Bookies currently predicting Albion to be 13th next season

[Notters]

Higher. Gus will not settle for 13th.

 

[Commander]

You've made a really good point here

Ooooh, thanks.

Reasons why I think we'll do so well:

We were champions of league 1, with 5 weeks to spare
Our front line has already been massively upgraded
We haven't finished recruiting yet
The type of football we play is condusive to consistent results. Run of the mill games will see us retain the ball and win fairly routinely (we won't thrash many sides). Sure there might be some games where the opposition raises their game against a team doing very well in their new stadium, but they will prove to be more inconsistent.
There are not many real stand-out teams, and of the two everyone is talking about (West Ham, Leicester), I'll bet at least one of them fucks it up completely.

Yeah, but tippy-tappy football wont work as well in the Championship, Steve Claridge says so.

Barcelona / Spain would struggle if they had to play Doncaster away on a Tuesday night.

 

[Pavilionaire]

I'll be honest - I'd be disappointed with 13th.

There's a lot of League 1 sides that have got into the Prem relatively quickly, and part of this is down to the "surprise" factor. Teams won't know what to expect from the stadium, our support or our side. We are a complete unknown to 23 other sides.

Crowds won't be any higher and the manager won't be any better than what we have going into this season. Similarly, if we do well our best players could get cherry-picked off because of the wage structure in the next 12 months.

I think this season is likely to be our best chance of promotion for the next few years and we've all got to be thinking that way. Accept mid-table and we could easily go the way of Coventry, Derby or Ipswich.

 

[SeagullEd]

I would be thrilled with 13th. I think we have a bit of an inflated idea of how good we are and although we expect more good signings we can't gaurantee. When you look at that league there are loads of good teams with money; we have this idea we are pulling away from others financially but I think in reality we've only just caught up.

I think the ponit about teams working us out is very true, we did get worked out by a few teams last season.

Reasons for caution (just to be concise):

1) Last season there were a lot of games we ddn't deserve to win, but did - we can't always rely on this
2) We have lost some very good players in Bennett and Murray as well as gained a few - this shouldnt be forgotten
3) This league is VERY good, if you look there are a lot of teams with money and a high calibre of squad; our Defence and goalkeeper (as they are atm) were fairly regularly slightly suspect in league 1 and they will have to step up
4) Whilst we expect signings to bolster our squad back up and add some more quality, we haven't got them yet - we know things can go wrong and you can easily miss out
5) Expectations are huge this season and we can't be sure that they will always deal with them; if we loose 2 of the first 3 or whatever I think panic might set in
6) New signings might take time compared to established front pairings

We have this idea that Bloom and Gus are invisible which is ridiculous really; all this stuff about 'they get who they want', 'won't settle for that' etc is more comforting to fans than grounded in reality... in reality they dont have as much control over the sucess of the club as maybe we'd like to believe. Also, we don't know who they may have missed out on so I think attributing too much to them is unwise; it's the 18 on the field and bench which matter and at the moment I don't think we have an adequate squad.

However, saying that, I am not suggesting we go out and buy loads of player to try t oget top half and beyond. I am predicting 15th- 13th and if finishing there means that our younger players who got us into the league get a chance rather than being replaced by signings then I would be very very happy.

 

[Silent Bob]

Can't see any easy games at all. Even Peterborough have made some good signings, and they're predicted to finish bottom.

There cause has been helped by having the father of their wife-beating manager in charge of the Premiership champions though. United have given Posh two loan players and Ajose for a discounted £400k to help their cause.

Yep, I haven't been checking who everyone has signed (all those boring midlands teams ) but quite a few lower and midtable clubs have added good players. I'd still make Posh one of the faves to go down though, Fergie's favours didn't help Preston too much.

 

[Bring back Bryan wade!!]

I think we will finish 5th or 6th.........

 

[8ace]

http://www.oddschecker.com/football/english/championship/group-c

Do we think we'll "win" our "group"?

 

[osgood]

Higher. Gus will not settle for 13th.

agree with this, most fans would be happy with this position , have a feeling gus would abhor such talk, theyll be AIMING for top 6,
if they dont quite make it ,they tried would be more his philosophy, i think,
some GOOD teams in league, but nothing to be scared of, cant see many getting a double result against us.

 

[Muzzman]

I would be absolutely thrilled with finishing 13th, i dont care what anyone says, what the club do, or whatever this season is our first season in this leauge, and i will treat it the same as i did last time we were here. We are the underdogs, im not going to go to games thinking, yeah we will easily win this one. So to finish 13th will be an achievement - not getting relegated is the main thing. for me anyway.

Completely agree.

 

[Icy Gull]

Really does depend on who else we sign. At the moment I'd say lower but I imagine that we will be making a few more quality signings.

 

[Icy Gull]

We have this idea that Bloom and Gus are invisible which is ridiculous really.

Of course it is, I see Gus at most games but Bloom is a bit invisible sometimes

 

[Mackenzie]

Avoiding relegation would be a good start, I'd take that. Top half would be dream land.

 

[Napper]

13th and beat the scum 1 CP and scum 2 PFC would be absolutely fantastic

 

[Falkor]

personally i think a little higher top 8 possibly in the playoffs

 

[scwiffy]

I guess Im the only one that thinks next season will be pretty tough (with current squad)

I'd take any place that avoids relegation.

I look at all the teams in the championship and cant see any easy games.

I think we'll do well going forward and getting a few goals (especially with new signings) but our current back-line is not ready for championship strikers in my opinion. I expect them to get caught unawares quite often, out of position or beaten for pace.

Home advantage will be key IMO, if we can turn AMEX into a fortress then that'll give us something to build on.

The other 2 things going for us are the positive feeling of momentum at the club, and the opposite at other championship clubs. But (obviously), that feeling counts for nothing if we don't get the results on the pitch. Our style of play will seem reasonably alien to the opposition which will hopefully get us off to a good start.

 

[Braders]

Well I've said 12th-17th so yeah I take that right now

 

[Dave the OAP]

I'll take 13 th now thankyouverymuch

 

[perseus]

I think it will be so close that 71 points might be enough for the play-offs and the clubs will need 55 points to avoid relegation. I think we might be lacking height in midfield, somebody to take set pieces and cover in defence.

 

[Ernest]

Anything LESS than TOP and QUESTIONS may be ASKED

 

[Seagull on the wing]

I think it will be so close that 71 points might be enough for the play-offs and the clubs will need 55 points to avoid relegation. I think we might be lacking height in midfield, somebody to take set pieces and cover in defence.

Agree with this...Height especially...but we have'nt finished signing yet...just hoping