So what are people actually expecting from next season?

[Crafty Canary 496]

I take your point however, fortunately, it isn''t always determined by money and team spirit and inner belief can have a big impact too. Indeed our performances over the last two seasons are proof of that. You are right that finishing 17th will be success however I suspect that PL will want a bit more than that if he can get the players he wants in the close season.

[InLambertWeTrust! 0]

I think a lot depends on who survives tomorrow...actually f*ck that! Lambo is a genius, let''s just worry about ourselves!

[Mr.Carrow 376]

I agree with T`s caution, but the more i think about what we`ve got going here the more confident i feel (assuming Lambert stays....). We`ve ditched the nice little norwich attitude and the boards hard-nosed ambition filters right through the club. Lambert has proved himself almost faultless with his signings and tactics- the latter alone will probably be worth several Prem.points. We have a dedicated squad who are on a high and mostly at a nice age to perform at their very peak (I`d argue that even Holt+Wes are at their peak as they`ve never relied on pace),and of course, the board are apparantly not scrimping when it comes to strengthening.

I also contend that we are a much better team than Blackpool when they went up, and will be a better team than they are now by the start of the season....and they havn`t done too bad.

[. 0]

Straight down again I''m afraid for me... but having put up a better show than last time.If Lambert goes worse still... but then at least there will be money in the bank and we shouldn''t drop down any further if they get things right off the pitch.

[InLambertWeTrust! 0]

Now that we''ve got the vast majority of the transfers done, would people like to re-assess and even change their views?

I''m going to stick with bottom 6 and survival. We need a back up goalkeeper and a central defender imo but I''ll leave that to PL [;)]

[Herman 9,777]

Get your passports up to date and start collecting Airmiles.You will need them 2012/13[Y]

[G 0]

[quote user="DOGGER"]I think this year we could have easily beat the following teams,

West Ham
Wigan
Wolves
Blackburn
Blackpool
Sunderland


...........and could matched the following,


Villa
Newcastle
WBA
Bolton
Stoke
Fulham

On that basis about 10th to 13th
Obviously we are to strenghten as well as the other teams so i would say at best about 12th


[/quote]

No, just no. I can''t believe some people on here, top 10? Do you realise how hard this league is? For me i think we will stay up i wouldnt expect any less but not by much by the bare minimum. In a bit of shock at how confident people are on here, our signings have been good but not the best, have we had any that have experienced a losing streak, although it could work for us they will hate it and give everything to get out of it but getting youngsters to lift there head will test Lambert to the extreme.

 

This season will come down to how good Lambert is not how good our players our in my opinion. If he can keep there head up, confidence high and team spirit. If he does this the team will perform well enough to STAY UP, not finish top 10. I hope I eat my words but I can''t see it.

[pete_norw 0]

Anywhere out of the bottom 3 will do for me,  I know we all want to be around the middle of the table but being realistic, I think we will all be very happy if come the Villa match we were not worried what the score was and knowing we''re safe

[grantroederdisaster 0]

I expect us to make a better fist of things than we did last time in the top flight and if we go down (which I think we can avoid with something to spare with Lambert it won''t be through a lack of effort!

[Desert Fox 0]

[quote user="G"]

[quote user="DOGGER"]I think this year we could have easily beat the following teams,West HamWiganWolvesBlackburnBlackpoolSunderland

...........and could matched the following,

VillaNewcastleWBABoltonStokeFulhamOn that basis about 10th to 13th Obviously we are to strenghten as well as the other teams so i would say at best about 12th

[/quote]

No, just no. I can''t believe some people on here, top 10? Do you realise how hard this league is? For me i think we will stay up i wouldnt expect any less but not by much by the bare minimum. In a bit of shock at how confident people are on here, our signings have been good but not the best, have we had any that have experienced a losing streak, although it could work for us they will hate it and give everything to get out of it but getting youngsters to lift there head will test Lambert to the extreme.

 

This season will come down to how good Lambert is not how good our players our in my opinion. If he can keep there head up, confidence high and team spirit. If he does this the team will perform well enough to STAY UP, not finish top 10. I hope I eat my words but I can''t see it.

[/quote]

Dogger, I am surprised that you have left QPR of the list. They dint have a great second half of the season, havent really strengthened their squad, have manager who has struggled to make an impression on the PLpreviosuly and are about to lose their star player. By your reckoning they will be top 7!!!

[Desert Fox 0]

Ooops - please ignore the previous post as I can now see the list refers to last season. Still think QPR will struggle though.

[itsnowornever 0]

lets please be honest with ourselves. These optimistic posts just sound like last time we were in the premiership, finish top half, finish in top six, survive no problem. It just didnt happen, yes we all hope and dream but if we get any injuries to our first choice players we just do not have the capacitity to survive. example today sunderland had 7 current internationals on the bench and they only finished 10th last season.

[Norfolk Mustard 94]

Yes, as per ‘T’s comments, we can easily make a correlation between financial standing and final league positions – but thank goodness (in the words of motivational speaker Tony Robbins) ‘the past does NOT equal the future’.

 

There are so many factors in gaining success – and Paul Lambert masters many, many key principles in extracting the maximum from his well-selected playing and coaching personnel.

 

It’s a bit early for predictions as we don’t know our team yet do we? My hunch based on the activity so far and us retaining PL is 15^th place.

[Mahogany 0]

Either 12th or 20th.

To be fair to our 04/05 team, they only missed out on staying up by 1 point, sure the way they fell apart against Fulham left a bitter taste (as did the subsequent 5 years). But some of the comments make it sound like we were relegated by Christmas, and that even if we play much better this time we might still get relegated. For me much better would involve more than 1 less loss.