Expectations...

[Micky]

Call me a negative but one of my main concerns this season is the expectations of our fans.

Last season was a wonderful, incredible achievement that will most probably never be repeated in my lifetime. We were fantastic but we were also fortunate that the other big teams had stinking seasons.

This season I predict that reality will return and we will find it much tougher. I would be very pleased with a top 1o finish and a decent run in our cup competitions. My worry here is that there will be many fans that expect us to be competing at the very top again. I also fear that these fans could turn on the team if things don't go entirely our own way.

I also worry that some of our fans seem to think that we are suddenly a huge club that can attract world stars. The reality is that we are still little old Leicester and our first intention in the league will be survival.

Am I being too negative or are others feeling the same?

 

[harrowfox]

I'm going into the new season with eyes wide open. Of course we can push forward from last season but there is also some significant strengthening of opposition teams.

I would expect a top half like you. I fear a "wheels have fallen off "over reaction from the media and a few plastics as soon as we start losing a few matches but they can all #### right off.

Onwards an upwards with a few bumps expected along the way.

 

[H T B]

I expect City fans to be totally ott win or lose

 

[pork pie fox]

I'll expect what I always expect, when it comes to City - crushing disappointment.

Anything else is a bonus, in my eyes.

 

[Orifice]

Winning the league can be scary. I expect that in the new season we should be Ok and manage to finish top ten but there will be people expecting all sorts of things (just like normal then). Things will surly be tougher this season but it wasn't easy last season - it's just that we won the league by 10 points.

You never know what's around the corner.

 

[City Fan]

I witnessed us becoming the champions of English football last season for the first time in our history.

We can get relegated next season and I really wouldn't care less.

 

[Sack]

Does that mean we can get back to saying "we woz robbed" and "we'd've won that if they hadn't've fluked those four goals"?

I liked being 'plucky little Leicester' because for years there was no other choice. I've had to put up with Arse twats bleeting on all through our winning season about how it will all go wrong, then how 'normal service' will be resumed, arrogantly trying to devalue that pride in a team that actually achieved an incredible, wonderful kick in the big-boys goolies!

We obviously 'wern't supposed to actually win the bloody thing!' pretty much like a pace setter in a race is supposed to drop off with a couple of laps to go for the star runners! All I've been hearing for the last couple of months from individuals, teams, and even countries in all sports is that they want to do 'a Leicester', but that also seems to go with the understanding of that meaning hard graft and not beating yourself psychologically before the event.

Twats like the Arses 'believe' they have a divine right to dictate how the game should be played, and whom 'deserves' to be at the top, and they don't take too kindly to their 'natural order' being prodded with a big sharp stick! (...then Venga the Vulture goes and tries to pick off half our bloody team!). I vaguely remember being at Stonehenge back in 1980 and prodding the plod with sharp sticks ...they didn't like it either, so I've done my research.

It's a bit like getting married ...you can get a divorce, but it don't change the fact that you were stupid enough to do in the first place! Well we were stupid enough to win the bloody league and now we'll just have to live with that fact.

We're the kings of the underdogs, and not an establishment bankrolled 'safe bet'. But now we're infected with success and I personally would be happy if we never win anything ever again ...as long as the world ends!

Unrealistic expectations are quite normal. It's more the 'reactions' that are the problem. You give your missus a bunch of flowers, you know they're gonna die and be binned ...but she expects them all the time! Nothing short of winning the Champions League win do for me this season.

 

[TornadoShaunUK]

I hope we keep sticking it to the man! I don't see why not. The minimum target should of course be to avoid relegation and then add new targets each time we achieve them, just as we did last season. Realistically I think we should be looking for a top 10 finish but you wonder how the ultimate goal of 'slowly improving' can possibly improve on last year. Champions League win? FA Cup win? Defend the title?.... All three. Why the feck not.

 

[Miles Away]

It will be hard to listen to Mills et al give it the big one when we suddenly aren't rolling over teams every week.

The pundits will want order restored more than anybody and when they get it, we will be the ones they'll go after.

 

[Lako42]

Just make sure you give the negative bedwetters the stick they deserve in the stands.

 

[Sack]

I do however, expect to see Gary Lineker in his pants in a couple of weeks time!

 

[Brown Nose]

We're in a pretty unique situation so it is hardly surprising that the range of expectations from fans will be wide.
I can only describe my real thoughts about the upcoming season as bipolar.

My general principle with City is 17th or better in the top league is acceptable. But having won the thing, would I be satisfied with 17th this year? Of course not. There is no way that that would be acceptable to the players and staff so why should it be good enough for fans?

