our main rivals next season

malmic · May 15, 2016

Get Mourinho, we will finish Top 4 maybe Champions

PhilM · May 15, 2016

Peter The Dog said:
If we can keep the Holy Trinity of Lukaku, Barkley and Stones, then a minimum of 6th regardless of who's in charge.

Maybe it's just me being overly sentimental and yes although they're a trinity and arguably are currently our best/better players...

... there's only ever going to be one Holy Trinity at this club: Kendall, Harvey and Ball.

Whistlin' Dixie · May 15, 2016

PhilM said:
Maybe it's just me being overly sentimental and yes although they're a trinity and arguably are currently our best/better players...

... there's only ever going to be one Holy Trinity at this club: Kendall, Harvey and Ball.

Aye. Blasphemy to suggest otherwise.

dholliday · May 15, 2016

Bustard said:
My prediction would be something like

City/United/Chelsea
Arsenal/Liverpool/ Spurs
Everton/Leicester/Southampton

I don't follow that prediction, mate...what you mean here?

arch stanton said:
i think the new money coming into the game has made things much more exciting, there are more clubs who can keep their better players, the current big clubs cant therefore poach those players, clubs are getting a bit closer in terms of performance and the 'lesser' clubs have improved buying power. I think we will see more of unfashionable clubs clicking and outperforming themselves, maybe not to the level of leicester but I think we will see a bit of a shakeup in the coming few years. Lets hope we can smash the back doors in on the sky 4

Interesting, and I think you're probably right...that would make it even more challenging for us to get back to top 6.

No José, no party!

Furey1878 · May 15, 2016

Challenge for Europe is the minimum league requirement every season.

Furey1878 · May 15, 2016

dholliday said:
I don't follow that prediction, mate...what you mean here?

He means the top 3 will be some combination of City, United and Chelsea

4th - 6th will be between Arsenal, Liverpool and Spurs

7th - 9th will be between us, Leicester and Southampton.

dholliday · May 15, 2016

Furey1878 said:
He means the top 3 will be some combination of City, United and Chelsea

4th - 6th will be between Arsenal, Liverpool and Spurs

7th - 9th will be between us, Leicester and Southampton.

ah right...cheers furey :cheers:

Blue Cheese · May 15, 2016

To be honest, This season really could be just a case of getting the players playing a new brand of football, hopefully training all facets of the game and improving on the last 2 years. It depends on how many players we need to bring in and how many youngsters are genuinely ready for the next step.

I'm not expecting us to pull up trees next year, unless Mourinho comes obv. But let's face it, anything has to be better than the last 2 seasons.

ToffeeDan · May 15, 2016

Without significant changes in personnel and, of course, a top manager, we're still competing with West Ham, Southampton, Stoke, Leicester (pre-occupied with Europe) for a top 10 finish..

So, in order to do a Leicester (or top 4) we might need:

1. Good manager
2. 3-4 major signings and limited/no loss of key players
3. Good run without injuries
4. Set of favourable fixtures (see Leicester - had a tough run mid season and avoided Everton (then decent), Liverpool, City and a few better sides for quite a while - got fed a decent set of opening fixtures - Sunderland, Villa home for example, Bournemouth, West Ham (away) and took advantage..

If one produces some sort of index of expectations you have to put

Man City - Chelsea (presumably rejuvenated) - Arsenal (probably), Liverpool (possible), Spurs (likely), Man Utd (possible) - in the top 6
West Ham, Leicester, Everton, Southampton, Stoke (probably) next 5
Sunderland, West Brom, Palace, Swansea, Watford, Burnley, Boro, Bournemouth, Other Promoted side - lower half

West Brom, Bournemouth (2nd season), Watford, promoted sides most likely to be the shortlist from which three will go down

We'll do well to join that front 6 surely.. though one may drop away leaving a chance of competing towards top 4.

dholliday · May 15, 2016

Blue Cheese said:
To be honest, This season really could be just a case of getting the players playing a new brand of football, hopefully training all facets of the game and improving on the last 2 years.

Aye...and getting their fitness back to high-end levels as well must be a priority...we always looked knackered under Martinez.

ToffeeDan said:
Without significant changes in personnel and, of course, a top manager, we're still competing with West Ham, Southampton, Stoke, Leicester (pre-occupied with Europe) for a top 10 finish...in order to do a Leicester (or top 4) we might need 3-4 major signings and limited/no loss of key players

I guess you disagreed with Martinez and some of the fanbase that this squad was our best since the 80's?

I disagreed too, by the way. Our 07-09 side was better.

Librarian · May 15, 2016

*ORDERS OPEN TOP BUS

ToffeeDan · May 15, 2016

dholliday said:
Aye...and getting their fitness back to high-end levels as well must be a priority...we always looked knackered under Martinez.

I guess you disagreed with Martinez and some of the fanbase that this squad was our best since the 80's?

I disagreed too, by the way. Our 07-09 side was better.

Not especially but, viewed in the present light - with injuries and some doubt about the long term effectiveness of 2-3 key first teamers (Jags, Baines, Macca) and willingness to remain (Stones, Romelu, perhaps Barkley) - and the replacement of Howard, and the end of career for 2-3 others it's fair to think this way. I think we should have expected 8th or 9th as a fair return (so, 10-12 points more) and anything else as a bonus - unfortunately we hardly looked like achieving that.