What would it take to challenge for the title?

Raino85 · February 23, 2017

Pabbers said:
Joe Hart, that celtic kid, VVD and Keane, Tielemans, The Ox, and Wayne Rooney....treble is on!!

No, no & no

Pabbers · February 23, 2017

Raino85 said:
No, no & no

Yes, yes and yes, la.

Kaiser Soysauce · February 23, 2017

RomanReigns said:
not concede and try and get at least 1 goal

the points will rack up

Lol, No poop, Sherlock lol

The binman chronicles · February 23, 2017

Prevenger17 said:
A plague striking down 19 other teams

Very harsh on Everton there. 9 or 10 teams should be enough.

Abraders · February 23, 2017

A centre back, or two, preferably ones better than those we are being jarg linked with.

An actual winger who can play togger.

A playmaker, or for Ross to become lampard as someone else suggested.

A backup striker to Rom.

Left/Right back backup/potential first teamers

Jimmy Grimble · February 24, 2017

The binman chronicles said:
Very harsh on Everton there. 9 or 10 teams should be enough.

So long as it's the right teams

Jimmy Grimble · February 24, 2017

EFC78 said:
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.

Spurs are the interesting ones for me. They invested the bale money in young potential. It didn't seem to click straight away but some of them came good, as well as Kane coming through and Ali turning out amazing.

jonnyboy316 · February 24, 2017

Unfortunately FFP has basically ensured that the status quo will be maintained and there will not be another opportunity for another club to make an overnight leap up the table like City. For us then it will have to be a slow build over the next 15 years getting the stadium in place to increase revenue and then attracting that next level investment off the pitch.