I look at the projects that are beginning at Chelsea, Man City and Man Utd and I think that they'll all have improving seasons, but not title winning ones. Then I see Arsenal and Spurs being no better than they were last time and Liverpool being on a path that won't be quite good enough. I see us as better than the rest of the squads in the league after the 'big six' too. Would we swap our squad with any of the rest? No chance.

This fits with the bookies expectations of us being the 7th best team and realistically, that's where we 'should' expect to finish.

But can Chelsea improve by the 31 points we were better than them last year? Or Liverpool, by 21 points? Or 15 from Man Utd and Man City? Or 11 from Spurs and 10 from Arsenal?

The truth is that we can and probably will be significantly less effective than last season and we'll still be in the mix with a number of these sides. 7th would mean us getting around 20 points fewer than last year with a better and more experienced squad. We ought to be aiming to do better than this.

So 7th-17th is the expectation and anything in that range will be acceptable to some. I think this season can be anything again though. Absolutely anything.

The Champions League dynamic changes nothing really for me. I expect us to finish bottom of our group and be out of Europe straightaway. Anything better than that would be an absolute miracle.

 

[stkrk7]

Do we change our expectations because of winning the PL last season or do our expectations stay the same as before we won the league.

I personally think we should change our expectations and aim for the top 6 if we are to continue to become a bigger club. But on that note have we done enough during close season.

We really have signed 2 players, I know we have signed 4 new players but 2 of those were replacements for kante and schwarzer and we seem to be aiming at up and coming players and not recognised players which we also need.

Look at Chelsea last season couldn't get the players mourinho wanted and struggled I hope that that doesn't happen to us.

A top 6 finish and a good run in the CL not really bothered about the domestic cups.

 

[glyn]

I feel our expectation should be at least top 10, if not top 8, but a hugely successful season would be fighting for a top 6 place.

Bottom half would be a disappointment, and that's in no way being ridiculous in our expectations. We won the league, and have been the best team in the league by far since April 2015.

Mahrez going would change things as we'd have lost one of our match winners as well as our midfield monster.

A couple of weeks ago I posted about wanting teams to be more ambitious following our exploits last year. That doesn't mean I want owners or Claudio to expect to finish top 4 - but to be pragmatic in that we should expect to be top half, and not just fighting for 17th. Similarly other clubs should not be settling for 40 points after all we achieved.

 

[lazzer]

Top Half

 

[Lako42]

I just hope we are fighting to finish somewhere in the league that means something.

After last season and the one before it I don't think a mid table finish would satisfy.


I also remember looking at those teams whose season finished 4 or so games before the end of the season and thinking how boring the remaining games would be.

 

[Durham Fox]

Top half finish and a cup would be nice.

 

[Lako42]

Top half finish and a cup would be nice.

How about 2 girls and one cup?

 

[jb5000]

Really not my cup of chocolate ice cream, thanks, but each to their own

Sent from my E5823 using Tapatalk

 

[give_us_a_wave]

I'm just in a really strange mood.

This is my 41st pre-season & it's unique.

All of the others consisted of varying degrees of expectation & ambition coupled with the hope of being pleasantly surprised.

In common with everyone else of similar age,disappointment & resignation have been the prevalent emotions.
BUT...always there was the hope.The July/August optimism.The "Could This Be The Year?" feeling.

Followed by the May/June counterpoint: "It's Never Going To Be The Year Is It?"

Long ago I accepted that it was always going to be like this.

& now it isn't.

This WAS The Year!!! It ****ing happened.

Out of nowhere.

No slow build up.

No gradual development over the course of 4 to 5 seasons at the top level.

No mental Leeds/Pompey style overspending ending with the club in ruins for decades.

Just a glorious,dizzying,impossible transformation from relegation certainties to Champions of England in 14 insane months.

So...this pre-season? Something I could never, EVER have imagined myself saying...

...I couldn't give a shit.

I really couldn't.

What would be the point?
What can possibly happen that can ever top what went before?
Even if we won the sodding league again it still wouldn't come close to the feeling the last year has given us.

So i don't care.All I ever wanted since I was 10 years old was for my team to win the league.
In my teens my school was filled with dickhead glory boy so-called fans of the big boys (Liverpool back then) Twats who couldn't even point to Liverpool on a ****ing map.
I wanted us to win anyway...but it would have been extra sweet to stick it to those pointless wankers.
Now here I am.A fan of the reigning champions.Above Liverpool by a vast, yawning chasm of points & living in an era when the Scousers have become a side nobody expects to win the league.

I got everything I wanted.

Although of course it doesn't really matter as obviously all those twats from school will have stopped supporting Liverpool 20 years ago & switched to Manure.
Still counts to me though.

So there you go.I just don't care.

As long as we don't go down of course.

It's a very strange feeling & I'm not sure if I'll ever get my head around it.

PS: Of course...winning the Champions League would render all of the above utter bollocks.