What actually constitutes a successful season for you?

[bannedfromHandV]

Now that the League Cup has gone, either the FA Cup, or 5th place and above.

No cups and 7th place = time for a rethink at the top I reckon.

What does that mean?

[AVFC-Prideofbrum]

A good run in the League or FA Cup plus finishing top 7

[CarewsEyebrowDesigner]

Winning something.

[Davkaus]

A cup win or CL qualification. Both would be nice, but either would make this a successful season.

[Hanky]

6th or above and good runs in both cups I feel. Especially that our contenders have got strong this season.

[barry'sboots]

I personally don't mind where we finish - to a certain extent - as long as I feel that we have given ourselves the best shot at everything that we can. This is why I am frustrated as I feel we have lost games/points through not trying things.

Sunday's game is an example for me as I felt we started well and probably shaded the first half but then gradually went into our shell during the second half as Man U got on top. I felt we needed to make some changes a lot earlier just to try and spark something and avoid the inevitable which we eventually got.

[Risso]

7th can't be considered a success can it?

Considering that our cup runs have seen us beat Cardiff, Sunderland, Portsmouth, Blackburn (x2), Brighton and Palace so far, we'd have to win the FA Cup in my opinion for it to be considered any sort of success, especially as if we don't we won't qualify for Europe if we finish 7th.

[claret75]

Top 4 would be a step up from last year and a fantastic season, the cups are a bonus, but the league is more important.

I would be dissapointed to finish lower than 4th as i think we're well capable of top 4, however it wouldnt be underachieving to finish 7th as the 4 clubs pushing for 4th are closely matched.

[AVFC-Prideofbrum]

7th can't be considered a success can it?

Considering that our cup runs have seen us beat Cardiff, Sunderland, Portsmouth, Blackburn (x2), Brighton and Palace so far, we'd have to win the FA Cup in my opinion for it to be considered any sort of success, especially as if we don't we won't qualify for Europe if we finish 7th.

If we lost to Chelsea in the Fa Cup final, I wouldn't call that a failure. Losing to the two best teams in England, even two of the best teams in the world.

3 Wembley trips is a good season.

By the way, if it's 7th as in, we drop like we did last year and finished 11/12 points behind the pace, that'll be very dissapointing. If we finish 7th but we're only 2/3/4/5. points behind 4th say then for me that's improvement as we got closer to our aim than we did in previous years.

[Neil]

Qualifying for champions league for me.

For next season it has to be staying in europe longer so I can have some away days with the Villa

[terrytini]

I already class this as a succesful season.

[commander]

Champions League for me. If we have to put up with the same team, same tired excusses (pun intended ), poor football, no plan B, favourites ebing played, players still playing out of position, not utilising squad rotaion then I want it to get us somewhere we otherwise couldn't be.

If I thought we were making every attempt to try to chnage games, in order to try win games, integrate the squad and admit it when things are going wrong and be entertained along the way, then fine. If I have to witness a half arseed carew not getting a kick up the backside then I'm not going to be happy.

The Carling can't be considered a success, we beat poor teams that we should beat - we had one difficult game and lost, to me that's not a success it's unsurprising we got to Wembley considering the teams we faced. But ultimately and harshly it still resulted in failure.

Wembley was nice - but i don't want a day out at Wembley -I want to win trophies at Wembley and I want us to absolutely chuck the **** wall at the opposition in order to try to do that. 2:1 with 5 mins left? **** being cautious, stick 5 upfront, I'd rather us lost 4 or 5 trying to rescue the game tehn have a safe 2:1 loss and say how unlucky we were. Cup finals are one-offs give everything you have and then double it.

Success for me this season was seeing us take games to United, Chelseas Liverpool we got 9 points where we wouldn't have expected them, these 9 points should have tipped us over the edge and cemented 4th place - they were wasted by poor surrounding results. ManUtd at home a draw would ordinarily be a good decent point in some cases a successful result but in the circumstances it was failure. We couldn't give it our all and take the game to ten men.

Considering that this season has very much mirrored last season and especially seeing as the chances we've had, the extra unlikely points we've had, the fairly easy run in, to fail to achieve 4th place would be a disappointment.

[leviramsey]

I could take one poor league season in exchange for a cup, just so long as we are back at it in the league the following year. Everton have had a couple of poor league years under Moyes but seem to still be there or thereabouts the following year.

Especially since if we win the FA Cup, there's no practical difference between finishing top 7 or not: we're in Europe and I don't think the summer buys will be affected by the difference in money from a league position or two.

[bannedfromHandV]

The poll has so far confirmed what I thought anyway which is that, in my opinion, 50% of our fans are quite realistic whereas about 20% are living on another planet and a further 20% are setting themselves up for disappointment - in my opinion, just because I've written this doesn't make it so, I could be wrong but the poll results thus far don't lie.

50% of people have gone for option 6 or 7 which is actually the most realistic one and is the one that at least guarantees us a shot at playing in Europe most seasons which should be our aim ultimately.

Now bear in mind that the point of the poll was to try and get at what people expect, as a base requirement for our targets to be, anything below that would therefore be a failure, and so 20% of people have gone for options 1,2 and 3. To have expectations of winning the league is farcical, to EXPECT the club to qualify for the Champions Lge is just setting yourself up for disappointment, paticularly in a time when we're competing genuinely with 4 or 5 teams for 1 or 2 places, and all of those other teams have an advantage over us bar Everton who you would like to think we are a more attractive proposition than. To EXPECT the club to win either the League or FA Cup is, in my opinion, ridiculous. To expect to win a Cup is like expecting to win a bet on the horses every single time - it just won't happen and to expect as such each season is just setting yourself up for intense disappointment unnecessarily.

For all those who voted for the last option, I'd be intrigued as to what you're expectations are, I felt as though I'd kinda covered all the bases with the options but perhaps not?

This isn't meant to make anyone's opinion out as being wrong, afterall the poll is anonymous and we each have no idea of who has voted for which option, but with around 50% of people EXPECTING us to either lift a cup or the league or qualify for the Champs Lge each season it should indicate just how difficult a job MoN actually has in satisfying everyone, I would suggest that there isn't a manager in the world right now that could come in to the club and satisfy everyone.

[Jez]

A place up from last season?

Natural progression, that a long with the cup final we have would be a very successful season.

MON signing a striker and embracing squad rotation in time for next season would see us improving even more and really take that 'step' imo.

[wiganvillain]

I'm a none of the above as my rationale for a successful season is simple.

Qualification for a European place CL or Uefa whether by league position or winning a cup

[chrissmith921]

Qualify for Europe. Preference obviously CL but we have to be in Europe.

[bannedfromHandV]

I'm a none of the above as my rationale for a successful season is simple.

Qualification for a European place CL or Uefa whether by league position or winning a cup

Would that not fall into the 'finishing top seven with a good cup run' option then?

I know top 7 doesn't guarantee you entry into Europe but it's likely each season that the League Cup and FA Cup will be won by members of the top 6 in the Prem, hence 7th qualifies for Europe?

[ED]

CL or winning domestic silverware. **** the europa league, if we get it I hope we fall at the first hurdle again

[wiganvillain]

I'm a none of the above as my rationale for a successful season is simple.

Qualification for a European place CL or Uefa whether by league position or winning a cup

Would that not fall into the 'finishing top seven with a good cup run' option then?

I know top 7 doesn't guarantee you entry into Europe but it's likely each season that the League Cup and FA Cup will be won by members of the top 6 in the Prem, hence 7th qualifies for Europe?

Purely because 7th doesn't guarantee it.