Next Season

[Marlton & Hove Albion]

Based upon where this all may end up, it looks like next season is shaping up well for us. Why?

Norwich and Leeds will be up, and hopefully Charlton. As much as I'd like it otherwise, I think CP stay up and Scunny, Plymouth and P"boro come down.

Rochdale, Notts Co, Bournemouth and maybe Rotherham come up.

If that plays itself out, with the exception of Southamption, we're looking at the usual suspects in terms of our historical rivals. None with any significant resource advantage and I would argue the majority with resource deficit.

Should we be worried about Millwall, Swindon, Huddersfield, Bristol Rovers, Colchester? Did any of them look very special against us recently?

Quite frankly, if this all aligns, next year we have no excuse not to push very hard for automatic promotion with playoffs the least we should expect.

Four key new additions to the team we've got now, Gus with a stable team and 9 months under his belt, I don't think it is too much to expect. We've underperformed for two years. 2011/12 is our time.

 

[mcshane in the 79th]

The thing that worries me is a huge turnover of players. Up to 14 could be on their way out (expired loans, players out contract or simply released) which means a lot of new signings needed. This could well lead to us needing the dreaded "time to gel"

 

[dougdeep]

If we can purchase 3 or 4 good players then I think we stand a good chance of promotion.

 

[Taybha]

Keeping Painter and Calderon will be top priority next season imo add a proven goalscorer and the squad we have currently should do rather well on recent showings.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

I think this time the pre-season games need to be treated a lot more seriously. In the past couple of seasons we've been outplayed by the likes of Crawley, and everybody's written it off as a mere training exercise that doesn't count for much. Then the new season starts, and we find out that many of the new signings are actually quite woeful.

 

[Marlton & Hove Albion]

(New Keeper) fighting PB and FDM for #1

Calderon and Painter to stay. El-Abd and McNulty as cover. Virgo and Elphick as starting CBs. (Tunni as cover)

Bennett, Dicker, Crofts, Navarro, Lua Lua (Season long loan) plus (New Midfielder)

(New Striker), Murray, Holroyd, Dickinson (Yes I want him back), Forster

Goodbye Carole, Hawk, Hart, Davies, Smith, Cox, Wright

 

[trancing]

Keeping Painter and Calderon will be top priority next season imo add a proven goalscorer and the squad we have currently should do rather well on recent showings.

 

[mcshane in the 79th]

Wouldn't be surprised if we didn't see the following next season:

Kuipers
Cox
Jake Wright
Dickinson
Lua Lua
Painter
Craig Davies
Hoyte
Hawkins
Hart
Whing
Tunnicliffe
Arismendi
Carole

And possibly even Jimmy Mac.

I just don't know how Gus feels about them and especially the players out on loan

 

[dougdeep]

We'll have to see the FDM as it's his testimonial, shirley.

 

[FLOG GNAW]

I think the relegation zones look sorted. I can't see any of the bottom 4 getting out of it. Norwich are up and Leeds are getting wins again so they will go up aswell. I can't see Charlton winning the Play-offs and IMO Millwall will go up if they can keep thier form up.

Petobourgh and Plymouth are down. I hate to say it but I think Palace will survive with Scunthorpe taking the last place.

League 2 is closer but Rochdale are up. Notts County will also be promoted but will probably have to sell Hughes and Schmeichel. I think Rotherham will get the last Automatic place with Chesterfield winning the play-offs.

This leaves our league looking like

Scunthorpe
Plymouth
Petobourgh
Charlton
Swindon
Colchester
Huddersfield
MK Dons
Bristol Rovers
Southampton
Carlisle
Walsall
Yeovil
Brighton
Brentford
Leyton Orient
Oldham
Hartlepool
Gillingham
Tranmere
Rochdale
Notts County
Rotherham
Chesterfield

Looking at the current teams Charlton, Huddersfield and Scunthorpe all have strong sides but none as strong as Southampton who SHOULD walk this division next year. Swindon will be up there and Plymouth will be hard to beat at Homes park. M.K Dons will be in or around the play-offs as will Colchester. If we can get in Painter, LuaLua and Calderon in along with a goalscorer (Pitman, Zola or Benson from League 2 or someone from the Championship.) then i can't see why we can't push on for at least a play-off place.

 

[Foolg]

I think the relegation zones look sorted. I can't see any of the bottom 4 getting out of it. Norwich are up and Leeds are getting wins again so they will go up aswell. I can't see Charlton winning the Play-offs and IMO Millwall will go up if they can keep thier form up.

Petobourgh and Plymouth are down. I hate to say it but I think Palace will survive with Scunthorpe taking the last place.

League 2 is closer but Rochdale are up. Notts County will also be promoted but will probably have to sell Hughes and Schmeichel. I think Rotherham will get the last Automatic place with Chesterfield winning the play-offs.

