Expectations For 2016/17 Season?

[fillerywhereru]

So the season from hell,( or 1992 revisited) is finished, we have a bright shiny new boss on the way to hopefully bring us back into contention.

Next up the Euros then almost straight away the usual pre season Globetrotting.At the moment we can only guess whos in and whos out with Conte and who he might bring in (if anyone). so what are your expectations for season 2016/17? Mine are fairly modest, a higher finish, realistically there are quite a few clubs I think may well finish above us (United, City, Arsenal, Spurs and perhaps Liverpool) but I do expect us to be better than last season. I think that a rise from 10th to top 4 may be a bit much to expect but perhaps one of the Europa places isn't perhaps 6th or 7th. A nice run in one of the cups would also be nice especially as there is no Europe to worry about.

Whilst I'm all for blooding the youth squad I don't think it should be willy nilly and should be done sensibly. Perhaps have 3 in the squad (RLC  Abrahams and Treore) and use them when warranted unless one of them makes a huge leap in ability in the coming months.

Of the loan players I think Van Ginkel should come back and Ake as they can be good squad additions assuming there aren't better players signed in their positions.

Overall I see next season as one for Conte to learn and begin to forge a squad to challenge the season after. Last season our expectations started quite high and ended up with taking solace in screwing up others or at least not losing to them. What do you guys think and what are you expecting from next season?

 

 

[xCELERYx]

Hard to say just yet what I expect without seeing the squad Conte will have at this disposal. If he gets some of the players he wants then I think we have a good chance of making the top 4. If we don't, then top 6 would be a reasonable enough finish. Again, this also depends on what a lot of the other sides around us do in the transfer window as well. 

I think we should certainly focus on winning the FA Cup though. 

All in all, thee's too many variables and unknowns yet to set any sort of real expectation.

 

[OfWolfAndBiggs]

For once I have no expectation, only hope. 

[Droy was my hero]

I expect, demand, 20 senior players.

As for hopes, much too early to build things up which might get knocked down so swiftly as this season just gone.  Far better to be surprised as in 14/15

[Bob Singleton]

This thread might have made more sense being started toward the end of the transfer window, when we all know pretty much who is in and who is out both at Chelsea and elsewhere, rather than as it opens with 3 months to go. You may as well ask what our expectations for 2017/18 are, while you're at it.

[kennypaul]

I don't have any expectations yet however I do hope that if we have an ordinary pre season and some people voice their concerns then we don't have the scene we had last season. After what transpired maybe the flame throwers might be a bit more circumspect this time around.

[fillerywhereru]

1 hour ago, Bob Singleton said:

This thread might have made more sense being started toward the end of the transfer window, when we all know pretty much who is in and who is out both at Chelsea and elsewhere, rather than as it opens with 3 months to go. You may as well ask what our expectations for 2017/18 are, while you're at it.

thought I'd get it in early, might be interesting to see how it changes as we see more of who stays and goes and get to know Contes methods more.

[Chelsea SW6]

It depends if the question is what we think should happen, versus what we think will happen.  Either way it may be a little too early to comment on the season itself until the Euro's are over, we know the fruits of the transfer window, have seen a few pre-season games and the new fixture list.  I do wonder if scouts are waiting to watch the Euro's to see who looks good before committing and hope we don't leave it too late to nab a decent midfielder at least.

In terms of threats, we missed out on the lowest points title finish in five years, and I can't see anyone scoring high next season either.  Leicester will struggle with Europe and the title.  Arsenal and Tottenham are bottle-jobs.  Liverpool are becoming the same even though Klopp seemed inspirational at first, the results show otherwise.  This leaves the two Manchester clubs.  City will have to adapt to new management, as are we.  Utd are the biggest threat IMHO, what ever you think of him, Jose will make Man Utd competitive at least this first season if not more.  Hopefully he will go for as many trophies as possible and wear the team down, making them vulnerable.  With us not being in Europe, surely this is our best chance of overtaking everyone else and taking the title again.  I'd prefer as before to go with a hard burn prior to Christmas and take a more defensive "wear them down" approach as other teams drop out of Europe.

A positive is we saw Hazard and Costa pick up late on again, and I'm sure Willian will return to first half season performance too.  Hopefully as long as we can keep the ball out of the first third we will thrive on their rejuvenation. Oscar seems to have done a disappearing act and I wonder if we will change him out for someone new in the summer (but then that's for the transfer thread).  That said I'd like to see more of RLC and Traore at least.  We should expect to see Terry back on the field but not as captain, which I would see going to Fabregas, and not lazily defaulted to Ivanovic.  Would love to see Zouma back but hopefully not before he is ready.  I fear however he will become another Courtois, and not perform at least this first season of returning.  We must accept that the FA will take every lame excuse to punish us and keep players calm, doesn't mean we can't frustrate players, but we have to keep the suspensions down.  I also hope to see vast improvements in our set pieces, they are game changers and we lost out a lot of times through these, which could have been prevented with better positioning if not anticipation.  All this of course depends on us retaining our current squad (with additional support where needed), which I hope we do aside from some redundant strikers.

As supporters we need to forget the past and get behind the team more than ever, louder and more intense, but then I'd expect nothing less.

At the moment the most important thing is that I just hope Spain and Belgium look after our players, and I'll be watching them closely to see how they perform with anticipation of when they return to the bridge.

[RobertoftheGiz]

The squad is fit and at their correct fighting weight for the start of the PL

[Sleeping Dave]

Bar a massive investment and the manager picking the players (yeah right), I can't see us better than 5-8. 

I hope we won't be serious mid-table again, that we really shake up things at DoF (or whatever Emenalo is) and board level, that Roman sells or seriously changes his ways and that Conte isn't fired at the first sign of adversity. 

Then it would be nice if we actually had a good squad instead of just saying we have a good squad. 

I think I may be hoping for too much.