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Expectations for rest of the season


Amesbury Saint

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I still maintain what i said pre-season when we were about to go out of business. 6 years of being on the way down will not change in the space of a few weeks/months. We had a dire squad last season and that dire squad was made weaker in the summer. Anyone expecting promotion with that is a lunatic. This season is all about starting again. Reaching the bottom and starting to climb once more. I believe we have now bottomed out and will go forwards, no more bad things to happen to us. We can finally put the past 6 years behind us and look forwards. But it will take time.

My expectations for this season is to simply survive this year.

We had a poor team, no manager and no back staff, no scouts no nothing. To expect promotion from that as i said is crazy. It is like me expecting my car to win the daytona 500 without a pit team or any fuel, never going to happen.

The minus 10 and the lack of pre-season have hurt our prospects for this season. If we can get in a few players tommorow of quality then who knows but right now i expect to survive, nothing more.

People slag the team off by usng Charlton as an example. What they don't mention is that their manager was in charge for 6 months and lost 20 games and re-placed basically every position until he has what he has now. Add to that their games this year have been against 5 teams picked to battle relegation. So to expect us to be the sam after about 6 weeks is just silly.

 

So survive this year and begin to build a team that will go on to remain a team for the next few seasons. Next year we will get promoted and have a good chance in the CCC. It wont happen over night just as our slide into oblivion didn't happen over night.

I believe the fans who go to the games are happy with the way the club is going now, the standing ovations in the last 2 games make me believe it. So what people on a forum think does not really matter, it does not effect the team in either a positive or negative way.

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I still maintain what i said pre-season when we were about to go out of business. 6 years of being on the way down will not change in the space of a few weeks/months. We had a dire squad last season and that dire squad was made weaker in the summer. Anyone expecting promotion with that is a lunatic. This season is all about starting again. Reaching the bottom and starting to climb once more. I believe we have now bottomed out and will go forwards, no more bad things to happen to us. We can finally put the past 6 years behind us and look forwards. But it will take time.

My expectations for this season is to simply survive this year.

We had a poor team, no manager and no back staff, no scouts no nothing. To expect promotion from that as i said is crazy. It is like me expecting my car to win the daytona 500 without a pit team or any fuel, never going to happen.

The minus 10 and the lack of pre-season have hurt our prospects for this season. If we can get in a few players tommorow of quality then who knows but right now i expect to survive, nothing more.

People slag the team off by usng Charlton as an example. What they don't mention is that their manager was in charge for 6 months and lost 20 games and re-placed basically every position until he has what he has now. Add to that their games this year have been against 5 teams picked to battle relegation. So to expect us to be the sam after about 6 weeks is just silly.

 

So survive this year and begin to build a team that will go on to remain a team for the next few seasons. Next year we will get promoted and have a good chance in the CCC. It wont happen over night just as our slide into oblivion didn't happen over night.

I believe the fans who go to the games are happy with the way the club is going now, the standing ovations in the last 2 games make me believe it. So what people on a forum think does not really matter, it does not effect the team in either a positive or negative way.

 

What they also don't mention is that the side that he had to disassemble in order to get them winning again was put together by our current manager!

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What they also don't mention is that the side that he had to disassemble in order to get them winning again was put together by our current manager!

 

What they also fail to mention is that they actually got worse when he left. Which i guess goes to show that changing things does not = better.

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After the Millwall and Northampton games and the signing of Rickie Lambert, my expectation was high mid-table, just short of the playoffs. Since then I see a bottom four struggle until Xmas. After that depends on whether Leibherr and Cortese flash the cheque book in the January window.

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even if we dont sign anyone, surely we are good enough not to be worried about relegation FFS

 

That really depends on the other teams at the bottom...if they start picking up a few wins and we don't then we could end up 18+ points from safety...don't rate our chances if that happens. Getting back to the thread, my one expectation (and hope if there is any justice in the world) is that Oldknow will have proved himself a complete c**k by the end of the season and will be swiftly dealt with a la Everton.

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Be out of the relegation zone by Christmas with a side which is then playing as Pardew wants.

Add to the squad again in the second transfer window to fix any weaknesses.

Finish the season somewhere around 12th with a squad most of whom have had a season playing together and know how the manager wants to play.

Have a good pre-season (that'll be a first!) fine tuning.

Start next season on a flyer in what turns out to be our promotion season.

 

And for what its worth, you won't hear a peep from me complaining about the manager until Christmas at the earliest. In my humble opinion you can't turn round the utter dross Pardew inherited in any less than 3 months.

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I would take mid table now if it was on offer promtion with minus 10 points was never on the cards the new owners & Pardew didnt get control soon enough to do anything other than rebuild this season we need some stability to move forward we have had so much change & turmoil it is time to give people enough time to change things for the better next season I would expect promotion I think the owners have shown ambition and Pardew will be given whats needed to achive promotion next season this season is about rebuilding

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My expectations are that we will be lucky to survive.

Going by the stats we need 1.3 points per game just finish outside of the relegation zone,at the moment we are gaining 0.6 points per game so to ask an already disfunctional,unfit bunch of players to more than double their efforts is a tough task for pardew.

IMO at the moment I don't think we have got it in us to do it,I hope I am wrong and pardew turns it around, but personally I think it will take more than pardew has to offer.

There is something more wrong with this club than just changing a manager and buying a few players to fix it I'm afraid.

 

So my prediction is relegation again but I would love it if I was wrong.

