Where will we finish the season assuming no more transfers?

Top 6 but only in memory of my old fella,
12-16 in reality

 

As long as we finish above Brentford and or above the bottom 3 I’ll be a happy Hoop.

 

Definitely top 6

 

As we all know so much of this game is about confidence. After yesterday, I would hope the squad is buzzing and eagerly looking forward to the next game.

If we can build a decent run over the first 8-10 games then things will get interesting.

We saw how ****e things got under Schteve and Ollie with those long, long losing streaks. Difficult to come back from that sort of thing.

If Warbles (thank you, Stan) can get some sort of consistency out of this lot I can see mid-table, possible play-off challenge, but promotion would be too soon (although I’d still take it).

Whilst Ferdinand said that all players were effectively in the shop window, to lose Eze now would be disappointing.

I hate how the Summer transfer window doesn’t shut before the first ball is kicked.

 

Let’s hope Eze is older and wiser, is managed better by the manager and doesn’t fade later in the season

 

The good start heaps even more hope on that table labelled ‘optimism’. A great start and I think we have a good team rebuilt from a squad that (built by others) needed sorting out sensibly - it seems we have got there and can hopefully have seasons about building on good stock. No dramas and crisis’ for a couple of years and MW settling in and succeeding where many have failed.

Now ... that prediction ... I would like, oops I mean I see us capable of getting around 12th-14th with this manager and this team.

 

Really hope we don't get a morale sapping defeat in the EFL cup on Tuesday, hate this scheduling.

You've got me worried now, almost a bad thing for Eze to score a classy goal on opening day with a few days of the window left. At this stage I would hope we'd rebuff any offers but I doubt it.

 

I agree with the majority and would be happy with survival as there are too many unknown factors about this group and manager.
At this moment in time a play off place is madness, in my opinion, I am looking for steady progress over the next 3/4 years and just hope MW is given time because next year will probably see a great number of players coming and going again, for starters 5 will be leaving to their parent clubs and another 5 or more just won't be in the managers long term plans. We need to be patient and this could be the start of something good, dare I say a new 4 year plan.
That said an optimistic 16th would be great.

 

EFL Cup is following Tuesday, next match is Saturday...

 

Before Saturday I was saying 14th
After Saturday I will go for a nose bleed inducing 11th.

I can see that maybe Brentford have overdone the moneyball this year...and so I think we will be above them and Charlton and Millwall...but maybe the Rupert's have too much for us.

 

In my mind, I can see us reaching 11th. No idea why I’m that specific, but to gain some wiggle room, I’ll say 11th to 13th.

(Providing we don’t lose any of the starters from Saturday to injury or other clubs, and Waggles keeps his job until the end of the season.)

 

Our good 1st game at Stoke reminded me very much of how well we played on the counter from October to the beginning of January last season when we got to a couple of points of the play off places. Last season a combination of a heavy fixture list, injuries to the older heads, and ****e referree decisions, put a stop to that progress. I'm afraid something similar is likely to happen again, how we respond to it will make all the difference. Respond well and we could be up close to a top six place, respond badly and it will be another relegation struggle. Very hard to know as always, but I'll go for something in between, 13th.

 

After so many changes with the manager, style of play and a massive clear out of players, we require consoldition, stabliity and platform upon which we can build and develop. We has a great, and rather unexpected, win at Stoke, but one swallow does not make a summer. Let's see the mood after the Huddlesfield and Bristol City (x2) matches.

Based upon what we have seen, we could easily be mid to lower mid-table, say 12th-16th.

I would be very pleased if at the end of the Chrstmas and New Year period, we were only about 10 points from the play-off places and then we could have a good ending to the season. With a few consecutive wins in this league and you can then quickly move up. So for me, the key is to have a good first half of the season and an even better second half.

I am not expecting to get to the play-off's, and would certainly not complain if we got there, but I would like to have a team that next season would be looking at mid table and above.

As already mentioned, this needs to be regarded as a longer term project where the realistic goals sholud be to be very competitive to get promotion in about three seasons.

 

Given how much weaker this league is this season compared to previous years, No Newcastle, Villa, Norwich, Brighton, Wolves replaced by Cardiff, Huddersfield, Fulham........Baggies, Swans and Stoke with diminishing Parachute payments, Derby and Wednesday with no ground to sell to bail them out of the FFP or whatever it's called these days, Boro into final year of parachute payment and having to cut their cloth accordingly.......Massive being well, Massive.......I reckon we could go under the radar and have a real go at top 6........