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Expectations for next season

Posted: 11 May 2017, 18:04
by monkeyboy
Be interesting to see the general optimism amongst forum users.

Expectations for next season

Posted: 11 May 2017, 19:29
by SenorDingDong
I'd like to think mid table mediocrity would be achievable and a nice change but when was the last time we finished mid table?

2016/17: 17th with a late surge up the table to these heady heights.
2015/16: 18th with a last 3rd of the season recovery
2014/15: 13th - probably the closest to a midtable season we've had recently but the finishing position masks the fact we were 2nd after 10 games, went into total freefall for most of the rest of the season and then recovered in the last 5 games.
2013/14: 24th - less said about this the better
2012/13: 19th - fairly indifferent start then slide down to relegation battle and late revival under Knill.
2011/12: 5th - should have been automatically promoted - threw it away at the death
2010/11: 7th - squeezed into play-offs
2009/10: 17th - season long relegation battle with a fantastic last six matches to lift well clear
2008/09: 4th - went up through playoffs
2007/08: 3rd - after challenging for the title for 2/3rds of the season
2006/07 - 24th - the Roberts season

Anyway you get my point, looking back the last genuinely mid table campaign was probably under Roy MacFarland in 2002-03 when we finished 9th, how mad it that? Thus my feeling is either GI will continue to neglect the club and the club will go down in acrimony like the Roberts season or KN will get everything to click, Dave Hedges will sign some hidden gems and we'll challenge for the play-offs. Never a boring season....

Expectations for next season

Posted: 11 May 2017, 20:45
by Burnhamgull
Mid table would be nice but with another small budget, virtually a whole team to recruit and little support from the board, I expect another season of struggle.

Expectations for next season

Posted: 11 May 2017, 21:17
by Plainmoor78
It is far too early to predict where we will finish next season given that we only have two players at present and the manager. But I think looking at the poll at present (after 12 votes) some people are going to be disappointed, since there isn't any evidence yet that we will have a decent squad, in fact I wouldn't be surprised if we end up with a vastly inferior squad.
On another thread it is being suggested that the teams coming up from the north and south are going to be stronger than the teams relegated this season, that means it will be much tougher to survive. Don't fall for Osbourne's hype about having a team capable of mid table / pushing for play offs position.

By the way senordingdong, 13th (achieved under Hargreaves) is mid table, 12th and 13th are the middle positions in a 24 team division.

Expectations for next season

Posted: 11 May 2017, 21:18
by arcadia
This is not a good post I think you should put this question to the manager not the supporters as you would then see what his ambitions are with the budget he's got.

He should be aiming to win the league as any manager should.

Expectations for next season

Posted: 11 May 2017, 21:28
by SenorDingDong
Plainmoor78 wrote: 11 May 2017, 21:17 It is far too early to predict where we will finish next season given that we only have two players at present and the manager. But I think looking at the poll at present (after 12 votes) some people are going to be disappointed, since there isn't any evidence yet that we will have a decent squad, in fact I wouldn't be surprised if we end up with a vastly inferior squad.
On another thread it is being suggested that the teams coming up from the north and south are going to be stronger than the teams relegated this season, that means it will be much tougher to survive. Don't fall for Osbourne's hype about having a team capable of mid table / pushing for play offs position.

By the way senordingdong, 13th (achieved under Hargreaves) is mid table, 12th and 13th are the middle positions in a 24 team division.
I'm quite aware that 13th is mid table but it was not a season of mid table mediocrity as I stated in my post. Mid table mediocrity is bumbling along in the middle never at threat of promotion or relegation, winning a couple, losing a couple. The Hargreaves season was a fantastic start then a god awful run from October when we only won 6 games out of 30 and lost 16. Only a late rally in the last four matches stopped us finishing as low as the last two seasons - with a budget that was probably twice the size.

Expectations for next season

Posted: 11 May 2017, 21:32
by Plainmoor78
I get your point senor.

Expectations for next season

Posted: 11 May 2017, 21:33
by Dave
Not really Arcadia. Remember last close season, Nicho was asked he said promotion, and made himself look a right one, it's a question I'd rather, not be asked of the manager personally speaking.

As for my personal belief, think a comfortable mid-table finish should be achievable.

