Spurs have got themselves in the mix.
Leicester went a step further and actually won it last season.
Normally we talk about whether we could break the top 4. This season we're talking about the top 6. But thinking ahead to next season, could we realistically challenge for the title? If so, which of be our players are good enough. What tweaks are needed to bring us up to the standards of city, Chelsea? Or are we so far off the pace that there's no chance in the near future?
Haven't read every page so not sure if it has been mentioned already but in my opinion no we couldn't because barring a one off event like Leicester last season, teams these days usually have to make steady progress.
If you look at Arsenal when Wenger came in, they finished 12th the season earlier. They then came 5th, 3rd, 1st.
Man City came 10th in 2009. Like Arsenal, their progression to the title took the exact same route. 5th, 3rd, 1st.
The club who I would draw most similarities to ourselves, in the way I would see us potentially getting up there is Spurs. And before they put up a title challenge for a large part of last season, they had already broken the top 4 twice recently, and since 2010 they haven't finished outside of the top 6. They have had a team capable of pushing for the top 4 and from 2010 have finished 4th, 5th, 4th, 5th, 6th, 5th and then 3rd last season. We are a long way off that kind of stability but it doesn't necessarily have to take that long as Arsenal and City proved (ignoring Leicester because it won't happen again for decades).
For me, the aim this season was to achieve 7th at minimum, and optimistically, to try and break in to the top 5/6. It looks like we will fall short of the top 6 but if we come 7th we have made progress from the failures in the past 2 seasons. Next season we should be aiming for a top 5 finish, and if Koeman gets things right in the summer, I don't see why we can't finish in the top 4 if things go well for us. But equally, the teams around us will also be saying the same so we could quite easily finish no better than 7th again due to the finances those teams have available.
If we can break the top 4 in the next few years and look like we belong in the Champions League when in the group stages then we can build from there. But until that time, expectations of a title challenge are unrealistic. It is going to be hard enough getting in amongst the top 5.