 

I disagree. The players will naturally get fitter as they play more games, and the dysfunctionality should hopefully decrease as the coaches and new signings settle in. Surely we'll get a good run of wins at some stage of the season?

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Still a long long way to go, but I stick to my 3 tiered answer I gave pre-season.

 

We should look to survive, that is THE most important thing this season. I 'want' us to be looking up to the play-offs, rather than down toward relegation. The optimistic Saints supporter in me, thinks that we should be looking to the play-offs.

 

Relegation cannot happen this season, it will crush us and our new owners. We are, IMO, missing two things at the moment - Cohesion and confidence. Once we have bedded in all of our new players, managers and staff, we should be working with more cohesion. To have one most of our games up until now, would've been a false impression and probably a bit lucky. So, 3 draws, although not great or even good, we are not dire! September, for me, this season, as well as last, will dictate our confidence. September is a very important time, as the gelling will be complete and the building can start in earnest. If we haven't won a game by the end of September, we are in the real sh*t!

 

I have every confidence that the squad we have assembled this season is one that can easily compete in this league and as time goes on, we will get better. As long as our confidence isn;t shattered and we get desperate, the wins will come. We just have to start wanting it more, stop playing football (going through the motions) and start believing that we will win and that we are better than the other team. Start to get a bit of arrogance and that we can turn any team over. CONFIDENCE, CONFIDENCE, CONFIDENCE. If we can get it, we will be alright and if we get it going sooner rather than later, we may have a hope of reaching the playoffs this season. Would this be too soon for us though? Maybe another season in L1 is better for us to gather together our squad, one that is almost able to compete in the CCC. I don;t know, but relegation will not happen this season, will it?

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I have seen nothing to shake me from my original thoughts that we will improve slowly throughout the year, finishing strongly but maybe not quite enough overall for play-offs. Although the gap between top 6 and bottom 6 is quite narrow so we may just squeak it but I wouldn't put any money on that.

 

This very much echos my thoughts. I do think one win will set us on a bit of a run, APs signed some decent players and by January, when we can further strengthen for the 'final push', I'd like to think this will at last be a side on the up.

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I have seen nothing to shake me from my original thoughts that we will improve slowly throughout the year, finishing strongly but maybe not quite enough overall for play-offs. Although the gap between top 6 and bottom 6 is quite narrow so we may just squeak it but I wouldn't put any money on that.

 

That is the way I thought as well but the start has been a lot worse than I thought

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I was certainly hoping for a better start than we've had but it's inevitable given that AP didn't have a proper pre-season to do the work he's been doing over the last few weeks.

 

Therefore I'll be more than happy with finishing outside the bottom four please!

 

Bit pessimistic I know but realistic I believe.

 

Next season could and should be very different and I'll be expecting us to compete at the very top of the table.

 

By season 2013/14 we should be back where we belong and sitting comfortably in mid-table........

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With just over 2 hrs to go before the transfer window shuts my expectations are getting lower and lower. If no news by then relegation will be a real possibility.

 

In fact, I think I'll settle for expecting relegation now - that way I can get my disappointment over with in time to maybe enjoy some of the season.

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I think we can avoid relegation with the team we've got. The players/manager need time to gel, and I would expect us to finish mid-table. Then next year get promotion, (With a stronger squad though), not as runners-up though, or through the play-offs, but as champions. That way at least we can say we've won something

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I disagree. The players will naturally get fitter as they play more games, and the dysfunctionality should hopefully decrease as the coaches and new signings settle in. Surely we'll get a good run of wins at some stage of the season?[/QUOTE]

 

Why? We haven't for years (or at least it seems that way)!

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Firstly to get to 0 points! I think we should work on short term targets this season and stay in the league with any thing else a bonus, and try and build a squad which is going to be going for the title next year.

 

problem is you assemble the squad and by next year half of them will want to move on such is a footballers need for better wages at all costs.

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Solid mid table at Christmas with a bloody good run at the play offs ending in noble failure.

 

Oh yes, we're going to finish ninth.

 

And all the people berating everyone for having "unrealistic expectations" for "expecting" to finish in the top half will be precisely the same people who in April will berate anyone who says we can't make the play offs when we are bumbling around tenth/eleventh.

 

Precisely the same people. Mark my words and it will happen. There is a little switcheroo that happens on the forum that turns the "realists" (we'll be lucky to finish in the bottom four get a reality check etc etc") into the loony optimists ("if we win the next three and so and so loses two in a row we'll be four points off the play offs etc etc") around about the end of March.

 

Trust me, it happens every season.

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I was hopeful with new owners and a decent English manager - and maybe a bit of money - we'd right off the -10 in the first 5 or 6 games and push for the play-offs

 

however I think I underestimated how bad the team we had left from last season actually was

 

Lambert and Harding were a good start - and Murty was good signing as cover for right back

 

but having watched the first few games it became obvious we needed to bring in about another 7 new players including a right back, central midfielder, a right winger, 2 centre backs and 2 strikers before the end of the transfer window

 

Hammond was another step forward, Melis just like for like unfortunately

 

but we are still lacking a right winger, a pacey striker or two, a first choice right back, and another centre back

 

the squad has no real depth - and without these extra players we will really stuggle this season - particularly when injuries kick-in

 

even without the -10 points the current squad would struggle in this League (and on current form we are in for a relegation battle)

 

with the -10 we are in for a long hard season

 

I hope I'm wrong and the club pull a few rabbits out of the hat to prove me so

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