Fan's View What Is Realistic Progression?

What is realistic expectation this season?

  • Top 2

    Votes: 4 3.5%

  • Play offs

    Votes: 39 33.9%

  • Be in and around the play offs but just miss out

    Votes: 58 50.4%

  • Mid table with a cup run

    Votes: 9 7.8%

  • Mid table

    Votes: 5 4.3%

  • Just to survive

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Total voters
    115
I think that on The Dub, Jerome said 6th, George top 6 and Ben Purkiss 7th?

We seem.to have a decent budget and have made some good signings. The key will be if we can get a strike force to score enough goals (I think that we won't concede an awful lot)

The league seems to be a fair bit weaker than last season and assuming that Reading and Wigan don't suddenly find a load of cash and spend Wigan like ( in their promotion season), then I can see no reason why we can't be there or there about the play offs .
 
I think Manning now has his GK in place (Beadle), a centre back pairing he wants (Moore and Thorniley), Cam and one other in the middle (McEachran/McGuane) and Rodrigues as the 10. That's possibly 6 confirmed out of our starting 11.
With maybe Stevens at RB, he also seems content with Brown at LB so that's a decent back 5 and spine (yes I know some people will dispute Brown's place in the team).

(Assume Long/Negru/new LB will provide the cover with Brown if he doesn't start? Golding and Mfuni also listed in the first team squad. Bodin could be the cover for Rodrigues? He's not a striker and doesn't have the pace to play wide? Whoever doesn't play out of McEachran and McGuane will be the CM cover with Smyth and Johnson.)

That leaves the main striker and two wide positions to be nailed down - Harris/GO'D/Murphy/Browne/Tyler/Yanic/
Henry/a new striker/new winger to come to fight for 3 places? That's 9 players for 3 places?

As it stands the starting 8 should be good enough to put up a considerably better show than last season! I'm confident it will be a much better season, and if we can get the front 4/6 firing then we can give it a go. I'd say play offs would be a realistic option but I'd settle for top 8 and then get rid of the dead wood hampering the squad, and then seriously build for a big push in 24/25.

COYY's!!
 
Based on not nearly enough information yet, but I'd say 9th is about where I see us
 
Last season can be regarded as a blip. If we ignore it then actual progression would be winning the playoffs after two attempts and one near miss.
 
I'm classing last year as a blip, and we're coming back stronger . Assuming we actually sign a striker, then play offs minimum.
 
If we sign a brilliant/marquee/‘wow’ striker, suddenly we look like a very decent side indeed…
 
Older Shotts said:
I'm classing last year as a blip, and we're coming back stronger . Assuming we actually sign a striker, then play offs minimum.
Click to expand...

Last season was the culmination of 3 years of laziness, self-adoration and ineptitude.

No idea where we'll finish at this stage but it seems Manning is working to a plan and being backed financially more than I expected.
 
The good news for our club is that Robinson in no longer involve. However it will take time to sort out the mess he left in his wake.

The first requirement of Manning was to secure our League 1 status. Job done.

Next on the list was to restructure the coaching set up. Good progressive is being made on this.

Manning’s biggest task though is to build a balanced, competitive squad within budget restrictions. The silly contracts dished out by the previous incumbent means that Manning simply won’t be able to magically move players on, his hands will be tied to a certain extent, and that is why he deserves to be given at least 2 windows to build a squad that reflects his playing style and philosophy. These things take time, a little patience from fans will be needed in my view.

As far as progression goes, I think mid table will feel like we’ve steadied the ship but not actual progression. Somewhere between mid table and the playoffs will be progress but not necessarily seen as a particularly successful season unless we go on an amazing cup run. As it stands a play off spot would be above my expectations this season for the reasons cited above.

Of course if Manning can capture a couple of impressive striker signings before the season starts then my progress expectations might well change!
 
I put 'mid table with a decent cup run'. That isn't the height of my ambition, but it would show progression. I didn't like the way we became very careless with cup competitions in KRs later time with us, and midtable factually *would* be an improvement on last season!
 
Top 10 is where I think we'll be. It's a pretty poor L1 this year, bring in a striker and a left back and I don't think we'll be far off the playoffs.
 
I'm excited for the fresh beginning - KRs time was severely marred by whatever the hell went on in the last 18 months or so. LM seems so level headed and driven, but time will tell. I'd be overjoyed with Play offs this season after the drift. As a post says further up, bringing back professionalism and I would add team spirit which seems to be gathering pace after seeing a fe wof the pre season videos.

It is fun to make these predictions but once we're a few motnhs in we will get a clearer view of who our rivals are, very tricky to speculate but I'd say portsmouth are going to be strong, Derby and Bristol Rovers ( this last one is a hunch)
 
I’ve gone for ‘just miss out’, but it’s early days and reserve the right to amend that once the three(?) additions have joined the squad. This season already has a better feel to it than last and if we start well who knows what’s possible. We’ll have a much better idea of what’s possible when we know the calibre of the incoming striker!
 
I'd go for top ten, with a clear spine of the team identified and 'our' key players (not loanees) in place. I was at Millwall a few years ago when we won 3-0 (?). And you could see Appleton just needed another 2-3 players and we would have been top six the following season. LM has had to do a lot of work very quickly, given the mess he inherited from KR. He seems to have been very sensible so far, but I think top six is probably unrealistic next season.
 
Northernyellow said:
I'd go for top ten, with a clear spine of the team identified and 'our' key players (not loanees) in place. I was at Millwall a few years ago when we won 3-0 (?). And you could see Appleton just needed another 2-3 players and we would have been top six the following season. LM has had to do a lot of work very quickly, given the mess he inherited from KR. He seems to have been very sensible so far, but I think top six is probably unrealistic next season.
Click to expand...
You're right, it was 3-0.

A fun day that was, a comfortable win in the sunshine. I believe the lot from down the A420 got relegated that day too :)

Also, I remember during their pitch invasion a load of little Millwall chavs coming up to the away end, to be greeted with chants of '3-0 to the Oxford boys' and 'you are embarrassing'.
 
Heart ruling head bet.....

Champions.
FA Cup Winners
League Cup Winners.

Its the time of year the local bookie laughs at me.

Reality progression would be

League - play offs please, then its a lottery.
Decent cup run.

That`ll do, its the hope that kills you.
 
ttg17 said:
As always, I think it's a bit of a fool's errand to try and predict final league positions before the transfer window is shut (both in terms of assessing our and the rest of the league's relatives strengths). Given the perceived weakness of this iteration of League One, you'd hope we'd be sniffing around playoffs, but I wouldn't be too disappointed with midtable.

What I DO hope for, and what I would see as progression, is some evidence that Manning is being able to implement the style of football that was so effective and pleasing on the eye at MK Dons. It might not necessarily get results straight away, but being able to identify an attempt at a way of playing and a blueprint going forwards would be really encouraging for me. So much of last season on the pitch looked a disorganised mess and I feel he was brought in to implement this kind of aesthetically pleasing but simultaneously effective football. I would want to see that it is starting to be put into effect - especially given he has now had a summer to drill it into the players and a transfer window and to bring in players he thinks can implement it.
Click to expand...
Spot on.

I believe Manning says he wants 3 more in the door. It's very difficult to jude where we are until that point. Say he signed Edun, Twine and Watters that would be very different to signing Watkins, unproven LB loan and Jerome Sinclair. Who knows at this point.

I'm more excited for this season than I have been in ages, even if it does end in mid-table. Manning seems to me to have a clear plan of how he wants to play and also doesn't take incessant sh*te after games.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom