Top half should be the basic aim next season. I don't see anything from other clubs this summer that makes me worried that all of a sudden lots of clubs are going to do better than us. If we finish in the bottom half it will should be deemed a failure after what we did last season.
Surely the target every season has to be to win the league title. If we're not trying to win every match and, hence, the title, then what is the point? This doesn't mean we'd not be overjoyed to win promotion by finishing 6th and winning the play-offs, but the target must be to win every game. If it isn't, then which games are we going to decide we would rather not win?
We'll achieve nothing but inconsistency if we have to reset from zero start of every bloomin' season. For every decent season under the likes of Val, there will be a relegation under the likes of Morais, promotion under the likes of Stendel and firefighting under the likes of Stendel, Struber and Hecky. It's feast or famine following Barnsley. I get that we are not the only club with a revolving door, but until it stops spinning so regularly and so quickly I can't see anything other than a 12k hardcore accepting season-on-season mediocrity. I'm still no closer to understanding if this BFC is a brave new world or just deja vu of our existence in this millennium. FWIW I am one of that band, and I would love to see us following up last season with another solid challenge.
Last summer we lost Ludewig, Brown and Struber. This summer we may well lose Dike, Mowatt and Ismael. But as long as its no more we can cope again