishes with us in 16th. That's what McLeish managed, and worse than Lambert. Twice.

Exactly.  We've got the best squad, and best manager we've had in a long, long time. The whole club seems united behind a common plan as well.  I just can't see us not finishing in the top 10.  Sheffield United, Brighton, Norwich, Southampton and Newcastle are all going to struggle, then you've got teams like Burnley, Bournemouth and Palace who aren't any great shakes.

Agree mostly, but half of the team are as yet untried and the rest have only a little experience of the Preeemiership. However, I think Heaton will prove the smartest acquisition as we have struggled with this position in our most recent premier years. This, the quality of the heart of the side and the way they have recruited tactically and selectively, gives me lots of good vibes. More full on than semi

[Mister E]

The thing for me is that the Brightons, Watfords and Bournemouths of the Premier League are now battle-hardened: they have good experience of dealing with relegation threats and recovering from thumpings.  Additionally, almost all the sides have substantially improved their squad over this transfer period, with the possible exception of the Jawdies, Burnley, Palace and Sourhampton.
It's a tough league, and we're relying on relatively inexpensive unknowns to do the business.
The first 4-6 games are critical, to get a confidence-boosting start.

[KRS]

If we hadn’t have had the transfer window we just had then I think you’d have cause for concern, but the way it has panned out with the spending, players we have signed and players we kept, it puts us in good stead and competitive in this league. I think we’ll be as good as, if not better than, the likes of Brighton, Watford and Bournemouth. I’m sure there will be games when it doesn’t click, and we will lose our fair share of games, but we’ll win enough to be comfortably mid table and not worried about relegation...if we are, then something will have gone badly wrong.

[paul_e]

The Brightons, Watfords and Bournemouths all came up with inexperienced squads and stayed in the league to get that experience, so they're actually an example that experience isn't as important as people make it out to be. As we've seen for the last 3 years when some people were saying we needed people who know the championship experience is only valuable if it comes with experience of playing the way the manager wants and that experience doesn't have to be tied to game time in a specific league.

Yes there may be an adjustment as we get used to how quick the game is or how teams close you down but even then there isn't 1 specific style that all premier league teams adopt, good scouting, an ability to create training schedules based on that scouting and players who have the physical capacity and technical ability to adapt to that training is better than just signing players because they've spent a lot of time in the league. Good players with experience playing how you want and experience in the league is the holy trinity (and is why Man Utd have just spent £80m on McGuire) but, using the same example, they come at a premium that was never going to be possible. Any 'experience' we signed was going to come from players like Charlie Austin that we mostly agreed would have been a shit signing or getting a bit lucky with someone like Heaton who was a great signing but was a bit of a unique proposition.

[KRS]

Completely agree. It comes down to the ability and quality of the players at the end of the day...they’re playing football and we will soon find out if they are good enough or not, and Premier League experience is largely irrelevant. Any lack of experience can also be easily be countered by good management, coaches, training and tactics as we go into each game which is the challenge for Dean and the staff, and implementing that effectively with the players.

[hilts_coolerking]

I think experience is a valuable thing to have.  I disagree that it's largely irrelevant.  I disagree that the only experienced players we could have got were old shit ones.  But we've gone the other way and we'll soon see what comes of it.

[Sexual Ealing]

Got to be honest, I think I'll struggle to enjoy a bumpy ride that finishes with us in 16th. That's what McLeish managed, and worse than Lambert. Twice.

Exactly.  We've got the best squad, and best manager we've had in a long, long time. The whole club seems united behind a common plan as well.  I just can't see us not finishing in the top 10.  Sheffield United, Brighton, Norwich, Southampton and Newcastle are all going to struggle, then you've got teams like Burnley, Bournemouth and Palace who aren't any great shakes.

Indeed. I'm sure that most premier league coaching teams are more rigorous than my own casual prejudice (apart from Newcastle now that the blight-ridden maris piper is there) but I remember, after we beat West Ham 3-0 on the opening day, that Newcastle away would be a doddle as they'd just been promoted. We lost 6-1 (or was in nil?) I think/hope that there might be a bit of of that early on this season.

[Brazilian Villain]

Very positive article on us and our season ahead.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-7257379/Aston-Villa-spent-whopping-130m-theyre-no-Fulham.html

No doubt Blose fans are already calling it The Daily Vile.

[Lastfootstamper]

Over the past four seasons, the sides finishing 15th and 16th have won between 9 and 11 games. I think we'll piss that.

[paul_e]

Got to be honest, I think I'll struggle to enjoy a bumpy ride that finishes with us in 16th. That's what McLeish managed, and worse than Lambert. Twice.

Exactly.  We've got the best squad, and best manager we've had in a long, long time. The whole club seems united behind a common plan as well.  I just can't see us not finishing in the top 10.  Sheffield United, Brighton, Norwich, Southampton and Newcastle are all going to struggle, then you've got teams like Burnley, Bournemouth and Palace who aren't any great shakes.

Indeed. I'm sure that most premier league coaching teams are more rigorous than my own casual prejudice (apart from Newcastle now that the blight-ridden maris piper is there) but I remember, after we beat West Ham 3-0 on the opening day, that Newcastle away would be a doddle as they'd just been promoted. We lost 6-1 (or was in nil?) I think/hope that there might be a bit of of that early on this season.

Carroll bullied the shit out of us that day and we did nothing to change how we were playing to take him out of the game. It was the clearest evidence you'd ever need to show that, whatever he was good at, McDonald was totally out of his depth managing a premier league team.

[Risso]

Carroll bullied the shit out of us that day and we did nothing to change how we were playing to take him out of the game. It was the clearest evidence you'd ever need to show that, whatever he was good at, McDonald was totally out of his depth managing a premier league team.

I think he was in pole position for the full time job until that game happened.

[paul_e]

I think experience is a valuable thing to have.  I disagree that it's largely irrelevant.  I disagree that the only experienced players we could have got were old shit ones.  But we've gone the other way and we'll soon see what comes of it.

I don't think it's irrelevant, I just think signing, for example, one of the Huddersfield players with 60-70 appearances in the premier league to their name, would probably have been a poor decision. I'm intrigued as to who you think we could have got who was the right age, quality and price, with premier league experience, that we missed out on. I can think of a few players that some wanted who are towards the end of their careers and there's a few questionable free transfers around but I honestly can't think of anyone I'd have really wanted that went elsewhere and would've been a realistic option.

[murgsy]

I'd say 12th. I think the fact that we will be a fairly unknown quantity will work in our favor. The defence should be quite solid. We will depend on luck as well:
How the injuries will or won't affect us
How well Wesley does - although I think our midfielders will score loads.

[mr underhill]

The DT have us down at finishing 13th - I'd take that right now.

[sirlordbaltimore]

If we finish 10th i'll be delighted.

If we just stay up i'll probably take that also come May, but no way do i want us going into the season with that as our aim and it wont be.

Aim high and see how we do

We can't turn this decade of shit around overnight clearly.