What are your expectations for next Season?

[roversfan99]

My expectations are that a club that has finished 7th twice and 8th within the last 4 seasons, in a poor league, should be aiming for a top 6 finish.

I dont think that will happen though.

[Ossydave]

Wrong time to be answering this tbh, as always recruitment is key not just to us but everyone else.

Brum and Wrexham spending means they're less likely to be scrapping down there like Pompey, Oxford and Derby were this season. Derby will no doubt back Eustace and be a little more comfortable but the other 2 will be battling again. I think a few more established teams will be though too. Preston ought to be very worried unless they make considerable changes. Usually a surprise team involved, not many backed Luton to go down....

[TommyRovers]

Strong start to the season.

Injuries hit after Christmas.

Poor January window.

Form falls off a cliff.

Good end to the season.

Repeat.

Edited yesterday at 20:15 by TommyRovers

[Forever Blue]

Lots can happen between now and the transfer window shutting at the end of August. We could have sold Trav and Tron by then, and anyone else who’s contract is up in the next 12 months.

There are no guarantees we’ll replace them if they do go. 

We don’t really know enough about the manager yet either to have any confidence he’ll do well next season. 
  
 

[...]

I'm hoping that the heat from this seasons coalition and all the airtime they've had that something will happen in the transfer window.

[alcd]

Bottom 3 from start to finish. Can't be anything else when the squad will lose its best 5 players for very little compensation and the self-serving Gestede is running the recruitment. 

[Norbert Rassragr]

Around 15th at best. Our Bosmans will go, and we'll have a load of donkeys come in, and under prepared kids.

[Tomphil2]

Impossible to predict because absolutely anything can happen in summer and i think we got away with one this season in terms of bettering expectations.

We had Eustaces hard to beat mentality and still a touch of JDT's flair sprinkled in there but sooner or later that'll begin to leave us as it's coached and and players change.  We also will not keep getting away with selling every player of value whilst filling the squad with kids and freebies.

Going into next season as we are now i'd say 11-15th place, which those drawing their big wages in head office would be delighted with.

As always home form will be key, pity the club and owners don't help their head coaches and team by trying to fill the ground up.

[roverblue]

Relegation battle - although hinges on how many leave this summer and just how poor the replacements are. I don't think it will be Ismaels fault we just have a strategy and budget of a league 1 team and its were we eventually will end up.

[TheRevAshton]

Can't imagine this team right now would finish any higher than 12th next season - but as we all know, this team is about to change massively...

There are so many variables, but for Rovers recruitment is everything for the next few months.

Can't see a scenario where we'll be anywhere near the top, simply based on the other teams and their finances/ambitions;

• You've got Leicester, Ipswich and Southampton coming down with squads that could already dominate this league - but they'll also each have buckets of cash.
• Then you've whoever doesn't win the playoffs - 3 of Sheff Utd, Sunderland, Coventry and Bristol City.
• To top it off... you've then got Birmingham and Wrexham coming up with solid squads already (particularly Brum) but then they've also got shit loads of disposable cash and massive pull in the market. I genuinely expect Birmingham to spend loads and be challenging at the very top.

In my opinion, we'll be nowhere near it!

[...]

11 hours ago, Forever Blue said:

Lots can happen between now and the transfer window shutting at the end of August. We could have sold Trav and Tron by then, and anyone else who’s contract is up in the next 12 months.

There are no guarantees we’ll replace them if they do go. 

We don’t really know enough about the manager yet either to have any confidence he’ll do well next season. 
  
 

I know there's no guarantees but travs interview was interesting 

[nesskj]

Same as the last two seasons. Nothing special happening during summer, but still a surprisingly good start, Ismael states in December that the squad is weak and we need investment in January, Ismael leave for something better during January, and we start on a new fresh.

Alternatively, bottom half, but the club stays positive and communicate that we need to be patience in order to build accordingly to the new project and the long term plan plan. Of course no one knows what the plan or project is.

[davulsukur]

My expectations aren't high but it will swing from either a relegation battle to midtable depending on the summer business.

The plan is just to increase the value of younger players for a future sale, so i'd be looking more towards a relegation battle than anything else right now.

