2023/24 - The Race For..................

[fishhhandaricecake]

Think Villa are dark horses for top 4 this season.

They were brilliant in the second half of last season, have a top manager, and have bought fantastically well.

Plus it's Emery. So they'll probably nab a European trophy on the way.

Absolutely no.

 

[fishhhandaricecake]

People being way overly negative here.

I think a top 4-6 finish is a realistic aim especially if we use the Kane money to sign 2-3 more.

My take:
1st & 2nd : City & Arsenal will be way more consistent than anyone else again
3rd-5th (other CL places) :
I’d expect Liverpool to be back amongst this but let’s see as they’re letting in a shed load of goals pre-season and end of last season. Man.U and Newcastle should be amongst it again, especially Man.U but they both have CL football now which will take its toll.
You then have us and Chelsea who are outside bets for those positions but unlikely to be consistent enough in 1st seasons with new managers but both have squads certainly comparable to or better than Newcastle.
6th-8th: Villa & Brighton both have Europe and far thinner squads than the others mentioned above, that will take its toll.

As things stand and assuming we spend the Kane money on another CB and attacking player at least, I think the table will be something like:
1/2: Arsenal or City
3rd Man.U
4th Liverpool
5th Newcastle
6th Tottenham
7th Chelsea
8th Brighton
9th A.Villa

But imo depending on how quickly we and Chelsea hit the ground running 4th-7th could be a mix of any of those teams and don’t forget 5th gets CL this season therefore I’d like to think we can aim for at least CL footy again but also aware that we could get off to a bit of a rocky start so patience will be needed.

 

[Tezza1978]

I would be satisfied if we finish in the top 1/2 of the table.
I hope we can finish top 8 but feel it is unrealistic.
We will be losing our star player, have question marks over the other (Son), and have to adapt to a new style of player with only 1 proven CB (Romero).
It's a tall order for any club to bridge, including the ones that are more keen on us to spend big.

Sorry but if that happens - rightly or wrongly - Ange will be sacked - 100% certain of that - assuming we don't win a cup.
We need to show ambition and have signed some good players. Kane going is not the end of the world even though it feels like it now. More will come in.
I think 7th is the minimum we should expect. I would be very happy with 6th and delighted with 5th. Think 4th will be beyond us but there is still a 5-10% chance if the new players gel quickly.

 

[arunspurs]

We are in for a wild ride , thats for sure.

Not sure, how many of you realised this...We are going to field a XI, so far different from our usual.

Current predicted starting XI for Sunday is :

Vicario,
Emerson Romero VDV Udogie
Bissouma Sarr Maddison
Kulu Richarlison Son


Last game of last season was Leeds away. Only 3 players survive in new team

Forster
Emerson Sanchez Lenglet Davies
Porro Skipp, Bissouma, Son
Kulu Kane

So, no point in predicting where we finish -we need to see how things pan out over couple of months atleast

 

[barry]

Think Villa are dark horses for top 4 this season.

They were brilliant in the second half of last season, have a top manager, and have bought fantastically well.

Plus it's Emery. So they'll probably nab a European trophy on the way.

I don't think so.

I actually thought villa were shit against us, and we could of easily won with a better keeper, and better timing of runs.

Added to that other teams will treat them like challengers, rather than relegation fodder, so will play more conservatively against them. I just can't see them breaking a low block easily.

I also don't think they've had this amazing window. Don't really take Youri , or Pau, but Moussa could be interesting. He's the wild card which makes predicting their finish hard.

 

[barry]

I watched a lot of preseason. Liverpool look dog shit. Szoboszlai looks cack. I'm not saying he is but he might take a bit of time to acclimatise.

United look the same. No team cohesion, just gonna rely on individual brilliance.

Chelsea is a fucking unknown.

Brighton look good, but they always do, but like us might flatter to deceive.

The scummers look worse than last season. Maybe low energy, or maybe Xhaka was more important than I thought, but they don't look all that.

Brentford don't look great

Villa and Newcastle look OK. Very workmanlike. Good mangers. Have to admit Newcastle have some good pacy youths

We look very good.

I'm not worried about the season. Considering most of those clubs have Europe, 8th would be a massive disappointment to me. I think we'll do much much better than that.

Proofs in the pudding. 2 days to go.

 

[tevezito]

We are in for a wild ride , thats for sure.

Not sure, how many of you realised this...We are going to field a XI, so far different from our usual.

Current predicted starting XI for Sunday is :

Vicario,
Emerson Romero VDV Udogie
Bissouma Sarr Maddison
Kulu Richarlison Son


Last game of last season was Leeds away. Only 3 players survive in new team

Forster
Emerson Sanchez Lenglet Davies
Porro Skipp, Bissouma, Son
Kulu Kane

So, no point in predicting where we finish -we need to see how things pan out over couple of months atleast

Surely Emerson, Bissouma, Son & Kulu is 4? And Romero would have played and you don't know Skipp doesn't ahead of Sarr. But, yes, even so, having half a new team could clearly go either way, but you'd like to think the only way is up.

 

[ultimateloner]

Sorry but if that happens - rightly or wrongly - Ange will be sacked - 100% certain of that - assuming we don't win a cup.
We need to show ambition and have signed some good players. Kane going is not the end of the world even though it feels like it now. More will come in.
I think 7th is the minimum we should expect. I would be very happy with 6th and delighted with 5th. Think 4th will be beyond us but there is still a 5-10% chance if the new players gel quickly.

