September Optimism Gauge

[limpid]

This poll will be open for the first week of the month

[barry'sboots]

The loss of Jack and the poor start (albeit with a number of injuries and disruption to pre-season) has massively dimmed my hopes and aspirations.

I am also disappointed by the lack of business activity in our Central Midfield area.  A net spend of -£5m might be great business, but I saw an opportunity to really press on this summer and think we may have missed it.  I am also not confident that Smith can come up with a plan to compensate for the loss of Jack - on the basis of what we saw when Jack was out last year and what I have season this season to date.

I hope that I'm proven wrong.

[hippo]

Jack leaving I wasn't too concerned about - I think we sold him at the right time.

But it's as though everyone at VP has given up. Ings is a quality player - but isn't getting any younger and will he stifle the development of Watkins ?.

There are such question marks all over the team - maybe except the defence. I get the feeling we will very inconsistent this season as the manager struggles to put a consistent team out - we have lots of players who can play in many positions - but how long will it take to find the best formation and players for such.

Whilst I applaud the investment in youth - if this is done instead of buying in players we will flounder badly. Some won't be good enough, some will be adequate and maybe 1 will be a star - but again it's a waiting game to finds out who can cut it.

Decent squad, decent crop of youngsters - but how long before we sort the wheat from the chaf and come up with a good team ?

 

[Icarium]

Id be interested to see a trend of the optimism results over the season. Think it would be a bit of a roller-coaster this year

[fruitvilla]

Just under two hours before it is September for me.

Therefore it is too early for me to gauge my optimism.

It's going to be an interesting season riding the highs and lows.

I am going to enjoy the ride ... come hell or high water.

[MrBlack]

11th-17th. 

Feeling pessimistic based on the injuries we've suffered so far and fact we didn't strengthen what I thought was the weakest area of the squad (defensive midfield). Feel we did replace Jack sufficiently though and improved our strike force.

If injuries start being kind to us could well see a top half finish. 

Edited September 1, 2021 by MrBlack

[sparrow1988]

5 hours ago, Icarium said:

Id be interested to see a trend of the optimism results over the season. Think it would be a bit of a roller-coaster this year

I'd like to see an optimism gauge added to the match thread and then this trend to be posted at the end of the game

Edited September 1, 2021 by sparrow1988

[John]

Interesting to see that of those of us that have voted so far (29) nobody has gone top six (which shows an acceptance that this is currently something for us to aim towards) or bottom three (which is real progress). I think 9th-13th is a realistic expectation and I would welcome a top half finish. 

[Div3]

A bit off topic but a monthly optimism gauge for each player on a monthly basis would make interesting reading.

would it add a bit of balance to the nonsense on some of the player threads?

Edited September 1, 2021 by Div3
Spelling

[Rodders]

In general optimistic, but curtailing expectations a little. It'll be a slow start but as the team settles I think we'll sustain good form later on. Also excited to see how the youngsters get on, Ings and Watkins, Bailey to come in Buendia and Watkins etc etc.

[PussEKatt]

After the way we have started the season I think 8th to 10th,sadly.

[briny_ear]

3 hours ago, PussEKatt said:

After the way we have started the season I think 8th to 10th,sadly.

8th-10th would be a fantastic achievement for our first season without Grealish.

[PussEKatt]

19 hours ago, briny_ear said:

8th-10th would be a fantastic achievement for our first season without Grealish.

Surely we have bought enough new players to cover for that ? and if we havent,why not ?

[The Fun Factory]

21 hours ago, PussEKatt said:

Surely we have bought enough new players to cover for that ? and if we havent,why not ?

Its not that, its the question of trying to bring in the next level of quality player to break into the top 6. And to keep our best players. Which will be very hard to do. 

8th to 10th would be a good season and is probably about where our budget and ambition is at the moment.

September is going to be a tough month. We usually beat Everton at home but as far as I remember we don't have  a great record against Benietz sides.

[PussEKatt]

As I said about 2 posts above.I would be quite happy with 8th/10th but,how long are the owners going to wait for CL football ? after all they have spent quite a sum of $$$

[villalad21]

2 hours ago, PussEKatt said:

As I said about 2 posts above.I would be quite happy with 8th/10th but,how long are the owners going to wait for CL football ? after all they have spent quite a sum of $$$

I don't think the owners are delusional. 

Even looking ahead 10 years down the line top 4 is a totally unrealistic target. Way too established. 

The top 4 clubs have super squads. 

[PussEKatt]

As you say the top 4 have super squads BUT,think about this for a minute.All the top players want to play CL football,so we have only 2 options.

1 - Become a top 6 club ourselves and not only keep our top players but buy more top players.

2 - Dont become a top 6 club and get used to the top clubs buying our top players.Which means we become another team that just makes up the numbers.

[barry'sboots]

On 06/09/2021 at 14:48, villalad21 said:

I don't think the owners are delusional. 

Even looking ahead 10 years down the line top 4 is a totally unrealistic target. Way too established. 

The top 4 clubs have super squads. 

God, that is a bit defeatist.  I get that breaking into the top 4 is a real challenge, but Leicester should have done it in both of the last two seasons, narrowly falling short.

Our management have stated that this is their aim.  Our recruitment (senior and youth) is taking us closer to that second tier.  If Jack had stayed, I would be really confident of challenging for 5th to 8th position with this squad, assuming Ings wouldn't have been signed as I don't believe we had the ffp headroom for another major signing but maybe taking a gamble on a younger developing "9".  Jack's departure has definitely knocked us back but we have enough talent to be challenging the Leicesters and West Hams of this world and be on the fringes of the top 5 (I can't put Arsenal in there anymore/make it a 6), and if the recruitment continues to be strong and the youth develops as we hope then we could mount a challenge from there.

The biggest challenge for me is that I am not sure that Smith is an elite coach. 

• He has really struggled to get a spark when we have been without Jack, and this continued into the start of this season with the disastrous selection at Watford. 
• He seems to procrastinate in games - Ollie should have been on much earlier against Brentford.

I hope that he goes on to prove me wrong but, if he doesn't, that we can get an elite level coach that can continue to improve us and the players.

The other potential issue, I believe, is ensuring that NSWE don't get too disappointed by the loss of Jack - as an American and just having convinced Giannis to stay at the Bucks and win a title with them, Edens may not have realised how different the "soccer" pyramid is in Europe and how hard it is to stop players moving up that pyramid.  I hope that Jack's departure hasn't tempered his ambition to qualify for the CL.

[Czarnikjak]

36 minutes ago, barry'sboots said:

God, that is a bit defeatist.  I get that breaking into the top 4 is a real challenge, but Leicester should have done it in both of the last two seasons, narrowly falling short.

Our management have stated that this is their aim.

Correct me if I'm wrong but I don't recall Purslow or NSWE at any point saying that the objective is to break into the top 4.

The only quotes i can find are that the objective is to bring "sustainable success" and to "regularly challenge for europe"

Very diffent to breaking into top 4.

[barry'sboots]

13 minutes ago, Czarnikjak said:

Correct me if I'm wrong but I don't recall Purslow or NSWE at any point saying that the objective is to break into the top 4.

The only quotes i can find are that the objective is to bring "sustainable success" and to "regularly challenge for europe"

Very diffent to breaking into top 4.

From the Birmingham Live site 17 Sept 2020:

"Fast-forward 10 years and three rounds of ownership later and Nassef Sawiris and Wes Edens have European football firmly on their minds. "We will not be satisfied until we achieve our goal of bringing sustainable success to Aston Villa at the top tier of European football," the pair said in a statement upon the unveiling of new sporting director Johan Lange."

I read "top tier of European Football" to be Champions League????