Realistic Expectations

[Cliftonville Villlain]

Consolidate. Would be more than happy with mid-table next season. Then we push on. I honestly can't see us doing a Fulham and coming straight back down.

[Londonfranky]

Congrats from this Fulham supporter, this is where John Terry starts earning his corn, as one of best premier league defenders, I reckon Gary Cahill is talking to him right now, our season was bollocked by the inability to keep a clean sheet, I think you can probably write 12 games against the top six any points you get from those games are a plus, that leaves you 26 games to get the points to make you safe, I think the premiership has changed even in time you’ve been away, even bang average premiership teams have 2 or 3 outstanding players, if you can be quite sound defensively a few scrappy 1-0 wins against teams around you should be ok, any enjoy!!

[Steve67]

We need some stability and to keep some of these loan players at the club to absorb the huge changeover in numbers of players.  Mings and Hause are absolute must have signings for me.  They are part of the foundation of what we should be trying to do alongside Grealish and SJM.  Taylor, DCM and RW are also in dire need of improving.  Lots going, none of whom are likely to feature in any case, although I would like to see either Whelan or Jedinak involved within the coaching set up.  We won't be able to shift everyone, but Albert, Taylor, Green, Nyland, would be surplus for me, along with Angela, Gardner, Tshibola and fat-bloke. I'd keep Davis, but not sure about Jimmy D.  Lots of decisions for the men who matter but I can't see them making massive changes and would bet that we break our transfer record, but only once this summer.

[Ad@m]

The bookies have us joint 4th favourite (with Brighton) to go down.

Sheffield United, Norwich and Burnley are favourites.

[Legion]

Whatever happens it’s critical we stick with Dean Smith. The last thing we need is to give up on what we’ve started for perceived short term gain. Stay the course. I look at how Burnley stuck it out with Dyche, came back up and are now a much more solid club. We’re much bigger than Burnley off course and expectations will be higher. But Dean Smith has built well at Brentford and is doing so with us. We need to back him when times get tough. And it will be at times.

Agreed. Remember this? http://www.heroesandvillains.info/forumv3/index.php?topic=59417.0

[OzVilla]

I'd take 17th and survival now but it's really to early to predict as we need to see what business we do. There are a good dozen players that need moving on, Lansbury, Jedinak, Barney, Elphick, Nyland, Fat Ross, Jimmy D, Bree, Hutton, Richards, De Laat, Bunn, Hogan and Gardner. None of those would feature in the PL, i'd try and keep all the loanees if possible with additional quality supplements.  Massively excited about the overhaul though which I wouldn't have been had the result gone against us.

I agree with earlier sentiment about sticking with Smith whatever happens. I think that's important as I also do that we keep the coaching staff together, we'll need John Terry's PL experience here as Smith and his team are rookies at this level.

Just consolidating our position as a PL club next season would be success as would us a least trying to take the FA Cup seriously.  I'm thinking lower mid table with safety well before the last day and a cup run would be a great season for us.

[aldridgeboy]

I hope the fixtures are kind. Avoiding a start against the top four in August etc ( although usually, or in my head anyway, a promoted club seems to well against them in the first few weeks )

If we can get a few points on the board straight away, it will
Help us settle.

[Toronto Villa]

It’s best to play the top teams early when they haven’t settled. But in reality I don’t care who we get and I want teams to be worried about us. That’s the old Aston Villa mentality.

[Matt Collins]

Does depend on the investment - size and quality of decisions

Realistically, I reckon four or five of the players who played on Monday are good enough in the positions they played in, and we only own Jack and mcginn (can't see conor as a DM in the Premier league, although his game has come on a lot)

Mings and tuanzebe are good enough so hoping we get at least one of them

I take comfort in the fact that Smith has plenty of experience in assimilating half a team each summer

[john e]

I think with a couple of good signings we could be capable of -

Staying out of a relegation dog fight
play some decent stuff worth watching
start building something for the longer term
finish mid table maybe 9-15 (big window I know)

and obviously it’s defo our year for the FA Cup

[UK Redsox]

1 Stay up
2 Mid-table mediocrity
3 Finish above Wolves

[ChicagoLion]

Anything above survival will be a bonus.Getting 40 points on the board ASAP.
The most important thing is the emergence of a squad of players to take us to the next level.

[Godfrey Brian]

A good start and a solid midtable position along with a serious run in one of the cups will help us consolidate in the league and continue to strengthen the squad.
I'd also love to be the suprise side that beats any of the league's top four occasionally.

[Stu]

Just don't get relegated. Anything else is a bonus. We have to make a lot of signings to be competitive, this team has already been broken up due to loans returning.

[TopDeck113]

On the last two occasions we've been promoted to the top division we've found the first season hard and flirted with relegation, but had a second season that surpassed all expectations.  I'd take the first if we could also be guaranteed the second.

What we need is a relatively benign first half a dozen fixtures and get some points on the board.  There will be an inevitable sticky patch as we adjust and possibly some hammerings at the likes of Man City, so it's important that we take the momentum from this season and get some early wins against the likes of the other promoted teams or the south coast trio.