| Minimum expectations for next year…. 06:35 - May 20 with 9138 views | itfcjoe |
….for me - the only way promotion isn’t an acceptable outcome is a 90 point season where you lose in the playoffs.
Similar to what Leeds did last year, and what Sheff U may still do this season.
‘Top 6’ isn’t ambitious enough as a target - we’ve got to be there or thereabouts for automatic promotion.
Does that sound too harsh? I’m sure that’s what the club expectations will be - and betting markets will reflect that |  |
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| Minimum expectations for next year…. on 18:01 - May 20 with 1729 views | Nthsuffolkblue |
| Minimum expectations for next year…. on 17:44 - May 20 by Blue_Heath |
Target has to be win the league given we finished second out of teams in the league next season. That would mark progress, of course deducting Leicester 9 points will help this considerably.
No point aiming for top six, aim for the title.
Big summer ahead, let's see some early midfield beasts in the building please. |
Early midfield beasts you say?
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| Minimum expectations for next year…. on 18:22 - May 20 with 1694 views | MK1 |
I think we will be top 2. I think most expect top 2. Promotion via the Play-offs is worse case. I know some will be less optimistic, but my glass is very much over flowing. |  |
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| Minimum expectations for next year…. on 20:03 - May 20 with 1607 views | PioneerBlue |
This summer is critical for building on the legacy of the last three seasons. In each of GC20 and MAs summer windows there has been quite significant player churn. Arguably last summer didn’t quite hit the mark. The summer before and the summer before that almost didn’t work because it took the January windows to get things over the line. This summer has to be different, cash shouldn’t be a prohibitive factor if targeting right players ie championship players committed to getting us back up to PL asap.
It’s not really a finger pointing matter, our progress has required rapid squad change each season, but it will be another summer of change and we really have to be in a good place by week 1 of the new season! |  |
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| Minimum expectations for next year…. on 21:07 - May 20 with 1547 views | jasondozzell |
| Minimum expectations for next year…. on 17:55 - May 20 by Swansea_Blue |
We’ll know when his time is up. It’s very rare you see someone so measured and calm in pressers after loads of defeats. Saturday was as annoyed as I’ve seen him, and he was hardly ranting or raving. He’s totally in control of his emotions with emotional intelligence that’s off the charts. Compare him to say someone like Russell Martin, where you could see the cracks widen under pressure and watch him unravel.
As soon as he starts being erratic in pressers and showing those sorts of cracks, or just loses that optimistic side, we’ll know it’s getting beyond him and it’ll be time to part ways. |
Spot on. Great analysis. He has always exuded the calm authority of someone who knows what he wants and how to get there.
nothing this season will have surprised him. He will have learnt things but I also think he'll feel we competed n many games which is an achievement with the gulf now. We need everything to work out perfectly in January onwards and it didn't. But we mustn't forget the praise we got from so many for many performances this season.
Remember Slot at the start of the season? He said we went man for man and were brave. He was admiring of it.
KM is the man. |  | | |
| Minimum expectations for next year…. on 09:18 - May 21 with 1365 views | seblue78 |
Much depends obviously on who stays and who we recruit, but if we end up with a front line of Hirst +1 CF, Szmods, J Clarke, Hutch, Jaden and Broady you'd have to think that would be pretty devastating for the Champ. And with the right recruitment behind it in MF, you'd be disappointed if we didn't end up Top 2. I don't get the negativity creeping in already re next season - some people clearly (perversely) enjoy it. | | | |
| Minimum expectations for next year…. on 10:06 - May 21 with 1318 views | pablo_canooga |
| Minimum expectations for next year…. on 09:18 - May 21 by seblue78 |
Much depends obviously on who stays and who we recruit, but if we end up with a front line of Hirst +1 CF, Szmods, J Clarke, Hutch, Jaden and Broady you'd have to think that would be pretty devastating for the Champ. And with the right recruitment behind it in MF, you'd be disappointed if we didn't end up Top 2. I don't get the negativity creeping in already re next season - some people clearly (perversely) enjoy it. |
Sheffield United has reached 90 points this season (92 points before the deduction). They earned 16 points in the Premier League during the 2023/24 season and conceded 104 goals.
Burnley achieved 100 points and had a comparable season in the Premier League to us, finishing with 24 points and conceding 78 goals. We’ll be fine.
The intensity, technical ability, and elite-level sh*thousery just aren’t there in the Championship—there is quite a bit of mid-level chod which we should be able to dispatch.