[TimmyJimmy]

The club have pushed us all over the edge,  we're bipolar club supporters, extreme episodic bouts of mania and depression. The answer to your question depends on the day that you ask it.

How can we be anything other than manic depressives in this mad house of a club, disappointment follows optimism, hope follows failure the only constant at the club is chaos.

It's a rinse repeat situation. Follow the Rovers these days and you're signing up for a self inflicted rough ride.

I salute you all but you're all mad as a box of frogs.

Expectations for the season ... only that I'll be writing the same words this time next year.

[funny-old-game]

Like everything Rovers over the last 15 tortures years, I haven't got a fucking clue 

[Eddie]

Everything will obviously hinge on how the transfer window goes, but I see no reason to set expectations any lower than top half. 

We're losing a couple of players, but they are replaceable. The teams dropping down from the Premier League season are one of the weaker bunches, so there's no reason to automatically pencil them all into the top 6. Although Birmingham and Wrexham could prove more challenging opponents than most newly promoted League One sides. 

I'll say top 9.

[chaddyrovers]

13 hours ago, roversfan99 said:

My expectations are that a club that has finished 7th twice and 8th within the last 4 seasons, in a poor league, should be aiming for a top 6 finish.

I dont think that will happen though.

well at least I got an answer finally 

[superniko]

Leicester, Southampton, Ipswich, 3 x Playoff teams, Boro, Birmingham, Norwich should all be wanting to compete at the top.

We're probably in the next bracket with Watford, West Brom, Derby if they get their act together, and hilariously Wrexham.

So based on that 10th - 15th.

Brittain, Batth, Hyam, Carter, Travis, Tronstad, Cantwell, Ohashi - these are all mid-table / top-half Championship players. We shouldn't be in a relegation scrap unless their is mis-management from either the manager, board, or both, and we NEED to add a goalscorer / striker.

We have better starters than PNE, Oxford, Pompey, Stoke, Millwall, QPR, Swansea, Wednesday etc. 

Recruit well (lol) then we should be performing similar to this season. I just can't see it happening and see us falling to lower mid-table.

Edited 11 hours ago by superniko

[paullarrygher]

I think the reality with the Championship now is that you will always have 3 or 4 teams near the top that have almost Prem-level squads and budgets. Next year, you'll also have Birmingham and to a lesser extent, Wrexham in that mix.

From 6th/7th to 24th, you'll have teams with broadly similar budgets and problems off the pitch. How those teams finish is a lottery. Fans of Watford, QPR, Oxford, Portsmouth, Sheffield Wednesday, Preston, Hull City, Swansea, and Stoke will all be having the same worries as us. You can count Millwall, Derby and Bristol City in that too if their managers get poached or walk. You're one bad/good run away from the relegation and playoff places in this league. 

Keep the core of this squad and new contracts for Brittain, Hyam, Trav and Tronstad then I feel confident we'll end up towards the top half. Let them go or have them poached in January then it'll be another tense final day for us.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

My expectations - same as this season - disapointment.

[Mattyblue]

Exactly, Paul. It’s a mediocre division outside the parachutes. The fact this shambolic club has spent three years out of four knocking on the door tells you that.

But, the flip side of that is it doesn’t take much to fall the other way - as Hull have shown this time.

[riverholmes]

1 hour ago, funny-old-game said:

Like everything Rovers over the last 15 tortures years, I haven't got a fucking clue 

With Hedges and Dolan on the wings, we almost reached the play-offs (albeit, it seems to me in a league drifting away from the top league at great speed). With Brereton, Armstrong, Rothwell, Harvey Elliott, Branthwaite, Harwood-Bellis et al. we finished, I believe, mid-table or so.

It does depend on the standard of the league, which seems in decline, except for a select few. However, overall I am gloomy about the future, not least, based on the lack of youth talent coming through. Players like JRC, Scott Wharton, Buckley, Garrett, Carter, Nyambe, Lenihan etc. haven't all been great or consistent, but they've bolstered the squad and have made a difference at certain times. Right now, we have nothing like that coming through.

[DeeCee]

Contracts and transfers predominate.

Expecting lower mid table.