Battle Of 4th, 5th, 6th Position

[bellamy11]

Enjoy this week while it lasts, I feel it could be the high point of our season. Final position 8th.

Sorry, but I 'm a pint half empty man.

387800[/snapback]

Ditto.

8th being a disappointing final position? Well, shows how far we've come in such a short space of time.

TBH, finishing ahead of Everton and Boro is almsot as important as final position.

[Neil Weaver]

Last game of last season, weren't Man City and Mboro playing each other and battling for a UEFA Cup place? Wouldn't be too suprised to see something similar happening in our last game of the season - think I'd settle for that too (as long as we got the right result of course).

[Hughesy]

4th!

They say a champs league place is worth around £15 million to a club.

However it would also mean an extra £6.5million from finishing 4th (Rather than 17th that was budgetted for)

That would be a cool £21.5 million extra that Rovers didnt budget for!!

KEEP THE FAITH!

[Jim J]

They say a champs league place is worth around £15 million to a club.

387846[/snapback]

But you have to qualify first, look what happened to Everton

[Hughesy]

I think that if we finished 4th then Rovers would spend abit more money this summer and going off Hughes' buying so far, im confident it would improve us further.

So i would be capable of qualifying - aslong as the game isnt against someone like Real Madrid (But they couldnt even beat Arsenal so who knows )

[bellamy11]

4th!

They say a champs league place is worth around £15 million to a club.

However it would also mean an extra £6.5million from finishing 4th (Rather than 17th that was budgetted for)

That would be a cool £21.5 million extra that Rovers didnt budget for!!

KEEP THE FAITH!

387846[/snapback]

Budgeted for 17th? Are you sure? Can you provide a link for that one? Because that isn't even close to what I've heard.

[Ricky]

Hughesy, where did you get the fact that we budgeted for being 17th??

I'm sure in the past we budgeted at finishing between 6th and 8th or something along those lines. I'm sure I read somewhere that our wage budget was within the top half of prem teams

[philipl]

JW has been quoted as saying we budgeted for 10th in the two seasons we finished 15th. Don't know where we budgeted for this season but I'm sure we didn't budget for losing yet another 2,000 off the gates.

[Hughesy]

JW is not stupid and if you think he would budget for anything like 6th - 8th then you really are naive.

I dont know for a fact but im sure we will of budgetted for lower end of the table after last years performance.

Either way £15 million from champs league wont be budgetted for! so that will do the trick!

[Shevchenko]

I say 8th and I'd be very happy with that.

[cn174]

JW is not stupid and if you think he would budget for anything like 6th - 8th then you really are naive.

I dont know for a fact but im sure we will of budgetted for lower end of the table after last years performance.

Either way £15 million from champs league wont be budgetted for! so that will do the trick!

387869[/snapback]

For the past two years we have budgetted for 10th position.

They will not budget for 17th place because if things go wrong - which they can do - and you don't achieve that target you get relegated.

When they budget 10th that leaves more leeway if things dont go to target. And then there's always the possibility that you finish above target - which is what we are on course to do this season.

Edited March 2, 2006 by cn174

[tcj_jones]

It would take an amazing run of form to get 4th place. I really cannot see it happening and I think that people are dreaming if they think a 4th place finish is realistic.

I think a small gap will open up between the top 6 and 7th, 8th and 9th place. I think a finish in this region is most realistic. My calculations have us finishing one point above West Ham, although I didn't take Wigan, Man City or Newcastle into acount, who could easily creep in to that group.

As our fixtures appear to be the easiest of the top 8, I think 7th place is our most likely final league position

[Ronin]

Would like for us to finish in the Top 6, which we are more than capable of, so we can snag a UEFA place. Or failing that, as long as we finish above Everton & Boro, for the Intertoto. Either way we'll have exceeded expectations at the beginning of the season, and the extra coffers for finishing higher, will come in very handy for next season, so we can build on a very fine season.

[Tony Diamond Inc]

On the first day of this season I was in Peterborough visiting friends (Man Yoo supporters). When I predicted we would finish 5th I was laughed out of town.

I am sticking to my guns

[bellamy11]

JW is not stupid and if you think he would budget for anything like 6th - 8th then you really are naive.

