I just try keep a bit somewhat level headed, it's a long season, we'll lose games we should win and win when we aren't great. As I've said previously our fanbase is very Dr Jekyell and Mr Hyde. Still very much a work in process and Clarke probably needs another couple of windows to get us where we'd ideally like to be. Still very much thought it would be a season of transition and we'd finish somewhere between 7th - 12th, we haven't played any of the big hitters as such yet, be interesting to see how we'd get on.
A good start that should have been a bit better. I think the big hitters will cancel each other out and it's more open than what we think. Yes I agree the defence is still a problem and most of us would have a different solution, I favour 4 at the back with Robbo on the right side not the left. My pre season guess was mid table but now I think play off's are a good possibility.
I saw a thread on Saturday with Birmingham fans asking who would be the first team to beat them. And the answer is that they could lose any of the next five games, or win them all. Too many teams are of a similar standard and capable of picking up points - we appear to be better at it than most of our rivals, but we will outplay teams and lose, and be under the cosh for 90 minutes and win. C'est la vie.
I'm of the same opinion as last season we won't finish lower than 12th there's some proper dross in this league. The exact position between 12th and upwards I haven't got a clue.
Opta are currently predicting us to finish on 74 points with just under a 60% probability of us finishing between 2nd and 7th.
There’s probably 10 teams who if they won the league this year you’d not be suprised, a can’t work out if league 1 is getting better or there’s just more poorer teams in it and we’re one of them……..
I think your right but maybe the fanbase expecting at top six finish. The current top six add in Peterborough,Rotherham, Bolton could you add in Blackpool,Stockport Lincoln Bristol have spent a bit Wycombe maybe. The rest you would think the rest are fighting relegation all in all a very competitive league 1.
Looking at it is making me smile! I'll be even happier if we've moved up a place by the end of the season, I've had enough of league 1 now!
We cannot afford transitional seasons because we need the added riches that come with playing in the league above. Having a transitional season would mean finishing worse than any season since being back we this level. Other clubs wouldn't allow it either because soon as we transitioned someone to the standard we wanted, the vultures would be swooping in with a bid and then we have to start again anyway.
The added riches that come with being promoted would almost certainly be absorbed by buying new players and increased wages plus higher matchday costs, surely? Leaving the owners in the same position they're currently in. Subbing us.
I always fancy us for the playoffs minimum at this level. Sometimes outmuscled (but not always) by bigger clubs that have just ‘dropped in’ for a season or two, and sometimes caught out by a surprise team that no one really expected at the offset, but generally one of the best of the rest. Not always the most pleasing on the eye, but generally having enough to be in the mix.
We also can't afford to break the wage structure with unrealistic expectations chasing the likes of Birmingham. We have cut the wage bill to make us more self sustainable going forwards and just lost the last of the championship earners with a view to using more of the Academy otherwise what's the point in running it. The young players such as Jalo and Yonganathan will only get better with game time. Like it or not the reality is we don't have the funds to spend our way out of the division, that's not to say we won't be competitive but it's unrealistic to think we've got the funds to assemble a squad in one transfer window to knock the bigger boys out of the top spots.
It's arrogant but I always think we'll be up there by default and if we aren't it would have been a rubbish season. I don't look at other clubs in this league and believe we'll win every game. In many ways that's tougher for me to get my head around defeats.
I do think we have a slightly inflated squad for this league.We need to keep the wages down and that includes coaches and officials..
Too many players don't trouble the final 18. I'd have 22 players (two in each position) topped up by youth players. Anybody else is surplus to requirements. Bench would consist a Goalkeeper, two defenders. One central one wide. Two midfielders and two strikers.
I dread the outcry more than the defeats. I’m 59 now and I don’t feel the pain of disappointment that some do, or like I once did. I was at all 3 away games last week, and out of the 2 defeats I was more bothered by defeat at Stevenage. Not so much because we played really poorly and lost, but because I knew what was coming on Tuesday and how some would react. Love it when we win, but also feel a bit of relief because there is always an element that waiting for us to slip up.
That seems to be how it works. In fact I'd go a step further and say the increase in costs to the club is more than the increase in revenue.