[Archived] Expectations For The Coming Season

[Bobby G]

I think after Bentley leaving we are a mid-table to bottom half team and it all depends on who else is signed from this point on.

[thenodrog]

I think after Bentley leaving we are a mid-table to bottom half team and it all depends on who else is signed from this point on.

Bentley is prob the least important loss overall. Brad by popular concensus was worth a few points every season. BUT imo Hughes, Bowen etc etc being replaced by the new management team is far more significant a loss.

The 3 factors together will stack up quite highly against us.

[Bazrakats]

We still have the core of our squad. Most importantly are Samba and Nelson are still here. One player doesnt make the team and im sure well find a suitable replacment.

On expectations i would hope we would finish top half ( europe looks unlikley comapring are spending with the teams around us ie Spurs Portsmouth Everton) Maybe a lucky cup run with Championship teams.

[Nelsta]

Cant see us doing much this season, Santa Cruz has the dreaded Second Season comming up, We've lost Bentley and Friedel.Brought in an un tried Chilean, According to rumours the sqaud arnt happy with the staff.

I'm happy with Robinson, But let's face it, any keeper attempting to fill Friedel's Gloves is gonna be under pressure.

I dont think we'll be in a relagation battle, We managed without Duff and a left winger under souness.

Least this time Ince is looking for a replacment.

[tony gale's mic]

i cant see us losing to embarrasing score lines against teams like larissa, coventry and wigan..

Everyone keeps bringing these games up from last season as some sort of saving grace for Hughes leaving, and I can't for the life of me see why.

Even if Ince turns out to be a brilliant manager, we WILL have embarassing results next season. So will Chelsea and Man United.

We were hardly the only side to suffer a shock result in the FA Cup, Larissa wasnt exactly our first European disappointment and as for Wigan, it's your overall performance in the league that counts. I would happily take another Wigan performance or two if we're contending for European places next season.

I really hope Ince succeeds and carries on Hughes' good work, but it will be a very tough task.

[Hughesy]

If worst comes to worst - Emerton/ Reid will do a decent enough job on the right.

We have replaced Friedel with a very good keeper, and we have also added a tricky south american.

Still feel our main priority is central midfield - if we can strengthen that with 2 quality additions then we will be stronger than last season. Ideally Ince will sign a new Right winger this summer - but it isnt essential aslong as we can sign 2 centre midfielders of quality and a right back.

The key to us this next season is Santa Cruz, Samba/ Nelsen and Pedersen.

[krislu]

Last season we finished 7th, so what have we done since?

- Replaced one highly skilled manager with a rookie from the mickey mouse league

- Sold one of the best keepers in the league who was our most consistent performer of the last couple of years

- Sold one of our best players who was pretty much behind everything we created going forward

We have not made one single addition to our squad, just replaced what we got with less talented players/people.

Realistic expectations at this stage: Anywhere from 17th - 10th. I my opinion we are set to finish bottom half and stay there year in year out if this trend continues.

[dinglebasher]

Well first of all we finished 7th, so any credibility you might have had as a keen Rovers fan disappeared immediately with that post.

Presumably if you're going to be so pessimistic you won't be bothering going to any games?

Let's just wait and see how the team performs under Ince before we start slagging him off, we're inevitably going to make further signings.

Let's get behind the team, otherwise all our players really will start leaving.

[krislu]

Presumably if you're going to be so pessimistic you won't be bothering going to any games?

Its the truth though, we have sold two key members of our starting XI and not replaced them with equal quality. You can call it pessimistic or whatever, but its still a fact. How can anyone, at this stage, expect us to do better than last season?

[alexanders]

How can anyone, at this stage, expect us to do better than last season?

Because in the end of last season I think Mark Hughes wasn't up to it. He was sick and tired of the job at Ewood, and had lost his motivation to keep him going.

We lost a lot of points which we should have taken home to Ewood. I also think that Mark Hughes wasn't able to motivate the team correctly before many matches, hence the Larissa and Coventry defeat.

I believe Ince has a winner instict above anyone which hopefully will affect the players.