As for Luton Town…. |  | | |
| Minimum expectations for next year…. on 13:34 - May 21 with 1200 views | Exiled2Surrey |
| Minimum expectations for next year…. on 12:20 - May 20 by textbackup |
‘Saints are an absolute rabble, Leicester not much better’
You do know we’ve not beaten these teams this season, don’t you? |
OK, Devil's advocate: Below the current top 4, we have taken points off every team in the Premier League except Forest, Palace and Brentford (on the basis that we are going to take West Ham to the cleaners this weekend), and all three of those sides you could have seen us getting at least a draw in one or other of the fixtures.
Agree that the record against the bottom clubs has not been brilliant, but we have had our moments.
Specifically on the Leicester and Southampton games, we scored 3 goals across those 4 games from an aggregate of 6.4 XG, our opposition scored 6 from 5.0 XG - and considering we played for a portion of one of those games with 10, that does suggest we should have got more points from those fixtures. It wouldn't have made a difference to getting promoted, but it is a more comforting indicator of performance in the Championship I would say. [Post edited 21 May 14:04]
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| Minimum expectations for next year…. on 13:43 - May 21 with 1179 views | TRUE_BLUE123 |
| Minimum expectations for next year…. on 09:18 - May 21 by seblue78 |
Much depends obviously on who stays and who we recruit, but if we end up with a front line of Hirst +1 CF, Szmods, J Clarke, Hutch, Jaden and Broady you'd have to think that would be pretty devastating for the Champ. And with the right recruitment behind it in MF, you'd be disappointed if we didn't end up Top 2. I don't get the negativity creeping in already re next season - some people clearly (perversely) enjoy it. |
If we had a 3 behind the striker of Clarke Szmodics Hutchinson as your post suggests. The last time those 3 players played a full season in the champ they scored 52 goals combined.
Chaplin Broadhead and Philogene had 28 between them and would not even make the starting 11 in this scenario.
Of course some of those players may move on, but it is a frightening level of firepower and we will make additions, like you I'm excited for that. [Post edited 21 May 13:44]
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| Minimum expectations for next year…. on 13:58 - May 21 with 1143 views | itfc_statman |
If we aren't top two, we've got something horrifically wrong either recruitment or management wise. | | | |
| Minimum expectations for next year…. on 14:01 - May 21 with 1126 views | TheBlueGnu |
.......for me, further exceptionally excellent performances from Barbara Knox as Rita in Coronation Street. | |
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| Minimum expectations for next year…. on 22:06 - May 21 with 967 views | Nthsuffolkblue |
| Minimum expectations for next year…. on 13:43 - May 21 by TRUE_BLUE123 |
If we had a 3 behind the striker of Clarke Szmodics Hutchinson as your post suggests. The last time those 3 players played a full season in the champ they scored 52 goals combined.
Chaplin Broadhead and Philogene had 28 between them and would not even make the starting 11 in this scenario.
Of course some of those players may move on, but it is a frightening level of firepower and we will make additions, like you I'm excited for that. [Post edited 21 May 13:44]
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Just need them to start playing together and like they did in that season. | |
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| Minimum expectations for next year…. on 22:37 - May 21 with 928 views | textbackup |
| Minimum expectations for next year…. on 10:24 - May 20 by SomethingBlue |
Has to be promotion, fine if that's via the play-offs ultimately but we need to get there. Otherwise we risk seeing the gradual whittling down of expectations and likely achievement that we saw before, albeit the club is in much more competent hands. We can't squander this opportunity.
The difficulty is that we have a lot of squad building to do and let's hope we can get a lot of it over the line before pre-season begins – plenty of deals being done around the league already, which is interesting, so hopefully we've a couple waiting to come in. |
If we were to finish 6th, say 20 points off 2nd… (even if we won the playoffs) that would be a serious worry, wouldn’t it? |  |
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| Minimum expectations for next year…. on 23:35 - May 21 with 895 views | TRUE_BLUE123 |
| Minimum expectations for next year…. on 22:06 - May 21 by Nthsuffolkblue |
Just need them to start playing together and like they did in that season. |
I suspect they will do vs far easier opposition. I have genuinely 0 concerns about that. | |
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| Minimum expectations for next year…. on 07:13 - May 22 with 814 views | DJR |
We have to be aiming as high as possible it but has to be recognised that everything went for us when we got promoted last season, so it may not be the cake-walk that many are expecting. Our results against Leicester and Southampton this and last season are a case in point.
Leaving that aside, if we don't start with a winning run, I could imagine many turning against McKenna (it's already happening) but I think we have to give him time even it we don't get promoted next season. [Post edited 22 May 7:30]
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| Minimum expectations for next year…. on 11:38 - May 22 with 713 views | Pinewoodblue |
| Minimum expectations for next year…. on 07:13 - May 22 by DJR |
We have to be aiming as high as possible it but has to be recognised that everything went for us when we got promoted last season, so it may not be the cake-walk that many are expecting. Our results against Leicester and Southampton this and last season are a case in point.