Expectations for next season

Posted: 12 May 2017, 07:26
by monkeyboy
Would be happy with mid-table; more wins at home than losses and a bit more involvement in the FA Cup and Trophy would generate interest.

Expectations for next season

Posted: 12 May 2017, 08:02
by hector
SenorDingDong wrote: 11 May 2017, 19:29 I'd like to think mid table mediocrity would be achievable and a nice change but when was the last time we finished mid table?

2016/17: 17th with a late surge up the table to these heady heights.
2015/16: 18th with a last 3rd of the season recovery
2014/15: 13th - probably the closest to a midtable season we've had recently but the finishing position masks the fact we were 2nd after 10 games, went into total freefall for most of the rest of the season and then recovered in the last 5 games.
2013/14: 24th - less said about this the better
2012/13: 19th - fairly indifferent start then slide down to relegation battle and late revival under Knill.
2011/12: 5th - should have been automatically promoted - threw it away at the death
2010/11: 7th - squeezed into play-offs
2009/10: 17th - season long relegation battle with a fantastic last six matches to lift well clear
2008/09: 4th - went up through playoffs
2007/08: 3rd - after challenging for the title for 2/3rds of the season
2006/07 - 24th - the Roberts season

Anyway you get my point, looking back the last genuinely mid table campaign was probably under Roy MacFarland in 2002-03 when we finished 9th, how mad it that? Thus my feeling is either GI will continue to neglect the club and the club will go down in acrimony like the Roberts season or KN will get everything to click, Dave Hedges will sign some hidden gems and we'll challenge for the play-offs. Never a boring season....
When we finished 9th in 2003, we were under the management of Leroy and had been chasing a play-off place for much of the season.

I think you have to go back to around 2000 for the last season when we never in contention for promotion, nor concerned about struggles at the other end of the table. Hargreaves last season turned into a bit of a relegation battle for a while. In fact since 1984, there have probably on been a handful of 'mid-table seasons'. 89, 90, 95, 2000. The rest seemed to have concerned promotion or push or relegation battling.

It has tended to be one or the other for much of the campaign, even if there was a late revival

Expectations for next season

Posted: 12 May 2017, 08:06
by merse btpir
Mid-table won't reverse the descent of the average gate to appalling new lows......

That descent will bring with it appalling new minimal levels of expenditure being made possible by the ownership. The public will stop falling for the twice running 'con trick' of marketing another relegation fight as #greatescape3

The real battle for the future of this club will be fought in the town hall and whatever secret location the Mayor and the Torbay Development Agency together with Clarke Osborne seek out to carry out their mutually back-scratching deal.

........and at this moment in time just Sam Chaney and Damon Lathrope are secured for next season under a management that has so far only managed the giddy heights of finishing seventeenth. That's the reality of the situation!

Expectations for next season

Posted: 12 May 2017, 08:51
by Jerry
As it seems that the new definition of mid-table is a season where you are never close to either promotion or relegation (as opposed to a season where you finish in mid-table :} ), I would say that no team has had such a season since the advent of the play-offs.

Expectations for next season

Posted: 12 May 2017, 09:04
by merse btpir
Yes but there's the 'mid-table' finish borne of narrow failure to reach the play-offs and that of narrowly avoiding relegation and we all know what this management is good at!

Expectations for next season

Posted: 13 May 2017, 09:07
by Plainmoor78
So far the majority of people responding to the poll have gone for the mid table options. I wonder if this not actually their expectation, but their hope for next season given that so far we do not have a single shred of evidence that our squad will be any better than last seasons.

Expectations for next season

Posted: 13 May 2017, 09:17
by Burnhamgull
Plainmoor78 wrote: 13 May 2017, 09:07 So far the majority of people responding to the poll have gone for the mid table options. I wonder if this not actually their expectation, but their hope for next season given that so far we do not have a single shred of evidence that our squad will be any better than last seasons.
I think you're right, mid table would seem like the prmised land for the club at the moment and fans would love to reach those giddy heights. The reality though is, as Merse has said, we have a less than minimal squad, a management team that hasn't exactly flourished and a fan base that's down to the bare bones. Despite the ecstasy of yet another #greatescape, does anybody really think we'll do anything better than the same next season?