We know we have quality in the team.

[Ronin]

Plus I think that Ince will want to prove himself. Hoping for a decent start and to build from there.

[dr_awol]

If worst comes to worst - Emerton/ Reid will do a decent enough job on the right.

We have replaced Friedel with a very good keeper, and we have also added a tricky south american.

Still feel our main priority is central midfield - if we can strengthen that with 2 quality additions then we will be stronger than last season. Ideally Ince will sign a new Right winger this summer - but it isnt essential aslong as we can sign 2 centre midfielders of quality and a right back.

The key to us this next season is Santa Cruz, Samba/ Nelsen and Pedersen.

I fully expect to qualify for the UEFA cup this season, last season we underachieved, with some last 5 minutes defending and some poor games costing us,

thinking out loud

how we replace Bentley will be very important!! alto i cant think of anyone in the EPL who is available in a similar class/price range, also no more outgoings of anymore 1st XI players.

i expect:

* A Bentley replacement

* Extra 1st XI midfielder

* Defence sorting.

it would be good if the first 2 could be done this week(not likely), so the team can settle down, as it been a summer of turmoil.

i can also dream of benni(cant sulk for more than a season) and cruz hitting it off and scoring 20 each this season.

P.S i know not many here think much of sottish football, but Morgaro Gomis (midfield), from Dundee utd in a year time will make an excellent(samba like in value for money) signing for someone. Watched him a few times last year, and in the Dundee utd vrs Barcelona(Utd lost 5-1 due to messi skills and and poor sub GK and Halftime) pre season friendly last week, he dident look out of place.

[tony gale's mic]

Because in the end of last season I think Mark Hughes wasn't up to it. He was sick and tired of the job at Ewood, and had lost his motivation to keep him going.

We lost a lot of points which we should have taken home to Ewood. I also think that Mark Hughes wasn't able to motivate the team correctly before many matches, hence the Larissa and Coventry defeat.

I believe Ince has a winner instict above anyone which hopefully will affect the players.

We know we have quality in the team.

Rubbish. Hughes did want out, but theres nothing to suggest he wasnt giving 100% right until the end. And to suggest he wasn't up to it is completely absurd, we still finished 7th last season and in a better position than we'd finished the season before. Also look how little money he had to spend, Ince will have so much more than Hughes, lets just hope he uses it wisely. Your claim that Hughes wasn't able to motivate the team is pretty baseless...how many team talks did you sit in on? We didn't acquire a reputation as a battling team for no reason, and the fact we came back from losing positions so many times last season shows he probably was actually pretty good at team talks. Embarassing defeats happen to every team, every season.

Ince has a winners instinct, but what does that even mean? I'm prepared to give him a chance and will not be reserving any judgement until the first results come in, but look how many ex players with winning instincts havent made the grade as managers.

[CrazyIvan]

Rubbish. Hughes did want out, but theres nothing to suggest he wasnt giving 100% right until the end. And to suggest he wasn't up to it is completely absurd, we still finished 7th last season and in a better position than we'd finished the season before. Also look how little money he had to spend, Ince will have so much more than Hughes, lets just hope he uses it wisely. Your claim that Hughes wasn't able to motivate the team is pretty baseless...how many team talks did you sit in on? We didn't acquire a reputation as a battling team for no reason, and the fact we came back from losing positions so many times last season shows he probably was actually pretty good at team talks. Embarassing defeats happen to every team, every season.

Ince has a winners instinct, but what does that even mean? I'm prepared to give him a chance and will not be reserving any judgement until the first results come in, but look how many ex players with winning instincts havent made the grade as managers.

I agree with you. There was never an instance where Hughes looked like he had given up and wanted to leave (unlike Souness to be frank...). We shall see what Ince does. I'm hoping he turns out to be as good as Hughes and if he does, we'll be doing pretty well. Whatever the end result, this season will be fascinating and no doubt there will be downs but I'm hoping there'll be more ups.

On a complete aside, I kept on having a dream last night that we signed Andrews and he turned out to be brilliant. I must have eaten something funny before I went to bed...

