I do hope for a lot, though. I hope that the lads stay fit and healthy and motivated, first and foremost, and that new signings from this and the last summer can really prove their worth.
I hope that we’ll see some kids make their breakthrough (I’m counting Bajčetić here, in addition to Doak, Quansah and Bradley) and that “established” younger players like Jones and Elliott can continue their progress. This is where Europa League run might prove beneficiary in the absence of Champions League and presence of some glaring holes in our squad.
It would be great to return to Champions League via either Premier or Europa League - I doubt that we can finish higher than fourth with this squad but I hope that CL will exact a heavy toll on Man United, Arsenal and Newcastle and that we will be able to pounce.
The cheats can then stick their teble and their centurian seasons up their arse to be followed by the PL finding them guilty of all 115 charges against them, strip them of all their league titles and kick them out of the league, the FL then finding them in beach of their own FFP rules relegating them to non-league and handing over evidence of tax evasion to HMRC who have them wound up via the High Court
Well, as much as I agree with @Iftikhar, the thread title does say expectation and not hope, wish or dream.
So yes, top four and the EL is an expectation. A domestic cup would be nice too, but I suppose the PL or the CL may be an L too far in what is going to be a transition season.
Yes, we’ll have to factor in the Champions League dropouts, but if Virg isn’t holding up the trophy in Dublin, I will be very disappointed.
As far as the Premier League goes, I have already stated that I expect us to finish second- we’re just as good as City, but don’t get the favourable decisions that they do.
Domestic cups? We should be making the semi finals at least.
One substandard season doesn’t mean that we have suddenly become a bad side.
think we’ll finish 5/6 in league and no silverware this year. being realistic
But that won’t match our expectations of top4 and a Carabao Cup.
We’ve dropped too much experience out of the squad, effectively gutted the senior players from the ranks. from watching us against Chelsea yesterday with a thin squad and playing a CF in CM for our first league match, this will be a season of rebuilding the squad and hoping for less injuries than previous years.