Where will we finish this season?

Our summer business has been completed and we've now played four games so thought I'd set a poll to see how optimistic we are for the new season based on what we've seen so far.

Are we in for a completely unexpected title push? Will we scrape into Europe? Or is a season of midtable consolidation the expectation? Perhaps you're anticipating another season of struggle? Vote in the poll and tell us why you think that way.

Not covered by the poll, but does anyone fancy us to win a cup? Is it our year for the FA Cup after last season's final disappointment?

Thinking this will be a regular thing, so this poll will be followed by a new one next month allowing us to see how our expectations evolve over the season.

I'm voting for a season of midtable consolidation around 9th-11th. After five seasons of struggle I think this will make for a welcome change. We've got a better manager (not hard) and have strengthened midfield and defence a fair bit. Big unknown (as said often already) is goals but Sinclair has got a few already and hopefully goals for the other guys will come. I'll be honest and say that I think our performance so far this season has made us quite difficult to call but really you'd think the players we've got will only get better over the season.

Cup wise, I'd love to see us win one and was gutted after we didn't show up at Wembley last season but think we'll do well in both cups without getting to a final.

In the William Hill win £50 million predict the premiership I have us 14th

I've gone for between 9-11th this based on pure hope and optimism that we will be loads more entertaining than last year but bit quite the finished article to be really pushing in for those 6-9th spots. If we can finish 9-11th I think we'd have done really really well. I just want a season where we're not right down the bottom and constantly worried about relegation. Good poll, I like it. Will be interesting to see how our minds change as the weeks and months go on.

I think we will finish around 14th, more desperate hope than anything else really.

It depends on how quickly Sherwood can identify his best team. I'm guessing he will know his regular starting eleven by October, and that team should be firing on all cylinders by November. I expect us to be no higher than 14/15th position during this learning period.

If we are fortunate with the fitness of key players, then I think we can finish the season between 8th and 12th. So my prediction for our finishing position will be 10th place.

The fact that I know I'll be disappointed if we finish lower than that, is an indication of the improvement I feel we've made with our summer signings.

I have set my sights low so as to avoid disappointment, in truth I will be happy if we are not in a relegation battle with 5 games to go.

Morddred wrote:I have set my sights low so as to avoid disappointment, in truth I will be happy if we are not in a relegation battle with 5 games to go.

I totally see the logic, when all is said and done will that be classed as progress or a failure on Sherwood's part? What do we think his aim is? Do you think he's been set a target given he was allowed to spend all of what RL go for CB and FD etc?

What does represent a fair measure of progress and success for TS this year? (The original question still stands, just interesting to know what we think marks a success/failure)

Good question, I would see failure as being a continuation of the last four/five seasons of struggle with us battling relegation right until the end of the season. Progress would be finishing somewhat away from the bottom three in the lower reaches of midtable with safety being all but assured by around March. Anything further up the league would be success.

Even if we ended up in the 'failure' situation, unless we were relegated, Tim would probably be able to say he deserves more time as his players will only get better with time especially if we have a cup run. I should point out that I don't see us being relegated as particularly likely.

I'd be interested to see if anyone on here has higher expectations. So far we're all talking midtable or lower midtable and I'd expect most of us would see that as progress or even success. Is there anyone who wants top half and would see finishing, say, 14th as a failure?

Progress is anything above where we finished last year combined with improved performances on the pitch.
One thing TS has in his favour is that we would have to turn truly dire for him to break some of Lamberts records and landmarks.

I think we will come 11th this season, we could well be in our familiar position for the first 15 games, down near the bottom, but after that we will improve noteably and finish in a comfortable 11th position. The premier league this year is easily the strongest it's ever been in my opnion and there really aren't many, if any, bad teams. So if we can finish mid table this year, it can be classed as tremendous progress.

Jim Villan wrote:I think we will come 11th this season, we could well be in our familiar position for the first 15 games, down near the bottom, but after that we will improve noteably and finish in a comfortable 11th position. The premier league this year is easily the strongest it's ever been in my opnion and there really aren't many, if any, bad teams. So if we can finish mid table this year, it can be classed as tremendous progress.

I'll take 11th right now. It would be good to finish 9th and be classed as a top ten team again, but isn't that an indication of how far Villa have fallen both in stature and expectations.

I'd say 14th (the highest realistic finish).

The TV money effect this summer has meant that clubs haven't had to sell their players to generate funds as much.. so the majority have been able to hold on to that same first 11 (who finished well above us last season), and have added a few key players each (the standard of these transfers have arguably been higher than ever before as we're seeing players move to mid-table clubs who would'v previously demanded Champions League/ Europa football- thanks to the lure of big wages).

These are the only clubs who have really lost any players from their first 11s:

Liverpool: Sterling
Southampton: Clyne, Schneiderlin
Stoke: N'Zonzi, Begovic
Sunderland: Wickham
West Brom: Lescott
West Ham: Downing
Villa: Benteke, Delph, Cleverley, Vlaar

We finished 17th last season.. we've lost the highest number of key players from last year's first 11, so when we're assessing our chances this season compared to the rest of the league we need to take into account that we started our summer having taken 3 steps back.

I think we've added well over the summer, without going and getting the proven key match winner types, who neutral football fans would recognise as top players [Lerner would have had to spend an additional 20-30m to do this instead of only reinvesting]. I think because so many teams simply added quality to the quality they already had it will be extremely difficult for us to finish above these 13 clubs this year:

1. Man City
2. Chelsea
3. Arsenal
4. Man Utd
5. Liverpool
6. Spurs
7. Swansea
8. Crystal Palace
9. Everton
10. Stoke
11. Southampton
12. West Ham
13. Newcastle

Then if you take into account the surprise packages (newly promoted e.g. Bournemouth) consistent teams (West Brom) and clubs that are looking good right now (Leicester), who could all realistically finish higher than us; you start to see that coming 14th would actually be a real achievement, considering how we've had to rebuild.

Also, I think our quality is spread throughout the squad far more than other premier league teams who seem to have first 11's who pick themselves.. Chelsea won the league last season virtually playing the same 11 week in week out. I think the extra player options could keep us from being relegated, but at the same time might limit how high up the table we can reach come May.

A very well reasoned post. It's made me realise that my 8th-12th prediction is based on optimistic hope, rather than a pragmatic opinion based on hard fact.

A well reasoned and thought out post. Blimey, I hope we do better than logical thinking says we will.