387869[/snapback]

I didn't think that's what he budgeted for. As others have said, he has very publically told us we've been budgeted for 10th. So you completely made up the figure of 17th.

[Bobby G]

People lets not forget that finishing 4th doesnt guarantee Champs League football or 15 million pounds, just ask Everton.

We could end up with a nightmare draw, IF we even made it.

[bob fleming]

We could get 4th spot. It'll take a great run of results though, starting with an away win at Spurs. It's a big ask but this team is on a roll. Confidence and self belief is high, if we can avoid injuries to key men (Bellamy) then there's a chance we can do it.

Having said that Bolton are a point behind with two games in hand, you can't write Arsenal off, Spurs have been very consistant and have been in 4th place for ages and West Ham will go above us if they win their game in hand (which I think is at ManU, which is nice).

So, I voted 6th. Looking at our run in you just never know. Exciting times.

[tcj_jones]

Looking at the teams below us, this is the order I think the top half of the table will be come the end of the season. I think it is very likely that we will finish between 7th and 9th and a single point could be the difference.

Chelsea

Man Utd

Liverpool

Arsenal

Bolton

Spurs

Blackburn

West Ham

Wigan

Man City

[American]

I think that if we finished 4th then Rovers would spend abit more money this summer and going off Hughes' buying so far, im confident it would improve us further.

So i would be capable of qualifying - aslong as the game isnt against someone like Real Madrid (But they couldnt even beat Arsenal so who knows  )

387851[/snapback]

Everton also spent money to improve, but didn't get the results for the money until they were well gone from Europe without getting anywhere near the money that even a Bolton got.

Oh, and it doesn't matter because we're getting a big influx of cash from Fred Walker, aren't we Hughesy?

[Modi]

I've gone 7th and praying that two of the teams above us are in the FA Cup final - so I guess that means Chelsea, Liverpool or Bolton.

My original guess of a position was 12th, so we've over achieved this year in my eyes.*

*subject to not going all crap in the next 11 games.

[joey_big_nose]

Everton also spent money to improve, but didn't get the results for the money until they were well gone from Europe without getting anywhere near the money that even a Bolton got.

Oh, and it doesn't matter because we're getting a big influx of cash from Fred Walker, aren't we Hughesy? 

387916[/snapback]

I ddon't think they actually spent any of the Champions League money (just as well as they didn't really get any). What they did spend was from the Rooney transfer.

[s_simpson_9]

I am optimistic.

My reasoning may be flawed ...

our two best strikers are just getting started and will be pumped up for the run in.

Bellamy had such a good break and isn't burnt out. He is just starting to fire on all cylinders. Dickov will be ready to tears the rocks off anything that gets in his road.

If those two stay fit we can get fourth or fifth.

Come on you blues.

AND if we dont get fourth or fifth who cares. We have had a great season.

Edited March 2, 2006 by s_simpson_9

[tchocky]

Feeling optimistic today, so I voted for 7th. Won't be disappointed with 8th either.

[S15]

I think 7th.

And those saying ''even if we don't get 4th or 5th it's okay, we've still had a great season;....'' Rubbish!!!

We have got to within touching distance because we are good enough, so if we blow it with our fixture list it will only be because we haven't delivered when it really matters.

That doesn't equal success in my eyes.

Harsh? Not at all, Hughes set goals because he though we achieve them, and this is a pretty big squad with plenty of quality, the nucleus of which qualified for Europe not so long ago.

Edited March 2, 2006 by shillito15

[Eddie]

If we don't make Europe it will be a massive blow and I will view the season as a partial failure. I was one of those who looked forward to the season with great optimism and thought we could make 6th. Of course I didn't really expect us to, but now we are here it is our position to lose. Fair enough we aren't in 4th and if Bolton win their games in hand then they go 5th, but 6th as it stands is our's.

We have a good end of season run-in and I think we should be able to make top 6, but at worst I'm hoping for 7th with the FA Cup helping us out and getting us the UEFA cup that way, anything else really won't do at this stage. I honestly believe we have a better team than West Ham, Wigan, City and Bolton and I'll be gutted if they finish above us.