[Majiball]

Cant see us doing much this season, Santa Cruz has the dreaded Second Season coming up, We've lost Bentley and Friedel.Brought in an un tried Chilean, According to rumours the squad arnt happy with the staff.

I'd like to think RSC will be OK, and not do a Benni. On the staff subject, and I've posed the question if there not happy why do they not speak to Nelsen and ask him to speak to Ince one on one. There is a he's the boss attitude in football and while constant questioning is not productive, the behind the scene's gossip (if its the case) will do more damage in the long run.

Because in the end of last season I think Mark Hughes wasn't up to it. He was sick and tired of the job at Ewood, and had lost his motivation to keep him going.

We lost a lot of points which we should have taken home to Ewood. I also think that Mark Hughes wasn't able to motivate the team correctly before many matches, hence the Larissa and Coventry defeat.

Last year I was surprised to read on the many occasions that I did that we could break into the top four,yes we had a good team and some good individuals but we were thread bare. Expectation is a dangerous mind-set in sport, you should not expect anything. I do feel that Hughes bigging the team up in this manner went to there heads and so the problem set in, they expected to win, expected to finish fourth. There is a fine line between believing you are capable of doing it and expecting it. I believe the players change in perspective made them forget what had put them in that position in the first place, and as such any knock backs created a larger sense of disappointment than they would have normally.

Its a very tricky one do you aim for the moon and fail or aim for space and reach the moon (bad example i know but the saying escapes me). Last year we became victims of our own hype, we set ourselves up to fail.

With reference to this year the aim should be simple, in position terms 8th or above in a normal year thats the two bob cup minimum. On a personal note I want us to become hard to beat again, to instill a greater sense of urgency when attacking and some unpredictability when in possession.

[tonyoz]

I would love us to finish above (in order of preference):

Man City

Spurs

Villa

Through the wonder of Sky and the brilliant "red button" I was able to see almost every match live........both home and away last season. Don't get me wrong, I think Hughes did a brilliant job for us - but, more than once, I thought to myself...."I'm glad I didn't pay to watch that!"

Maybe it was time for him to move on. He took us a long way but now I am excited by the new manager. He will try to do it differently and I believe it will be better to watch. Whether it will be successful, I don't know but I am going along for the ride.....it's going to be interesting!

[alexanders]

We didn't acquire a reputation as a battling team for no reason

Okey, maybe I am being a bit rude with Hughesy, but I stand with my points that he wasn't able to motivate the team as he could have done (in the end of the season). Take the last game against Big Club for example, catastrophe! I also think we had a reputation for battling, for a lot of games last season I missed the battling we had seen earlier.

[tony gale's mic]

Okey, maybe I am being a bit rude with Hughesy, but I stand with my points that he wasn't able to motivate the team as he could have done (in the end of the season). Take the last game against Big Club for example, catastrophe! I also think we had a reputation for battling, for a lot of games last season I missed the battling we had seen earlier.

True but we were only in that position because Villa had messed up badly, repeatedly in the last few games of the season too (didn't they lose 2-0 at home to Fulham the game before?). These things happen in football, but you have to look at the bigger picture.

[Hasta]

Last season our results didn't mask some of the poorness of our performances. Had we gone into this season under Hughes with the same playing staff as last year I'd have predicted a finish of around 10th or 11th and no better. Larissa and Coventry are two examples, but games like Sunderland and Boro at home, with vital Premiership points at stake, were more worrying.

[tony gale's mic]

Last season our results didn't mask some of the poorness of our performances. Had we gone into this season under Hughes with the same playing staff as last year I'd have predicted a finish of around 10th or 11th and no better. Larissa and Coventry are two examples, but games like Sunderland and Boro at home, with vital Premiership points at stake, were more worrying.

The League table does not lie though. We were the 7th best team in the country last season, a mark of a good side is being able to pick up points even when theyre doing badly. If Hughes had been around and had the sort of money that Ince will have I would have been very optimistic for this season, especially given his recent transfer record. I'm sure for the teams around us you could pick out performances where they were below par and still came out of it with a win.

