It may not be this year.

[Luke The Blue]

I would be over the blue moon if we got a top 6 finish. I think I would die of excitment if we got a top 4 finish... Could you imagine how easier that would make the next Transfer window for us. Not that were having trouble anyways >:)

CTID!

 

[depps]

i think the first four games could really define our season. the first 3 are all very winnable and if we can take a bit of confidence from them into the arse game we know we can beat anyone at home on our day, just look at what we did to the arse last year. 12 points from the first four games would seriously put us in contention for the top four. confidence is essential when your trying to get a new bunch of players playing well together, just look at how we were playing under sven in the early days. if we can make that kind of start again i think this time we would have the quality throughout the squad to keep it going and we would have money to reinforce again at xmass....

...loose away to burn and portsmouth and well have the media on our backs big time. i could see the pressure getting to us and us falling to pieces against the arse and rags and hughes out by the end of september...

 

[azatheblue]

The thing that gets me is why everyone has latched onto only one team breaking the top four, it seems the in thing that it will be either ourselves or Villa or Spuds or Everton to break the monopoly just pondering the fact that more than one team might actually break them. I don't have a problem with us finishing top six, it has always been stated by MH that it would take 4 transfer windows to build a side capable of top four we are only half way through. In my opinion by attracting the players he has we become a better proposition for even better players to join us either in January and next summer. It would give me great pleasure if in May if the top four were City, Villa, Everton Spuds with the sky 4 having to settle for 5th sixth, seventh and eighth. Not going to happen but it would be nice.

seriously though

 

[BrianW]

Nothing wrong with aspiring to get in the top 4. We have spent big, and we haven't any European games to provide distractions/excuses. Rags, Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal all have their problems to overcome and don't look as strong as they did, even if still probably stronger than us.

Against that: 1. We haven't really sorted out the defence, have we? I don't think it's possible to get in the top 4 without a really sound defence. (As a point of history, everyone remembers the 67/68 team as attackers, but they had a great defensive record.) 2. (Probably springing from above) we haven't sorted our chronic form away from home. To have any chance of getting top 4 we have to win lots of away matches, particularly against the weaker sides. OK, it should be easier with the better players we have now, but should is a big word.

It's quite a tight season for Hughes. Top 4 and he will be a legend. Top 6 and he will be OK, and probably keep his job. 7th or worse he'll be out on his ear. It could be just a handful of points from one extreme to the other.

 

[pee dubya]

I think we're looking for a challenge to the top 4.

Running them close and finishing 5th would be decent season. Finishing 20 points behind and scraping into 7th to get a Europa League place would be failure imo.

 

[MCFCinUSA]

as we all know, if there's one thing about football it is its unpredictability - especially at our club (but pretty much everywhere; there are always the unusual results tripping people up).

the winners of the EPL are the team who suffer the least amount of surprises during the season, as you'd expect.

if we don't come out of the gates quickly, then you might surmise we'll not be finishing higher up the table.

certainly we have some players of incredible individual talent, and I've been impressed and excited with the way individuals have been looking (even though we've not completely dominated our warm-up games as a team unit).

so who knows what will happen?

while I've not been terribly encouraged from last season, it is impossible to come down with any certainty (unless you're clairvoyant) and say where we'll finish.

I even think it's impossible to say that we'll win anything for sure over any given period, simply because there's always going to be a handful of other very strong teams competing against us for domestic honours, and you can never take anything for granted... even if you've spent or invested half a million quid into your team. Remember the Galactico side from Real Madrid? They went three years with nothing; do you think their league back then was as strong as ours is today?

just a few random observations....

I think we could do very well - if the gods are smiling upon us; however, there are no guarantees in football and no one owes us anything.

this is the reason I was posting my arse off near the end of last year and beginning of this one, talking about focusing on the style of football we play and not simply the results ie. "winning things", and where I would have started splashing our cash.

my 'whole big thing point' (to quote Not The Nine O'Clock News) was that we should concentrate on establishing an attacking and attractive style of football first, where whatever happens we'll all be winners.

anyway... let's hope we'll all be pleasantly surprised this season. I wish our management team all the best; the burden of expectation must be enormous.

let's hope we batter Blackburn, who have never been my favourite team (watching the way Hughes used to get them playing - and fortunately that's not the game plan he's sent out City with) and get out of the gates fast, a la Sven!

