Realistic Expectations

[alanclare]

I didn’t become a football supporter to have realistic expectations about my team.

That’s exactly the advice I gave to my grandson.

[Mister E]

No, I wasn't happy with Steve Bruce for the most part, regardless of the number of times you say it. I did want people off his back however, rather than just moaning.
As for aspirations, I've seen us win the League and European Cup. I'd like us to do it again. I've never seen us win the FA Cup, so that's something I've been desperate for.
I want us to win everything, but I also understand that patience is needed. You can't run until you can walk, the one exception to what I propose is probably Leicester, who did it quite quickly. Other than that, success is usually gradual and in my opinion, that's the way I'd like us to do it. Similar to Man City, growing in the community, developing the area they are in.
Sustainable success.

Leicester did it but have since had to run themselves efficiently with patience and good husbandry to get to where they are now.

Absolutely, they have had their owners for 10 years and have developed along the way. They are a great example of what can be achieved with the right set up.

Isn't the big difference between us and Leicester, though, the fact that we've spent quite big whereas they won the title with players bought from the lower reaches or relatively inexpensively from Europe?

[Clampy]

Correct me if I'm wrong but on the day we got relegated, wasn't that the weekend Leicester won the league? We do have a lot of catching up to do.

[Drummond]

No, I wasn't happy with Steve Bruce for the most part, regardless of the number of times you say it. I did want people off his back however, rather than just moaning.

As for aspirations, I've seen us win the League and European Cup. I'd like us to do it again. I've never seen us win the FA Cup, so that's something I've been desperate for.

I want us to win everything, but I also understand that patience is needed. You can't run until you can walk, the one exception to what I propose is probably Leicester, who did it quite quickly. Other than that, success is usually gradual and in my opinion, that's the way I'd like us to do it. Similar to Man City, growing in the community, developing the area they are in.

Sustainable success.

I must have been arguing with a ghost on here then for The two years Bruce was with us
i’ve always enjoyed debating with you but I’m not gonna bother if you’re not going to be honest and deny the stuff you’ve been posting on here
I’ve got plenty wrong in the past but at least I admit it

I’m sure you’ll have plenty more to say but I’ll leave it there for now
I can’t be doing with it if you just going to make stuff up as you go along
I’m a bit disappointed to be honest, as I fucking hate hypocrisy

John, I wasn't happy with him, I think he took more stick than he deserved, and I'm someone that generally sticks up for folk if I feel they're being treated unfairly. Same can be said about a number of our managers and players over the years.

I'm happy with Dean Smith. In him I feel we have a manager who actually has an idea about what Aston Villa is and should be. Over the past 10 years you'd be hard pressed to find another.

I was as pissed off as anyone the other night, basic errors all over the place and I think we've seen that happen more and more of late, not just with the Villa but other sides too. I don't think that's Smith's fault, I don't think it stops us continuing to progress either. Which we have.

I've got some things wrong of course I have, and time will tell with Smith. However, when we change manager, as we inevitably will one day, I think the foundations that we now have across the board will mean we will be able to start attracting more established names. Most wouldn't have touched us with a bargepole for a long time.

In my view, when you look at what Purslow said previously, getting promoted happened a season ahead of schedule. That's down to Smith, because Bruce couldn't do it. Last season we managed to stay up. This season we've pushed on and shown what we can do. The next thing to do is push on again.

Whilst I'd like to get into Europe, and we were all dreaming of it, I'm not sure we'd cope well yet, not without a further influx of better quality players.

[Clampy]

Yep, I think europe may be a season too early for us. It would have been great for the fans but we'd need a better squad than we have now. Let's just take one season at a time and go for it next year.

[dave.woodhall]

Burnley and Wolves, possibly the two biggest surprises to get into Europe recently, have both gone backwards since they qualified.

[Ads]

We're top half. That's very good progress, if we can finish midtable, that's very good progress. There was an opportunity to maybe push on for bigger and better, but the margins for us were always finer.

We have a very young and quality thin squad. We're more reliant than most on our special player, because he is more special than any other player in the league.

This time last year we were "light years away" from mid table. Yet here we are. With a summer securing our best assets and adding 3 genuine high quality starters, we will be ready to knock more noisily on the door.

Even Man City took a few years to get it right, spending 100s millions. Don't let a single freak season from Leicester kid anybody into thinking it's likely you can click your fingers in a summer and go from one extreme to the next. They have had plenty of mid table since.

[LeeB]

Although Burnley were knocked out before the end of the summer holidays weren't they?

[dave.woodhall]

Although Burnley were knocked out before the end of the summer holidays weren't they?

It's still extra games and a shorter close-season.

[LeeB]

Although Burnley were knocked out before the end of the summer holidays weren't they?

It's still extra games and a shorter close-season.

Yes there was that, and I think they started the season slowly. But I wouldn't say they've gone backwards, they seem to have had the same season every year since they came back up, never looking really in trouble.

I agree with the general point, I think it could be too early for us and the form in the last couple of months underlines it. Also, next season in particular could be troublesome, it remains to be seen how this truncated season followed by the Euros will affect teams and individuals in the following season, could be a lot of players and teams through mental fatigue as much as physical.

[Risso]

Surely the problems Wolves are having is more to do with the fact that they've lost three of their better players from last season to other teams and injury, and Traore has gone back to being shit again.

[LeeB]

Surely the problems Wolves are having is more to do with the fact that they've lost three of their better players from last season to other teams and injury, and Traore has gone back to being shit again.

And they spent £35m on a child that honks instead of talking.

[algy]

We're top half. That's very good progress, if we can finish midtable, that's very good progress. There was an opportunity to maybe push on for bigger and better, but the margins for us were always finer.

We have a very young and quality thin squad. We're more reliant than most on our special player, because he is more special than any other player in the league.

This time last year we were "light years away" from mid table. Yet here we are. With a summer securing our best assets and adding 3 genuine high quality starters, we will be ready to knock more noisily on the door.

Even Man City took a few years to get it right, spending 100s millions. Don't let a single freak season from Leicester kid anybody into thinking it's likely you can click your fingers in a summer and go from one extreme to the next. They have had plenty of mid table since.

Yeah, agree with all of this.

I think Dean Smith's done as well as anyone could reasonably expect him to do.  We look like a midtable side, which compared with 12 months ago is great progress.  Our form's not been great, but a load of teams seem to have suffered from the same thing as we have - quite possibly exhaustion due to the short closed season.

With the amount of money being spent, I think there's a reasonable expectation that we should be doing better than your average promoted-last-season team.  However, we did have to almost completely rebuild 2 summers ago.  Even having spent £200m-£250m, that really only leaves us as averaging about £10m per player in the squad.  A load of money right enough, but in terms of the spending you see at the top of the table it's not masses.

For me, this summer will be a big one.  It's the first in ages when we'll be trying to replace players who actually contribute something to a Premier League-standard squad - unlike say Henri Lansbury, Scott Hogan, or Fat Ross.  You'd hope that this summer we'd be quite focussed, maybe looking more at buying in two or three £30m-level signings for the first team, and a couple of cheaper £10m-ers as squad players.  We'd already have a largely good-enough squad at that point, so I think then we'd be looking towards permanently displacing Arsenal and maybe Everton, so perhaps looking at 6th-8th place finish in 2021/2.

[Sexual Ealing]

Absolutely. And if Dean can't get us there he knows as well as we do what the consequences will be, but he's got us where we are so he deserves the chance to try.

[curiousorange]

Given today's murmurings about FFP getting the heave-ho, I now have completely unrealistic expectations.