Leaving that aside, if we don't start with a winning run, I could imagine many turning against McKenna (it's already happening) but I think we have to give him time even it we don't get promoted next season. [Post edited 22 May 7:30]
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There a lot of strong contenders for Promotion from Championship next season, including the three teams that fail in play offs and the likes of Birmingham City who will be a big threat. |  |
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| Minimum expectations for next year…. on 12:14 - May 22 with 674 views | ipswichtillidie |
| Minimum expectations for next year…. on 12:36 - May 20 by mellowblue |
club's minimum ambitions will be top 2 promotion spots obviously. Their minimum expectations which is a different animal will be top 6. If the club were to say internally or externally that minimum expectation was top 2 and we hit Christmas 10 points off top 2 there would be internal pressure to make a change. I don't think the club will nail itself hard and fast to top 2. Let us not forget how we struggled to adapt to the championship with a better squad back in 2002.
My personal ambitions and expectations are the same. |
Good post. Brought me back to 2002 when we had a ridiculous squad (or so we thought) and yet we stumbled our way out of the automatics, sacked a decent manager and didn’t do anything for the next two decades. Hmmmmm my expectations are progress. how that translates I don’t know yet. [Post edited 22 May 12:15]
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| Minimum expectations for next year…. on 12:54 - May 22 with 621 views | PrideOfTheEast |
| Minimum expectations for next year…. on 12:14 - May 22 by ipswichtillidie |
Good post. Brought me back to 2002 when we had a ridiculous squad (or so we thought) and yet we stumbled our way out of the automatics, sacked a decent manager and didn’t do anything for the next two decades. Hmmmmm my expectations are progress. how that translates I don’t know yet. [Post edited 22 May 12:15]
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Football was very different in 2002 though.
As we’ve experienced this year, the gap has never been bigger and has grown significantly.
It would be a massive failure if we’re not in the top 3, arguably top 2. Whether that failure has already happened in recruitment remains to be seen, ie perhaps we don’t have top championship players in the 140m we’ve spent but given we’ll probably spend 50m+ this window I would imagine we’ll be fine. | | | |
| Minimum expectations for next year…. on 17:41 - May 22 with 514 views | Joey_Joe_Joe_Junior |
| Minimum expectations for next year…. on 12:54 - May 22 by PrideOfTheEast |
Football was very different in 2002 though.
As we’ve experienced this year, the gap has never been bigger and has grown significantly.
It would be a massive failure if we’re not in the top 3, arguably top 2. Whether that failure has already happened in recruitment remains to be seen, ie perhaps we don’t have top championship players in the 140m we’ve spent but given we’ll probably spend 50m+ this window I would imagine we’ll be fine. |
Exactly this, we have spent all season commenting on the unfairness of it all and now we will be very much on the right side of he financials, we can't just ignore it. Spending 140M and parachute money that comes with relegation vs ITV digital going bust. There will be expectations and pressure, as there should be.
I am not sure why people are referencing our relegation last time, same as some were when we got promoted. I do feel like some our fanbase is still in very unfamiliar territory sometimes. |  | | |
| Minimum expectations for next year…. on 17:50 - May 22 with 500 views | TheBoyBlue |
It's important to remember that if we don't go up next season it's not disastrous, so long as we do it within the two year period. But I would certainly hope for us to be challenging the top 2, aware that Leicester and Southampton will both be there as well as Sheffield United if they don't go up. | |
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| Minimum expectations for next year…. on 17:52 - May 22 with 495 views | mellowblue |
| Minimum expectations for next year…. on 18:01 - May 20 by Nthsuffolkblue |
Early midfield beasts you say?
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Vince Kompany in the midfield, that would be novel. | | | |
| Minimum expectations for next year…. on 17:54 - May 22 with 491 views | Joey_Joe_Joe_Junior |
| Minimum expectations for next year…. on 17:50 - May 22 by TheBoyBlue |
It's important to remember that if we don't go up next season it's not disastrous, so long as we do it within the two year period. But I would certainly hope for us to be challenging the top 2, aware that Leicester and Southampton will both be there as well as Sheffield United if they don't go up. |
Leicester might implode. | | | |
| Minimum expectations for next year…. on 07:16 - May 23 with 272 views | PioneerBlue |
Big summer ahead, Mark Ashton’s most important to date. Lot’s to do, ingress and egress, build on the massive investment we’ve been able to make in the squad but allow KMck sufficient time and oxygen to establish a squad and team capable of promotion. | |
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