;o)

 

[yerwot?]

mcfcinusa ,take a bow.a great post

 

[Mike D]

I don't know if anybody has actually took into consideration that this may not be the year where we storm the top four and challenge for the premiership title? Although if it is that'd be great, and please take your hankerchiefs with you on the off chance the nosebleed positions are reached, I personally do not expect it at all.

But lets look at the facts. Mark Hughes has only been given the target of a top six place finish which given the signings that he has made previously and the recent additions that he has made should be reasonably easy to achieve. I know that sounds odd and I threw a bit of my opinion in there, but would any of you disagree? seriously?

The other thing is that as we all know the managers, the players and the press are going to be watching our every move with a great deal of interest and the reason why I actually like this is because it means we're a threat to the sky four and that we could break it up and make it a top five or top six (with Villa) potentially and do so consistently unlike Everton finishing fourth one season and never really building on it.

I'll finish with these words: 7 days and counting - tick tock, tick tock.

I think we should just all forget about top 6 this season this season is about building on the successes of last season. Lets not forget the mess that Sven left us. He needs another season and more time to bring in his players most of ‘em aren’t his. We need to concentrate on stability and cracking that top 10 again this just another season and we’ll be there. Lets not expect too much this season and lets just all get behind Hughes he’s the man to take us forward

 

[MCFCinUSA]

mcfcinusa ,take a bow.a great post

not exactly BB, I was just doing my head in with that crazy game someone posted on yesterday, and waiting for Andy to get back to me with a PM on the matter... but cheers anyway!

it is encouraging to hear (for what it's worth) that Mourinho likes our current squad and also believes that Hughes has got what it takes to lead them to the title - I believe he said this whilst over here in the USA. It isn't just the players of course, he reckons you also need the right manager to set things up and gel them correctly. Apparently the special one likes our special strike force in particular, and it's our attack that impresses him the most. How much he may have been digging at Chelsea saying this I don't know, and all the above caveats I already mentioned above still stand.

it'll be an interesting season ahead of us, no matter what happens!

 

[mammutly]

mcfcinusa ,take a bow.a great post

not exactly BB, I was just doing my head in with that crazy game someone posted on yesterday, and waiting for Andy to get back to me with a PM on the matter... but cheers anyway!

it is encouraging to hear (for what it's worth) that Mourinho likes our current squad and also believes that Hughes has got what it takes to lead them to the title - I believe he said this whilst over here in the USA. It isn't just the players of course, he reckons you also need the right manager to set things up and gel them correctly. Apparently the special one likes our special strike force in particular, and it's our attack that impresses him the most. How much he may have been digging at Chelsea saying this I don't know, and all the above caveats I already mentioned above still stand.

it'll be an interesting season ahead of us, no matter what happens!

It will indeed be interesting.

What I find amazing however is the praise and optimism lauded on Hughes during the close season, when last year was such a failure. City have made some good signings, but that in itself hasn't made Hughes any better or worse in terms of managerial ability. He has simply bought the best players he can get. I strongly believe that a Mourinho or a Sven could have attracted better, but that's another story.

The extent to which Hughes and Cook have lowered expectations really is a PR triumph. The point has been made before, but give our resources to Rednapp, O'Neil or Moyes and you could be sure that 'top 6 and a decent cup run' would be the least of their aspirations. Yet here we are already proclaiming the same as success!

The main excuse/reason for this is to do with 'building'. The average age of Hughes' signings ( he did not sign Jo or Robinho) surely gives the lie to that. All he is doing is buying established premiership players. Solid performers to create a solid, hard to beat team. Definite top 6 contenders.
In my opinion, Hughes lacks the wit to take us any further than that. He is a limited manager with aspirations to match. My opinion is based on everything he has achieved as a manager to date. MCFC need a better leader. That's all.