if we get in Kane, after Grealish then 2nd place in PL would be huge disappointment. these two expensive addition to an already Champions team is effectively the definiton of strenghten while you are ahead. I think Grealish is overhyped on this forum and certainly cost 20-30m than the maximum I would have paid for him, hopefully he will prove me wrong but still two good additions especially a top striker which we were missing last two seasons given Kun's various injuries.
IF we are 2nd but in a very close race thats the only saving grace. 3rd or 4th absolute shit imo. that would mean we couldnt hold up our motivation but that also should be helped by signing two very trophy hungry players.
Carabao, FA-Cup, imo we go far in both, I would not put too much focus on these. But Pep will use way stronger teams in these even early rounds than they would warrant it, hopefully only easier opponents until the semis.
CL is the big one, after years of failure vs lesser teams like Monaco, Spurs, Lyon, last year we turned the gear up and went to the final after a fantastic run in beating Dortmund, PSG home and away, final was very bad, we hardly even tested their keeper, I think Pep underestimated Tuchel big time and the pressure also got to us but tactically Tuchel murdered Pep there. we should have changed our formation early on to match their wingbacks, we did not and struggled for it all game without creating much.
but this trophy always includes a lottery factor, we might have to face someone like PSG, Bayern straight after the group stage and they beat us in two games and we wont even make the last 8 and we are out after a final. can happen to the very best too. last year finally refs were not set up against us in knockout stages, might change tho this year.
I really hope Pep can pull this trophy off, would be great pleasure to win it when Qatar is putting so much at stake for PSG to win it before their WC.
least I hope if we lose in knockout stages it would be a really strong team and not an English rival or a weaker team form another league.
we are on of the main favourites, as long as we arrive in good form to March, with not many injuries. but that does not mean anything, we stil could lose in earlier KO rounds in a close tie.
To get to the semis imo is a realistic ask from Pep tho especially as there are 1-2 teams there with weaker squad than us, usually ...
(just in last few seasons, Spurs, Ajax, Lyon,Leipzig etc., two of these beat us to the semis which were very disappointing.)
overall, if get manage to get Kane, CL semis at least, and PL title with some good domestic cup run, but would accept right now if the title and CL semis are guaranteed. if we are in the semis anything can happen from there.I would hope if we dont win PSG cannot either, neither any English one.
as the title holder, teams will raise their game more against us, being Champions in England is very hard, apart from us every Champion had huge drop in performance in last 10 years.
United finished 7th after last title thanks to Moyes lol, Chelsea finished outside top4 both times after Mourinho's and Conte's title, same with Leicester and Liverpool faced a huge nearly 30 points drop from their title winning season
all this means its fucking hard to keep up the motivation level and face the increased pressure from opponents raising the game and keeping up with direct rivals who of course will raise their game to beat you.