[Hasta]

The League table does not lie though. We were the 7th best team in the country last season, a mark of a good side is being able to pick up points even when theyre doing badly. If Hughes had been around and had the sort of money that Ince will have I would have been very optimistic for this season, especially given his recent transfer record. I'm sure for the teams around us you could pick out performances where they were below par and still came out of it with a win.

I can't really argue with what you have said. However between probably October last year to March a lot of people weren't happy with the way the team were playing and the largely poor performances. Although we did keep picking up points, it was frustrating to watch us get outplayed in a lot of games which led to the accusations that some fans were 'burying their heads in the sand' with regards to performances.

I (and others) just felt that we weren't playing as well in games as we had done the year before. We had regressed slightly. I feared that without any changes to the players and style of play we would regress again, hence my prediction above of 10th or 11th. Back then though, I certainly wasn't advocating a change of manager and a mass change of players though!

[tony gale's mic]

I can't really argue with what you have said. However between probably October last year to March a lot of people weren't happy with the way the team were playing and the largely poor performances. Although we did keep picking up points, it was frustrating to watch us get outplayed in a lot of games which led to the accusations that some fans were 'burying their heads in the sand' with regards to performances.

I (and others) just felt that we weren't playing as well in games as we had done the year before. We had regressed slightly. I feared that without any changes to the players and style of play we would regress again, hence my prediction above of 10th or 11th. Back then though, I certainly wasn't advocating a change of manager and a mass change of players though!

I know there was a consensus but I think we'd become spoilt as fans under Hughes. It became very easy to lose sight of just how well we were doing to even stay in the mix for those places. We had actually moved forward and got both more points and a higher league position than the season before, despite other teams around us spending big the previous summer. This summer, the money factor would have been evened out a little more - the teams around us arent spending as much and it was speculated Hughes would have had a bigger transfer pot to spend.

The reason why we got outplayed in so many games is simply because we didnt have any decent centre mids, although I rated Vogel when he came in late on. Dunn and Reid in their present incarnations are no better than Wigan class IMO. However, Hughes didnt have any money to buy a good replacement CM. We still won matches due to the quality of Bentley down the right and the finishing ability of RSC. And if Hughes was around I would have had big confidence in him being able to sign a great replacement for Bentley for half the price. I don't trust that Ince will be able to do the same - thats not a slight on his abilities, but more a fact that we were pretty unique in the sheer amount of bargains we managed to uncover during Hughes' time here.

[Hasta]

I know there was a consensus but I think we'd become spoilt as fans under Hughes. It became very easy to lose sight of just how well we were doing to even stay in the mix for those places. We had actually moved forward and got both more points and a higher league position than the season before, despite other teams around us spending big the previous summer.

Again what you say makes sense. The problem is I am realistic enough to know that we are punching well above our weight. People don't like to admit the fact but we are. One day we probably will be in real relegation trouble and, if and when we go down, getting back in the Prem will be a very very tough task.

That is why a I so much wanted us to make the most of now and the current position we find ourselves in. I really thought that there was an outside chance of us pushing for that 4th spot, or at least proving we were top 6. To find that suddenly we were back to the position where we would play well against Chelsea or Liverpool and then be hammered by the likes of Boro was frustrating. Unfortunately, maybe now the bubble has burst. Maybe not. We'll have to wait and see.

[RibbleValleyRover]

Something I would like to see this season is actually performing well in the first half of a game. Not sure the exact stats but I believe we came back from a losing position more than any other club last season.

Having to comeback nearly every game in the second half did I feel have impact on several things last season. Having to fight our way back into a game could have had an impact on fitness levels, having to exert that extra performance in order to get back into the game may have tired some of our players out. Having to fight back into the game may have increased the number of fouls or yellow cards.

It just seems like last season we were making it harder for ourselves by starting a game poorly and having to look for that extra gear to get back into matches.

[philipl]

The big loss with Bentley's departure will be ball retention.