This leaves our league looking like

Scunthorpe
Plymouth
Petobourgh
Charlton
Swindon
Colchester
Huddersfield
MK Dons
Bristol Rovers
Southampton
Carlisle
Walsall
Yeovil
Brighton
Brentford
Leyton Orient
Oldham
Hartlepool
Gillingham
Tranmere
Rochdale
Notts County
Rotherham
Chesterfield

Looking at the current teams Charlton, Huddersfield and Scunthorpe all have strong sides but none as strong as Southampton who SHOULD walk this division next year. Swindon will be up there and Plymouth will be hard to beat at Homes park. M.K Dons will be in or around the play-offs as will Colchester. If we can get in Painter, LuaLua and Calderon in along with a goalscorer (Pitman, Zola or Benson from League 2 or someone from the Championship.) then i can't see why we can't push on for at least a play-off place.

Pretty much agree with all of that, except i think that if Posh can keep hold of the likes of Mackail-Smith, Mclean, Joe Lewis (although Boyd will surely leave) then they could be a real threat again. I cant see Scunthorpe holding onto hooper, wouldnt be suprised if he left to the Championship, possibly even Leeds or Norwich, but they'll still be somewhere in the top 8 im sure.
Only bit i disagree with is the strikers you suggested, Zola at this level was poor, and Bensons now past 30. If we have the money suggested, one expensive striker is a must, someone like Simeone Jackson perhaps (many Gills fans now want him to leave to raise funds) or Billy Paynter?

 

[FLOG GNAW]

Pretty much agree with all of that, except i think that if Posh can keep hold of the likes of Mackail-Smith, Mclean, Joe Lewis (although Boyd will surely leave) then they could be a real threat again. I cant see Scunthorpe holding onto hooper, wouldnt be suprised if he left to the Championship, possibly even Leeds or Norwich, but they'll still be somewhere in the top 8 im sure.
Only bit i disagree with is the strikers you suggested, Zola at this level was poor, and Bensons now past 30. If we have the money suggested, one expensive striker is a must, someone like Simeone Jackson perhaps (many Gills fans now want him to leave to raise funds) or Billy Paynter?

On the whole striker front I think it could be worth a go at trying to swap Dicko for Mackail-Smith. Gannon thinks Diko is the better of the two strikers and Mackail-Smith would work well with Murray IMO.

Long shot I know but then if someone told me this time last year that Brighton would would have LuaLua playing under Poyet this season I would of thought they were mad.

 

[Seaford Seagull]

On the whole striker front I think it could be worth a go at trying to swap Dicko for Mackail-Smith. Gannon thinks Diko is the better of the two strikers and Mackail-Smith would work well with Murray IMO.

Long shot I know but then if someone told me this time last year that Brighton would would have LuaLua playing under Poyet this season I would of thought they were mad.

Worth a try. I don't think Dickinson will want to come back and the Murray / Dickinson combination hasn't really had a great deal of success.

 

[SW17]

Be us, saints, palace, charlton and millwall all up there next season if the latter 2 stay down. If Bournemouth come up they will be the whipping horse

 

[Foolg]

Be us, saints, palace, charlton and millwall all up there next season if the latter 2 stay down. If Bournemouth come up they will be the whipping horse

Huddersfield im sure will be up there too, have spent a lot of money and im guessing they may have some more to spend next season. Scunthorpe have a good squad, with Hooper they'll be a real threat if he stays, and as before im sure Peterborough under Gannon will be in with a shout. Bournemouth will do ok i think, Pitmann up top and a couple of players we've looked at, if any of them struggle it will be Rochdale i think.

 

[Foolg]

On the whole striker front I think it could be worth a go at trying to swap Dicko for Mackail-Smith. Gannon thinks Diko is the better of the two strikers and Mackail-Smith would work well with Murray IMO.

Long shot I know but then if someone told me this time last year that Brighton would would have LuaLua playing under Poyet this season I would of thought they were mad.

Well worth a try, im sure Mackail-Smith was attracting Championship interest in January, but even if we have to add a fair bit of money as well as Dickinson into the deal, he's proved he can hack it at this level. I think someone like him to get 20+ goals alongside Murray would make the difference.

 

[Husty]

keep what we have in calderon painter and brezovan, get an attacking midfielder 15+ goals a season), a new striker (20+ goals a season ) and a left winger (perhaps LuaLua)

Bringing in those extra goals will make the difference, we have proved we can defend against the best but have struggled to pick up the goals (capitalise on opportunities) that could have won us some of our recent games (leyton orient, leeds, swindow, millwall, colchester)

 

[jordanseagull]

keep what we have in calderon painter and brezovan, get an attacking midfielder 15+ goals a season), a new striker (20+ goals a season ) and a left winger (perhaps LuaLua)

Bringing in those extra goals will make the difference, we have proved we can defend against the best but have struggled to pick up the goals (capitalise on opportunities) that could have won us some of our recent games (leyton orient, leeds, swindow, millwall, colchester)

Agree.

Although a 15 goal midfielder?

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Some people have short memories. This was supposed to be the season where we went up, remember. All that bullshit talk about our Twenty Goals A Season strikers. Sadly, many other clubs wanted it more.

 

[mcshane in the 79th]

get an attacking midfielder 15+ goals a season),

Who was the last midfielder we had who scored that many?