I dont think you are being realistic.
What you've said is what you want; not what is likely to happen.
There are too many question marks especially up front; will Son+Kulu be back on form? Can Richy be relied upon? All this amid a significant style change and don't get me started with our defence.

 

[ultimateloner]

Now that we lost Kane, my take is,

We simply cannot predict a position here.
We have to take this game by game, see how this new team is growing together and then assess around Christmas time. Ange gets my vote of confidence for the whole season.

The likelihood is less than 8th because that's where we finished with Kane last season.
Ange is unlikely to reverse all the work that's been done from Mourinho up till now. People expecting or demanding European finish are under-estimating the time it takes to bed in a new style of play. We have to learn to play on the ball without Kane; something not done over the last 5 years.
It should not be taken for granted that players like Bissouma can take the reins; because they haven't done so on a consistent basis before.

 

[ultimateloner]

Kane is the only thing that has elevated us into a top 4 challenger over a top half team for the last few seasons. The difference between us and 4or 5 teams each season was that we had a consistent and brilliant goalscorer who could turn enough losses into draws and wins to propel us above them and he did this pretty much single handedly.
We no longer have this advantage and probably never will again, so it is all about building the squad / team and we shall just have to hope for the best but we start on level par now with all the teams being mentioned plus West Ham for places 6th to about 11th .

Don't forget Son. We had 2 worldclass attackers and an otherwise bang average team (I'd argue mid-table).

 

[ultimateloner]

8th would not be a "good" achievement.

At best 8th would be "par".

We should be aiming for better than that. This is still a squad with quality players. With hard work, and a bit of injury luck, we should not accept anything less than European qualification.

Meh - Less than Europe
OK - Conference League
Good - Europa qualification
Great - Champions League

I think you are being abit too optimistic. You are usually more level-headed than that.
8th would be more like our 'better than likely' scenario. It's about where our squad/club is at in the hierarchy, like outside of the big 7. So it assumes that we will be beating the likes of Brighton/Villa etc; teams that are on the up. It assumes that we play optimally.
I have very little faith that the others will step up given past performances.

 

[stormfly]

Well we are 17th at the moment. Already jumped up one place so it’s not a bad start.

 

[Gassin's finest]

I tell you what... I'm realistic about the season ahead. It's going to be a bit win some/lose some for a while until the defence settles, and we're likely to be floating around mid table. Probably get a cuffing or two off the top 4 teams. But I'm more optimistic about how well we're going to be playing.

A front three of Son/Richi/Kulu, anchored by Bentancur and Bissouma, with Maddison hooking them altogether, is pretty fucking good actually. I'm excited!

 

[Tezza1978]

I dont think you are being realistic.
What you've said is what you want; not what is likely to happen.
There are too many question marks especially up front; will Son+Kulu be back on form? Can Richy be relied upon? All this amid a significant style change and don't get me started with our defence.

It's not a case of what I want or demand. Given we got 8th despite really struggling, finishing below that would indicate things are even worse. I want to see more attractive attacking football but if you think the fans - or the board - are going to accept a poor midtable finish - unless we win a cup, given the money we are spending you are mistaken. Ange deserves all the support we can give him for the whole season- but football is a results business and that scenario means he would be gone.

 

[greaves]

Well we are 17th at the moment. Already jumped up one place so it’s not a bad start.

I do wish we started each season as, say, Aottenham Hotspur. The thrill of theoretical first.

 

[Bing]

My optimism from early summer has slowly faded and I must say I am a little concerned about how this is going to go now.

I don't think we have addressed our defensive problems. VDV will take time to settle and I feel Vicario could go either way. Maddison is a big signing for us but we've lost 30 goals a season from Kane.

I think with Ange's style of football and our defence we are in for a rude awakening first half of the season. There are going to be some difficult moments and there will be a lot of work to do come January.

We might get a cup run but I really believe we will be finish around 8th.

 

[Athenspur]

First time ever I'm not looking forward to a season. Underwhelmed and depressed. And that was before the Kane sale.
I'd settle for a top half finish, but I fear it's going to be an epic struggle.

 

[Marty]

I think Villa, Newcastle and Brighton will all struggle a little bit with the extra European fixtures this season. That's regardless of who they sign and lose between now and the end of the window. We so often see that European first timers have trouble balancing league and Europe and I don't think any of them will be exceptions. None will be bottom half, they're too good for that, but those three 7th to 9th is my bet.

On that basis, I've put us 6th in my predictor above all those three. The big wildcard will be Chelsea under Poch who I've put 5th but have no idea whether they'll click well or be another dumpster fire. Complete 50/50 which scenario plays out IMO.

 

[Sp3akerboxxx]

8th would be disastrous for a squad of our quality.

I think we will definitely be on the receiving end of some AVB style 6-1 thrashings against the top sides.

But we have enough about us we should still beat most teams in this league.

 

[Bing]

8th would be disastrous for a squad of our quality.

I think we will definitely be on the receiving end of some AVB style 6-1 thrashings against the top sides.

But we have enough about us we should still beat most teams in this league.

I think a big question mark for me is how good some of our players are. At the moment there are question marks around most of our players and they could go either way. How good is Richy? Brazil number 9 but could'nt score last season. Can Son recapture his form? Is Kulu as good as his start suggested? Can Bentancur return? Can Bissouma reach his potential. Can Romero mature? Will VDV settle? Will Vicario work out? Porro, not sold on him personally. Kane was the one player we could rely on.

If it all goes right, we could be a couple of signings away from having a very solid team....but that is a lot that needs to go right.