As the table looks today we’ve over delivered. I don’t think many of us would accept that the performances this season have been flawless (nor has anyone else’s). Realistically we’ve probably merited a finish somewhere between 14th and 10th, but we’ve been able to take advantage of the inconsistency seen right across the league. Being honest the football hasn’t always been great either; we were a bit over-reliant on Grealish before his injury, our lack of creativity from the fullbacks continues, other than KDH our midfield has lacked any sort of imagination and the forwards have all been patchy, including Ndiaye (though the messing about with his position hasn’t helped).
So next season I want to see us more consistently within the top 8, better cup performances and a clear improvement in the key areas of the team.
All that said I’ve been delighted with the determination of the team to grind out results and nobody is expecting us to be a pushover anymore. And when we have lost this season I’ve not had that horrible sick feeling we seem to have had every year since Ancelotti left!
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slow and steady progress is easy to say, but needs definition.
In a years time, we will have had two more transfer windows to help us improve. I have not forgotten how well our decline was managed over the years and as a result I think progress should be more defined.
I would think minimum of twp places better in the league this time next year would be progress, anything else is stagnation.
I would also say the the league is the standard for bench marking, the Cups are one offs and no indication of overall progress (see Palace this year). The higher up the league you go, the better chance you have of attracting better players and obtaining trophy success.
Lets set the bar at 6th next season and have a target for progress.
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on March 6, 2026, 11:32 am, in reply to "