optimistic for next season.

[greyarea]

my optimism comes from a range of sources .

Firstly, although signings have not been made yet, it is clear, Hoyle, Hodgkinson, Siewert the recruitment dept are in charge of signings and are going to buy and sell to build a squad that fits Jan Siewert vision of a future htafc.  

We have some genuine talent ready to step up from the reserves. Stankovic and Bacuna have clearly made an impression in the last 10 games. Add to that Duhney, Maty Daly (top, top class), Arrron Rowe and possibly Jaden Brown. Also Lewis O'Brien after his year at Brdford.


Karlan Grant is going to be the real deal in the championship.

Mbenza has talent and lets see what he can do next season. The same goes with ineffective Diakhaby.

Potentially the new version of Huddersfield might well be very effective.

Even Billing if he does not get his summer move and accepts the changes at HTAFC might have a part to play.

[lochnessterrier]

You were doing ok until the last sentence.

[Christ in Shades (art)]

The jury is out for me, we'll see who comes in first before we make any wild predictions.

[haskins]

Same here. I’m really looking forward to seeing what Jan can create with a young team of attacking talents. Finally he will get to shake off the legacy of the last couple of seasons and do it is his way. We’ve had a wonderful ride the last ten years since DH took over but this is the start of a new era and who knows what it could bring. UTT

[Melc]

May 30, 2019 6:55:14 GMT 1 haskins said:

Same here. I’m really looking forward to seeing what Jan can create with a young team of attacking talents. Finally he will get to shake off the legacy of the last couple of seasons and do it is his way. We’ve had a wonderful ride the last ten years since DH took over but this is the start of a new era and who knows what it could bring. UTT

Can you post more often, good to see some positivity on here!

[The Sheriff Strikes Back]

Glass very much half empty for me. I expect a long, hard slog of a season with us not being quite relegation threatened, but not bothering the top 8 either. Signings will be underwhelming, Hodgkinson will disappoint a lot of fans, Siewart will do probably Just enough to keep his job until Xmas at least.

Obviously I hope I'm wrong.

Still looking forward to it though, as I love the complete unpredictability of the Championship.

[Deleted]

May 30, 2019 6:50:31 GMT 1 Christ in Shades (art) said:

The jury is out for me, we'll see who comes in first before we make any wild predictions.

Does it matter who comes in first? Second, third, fourth and fifth could be better.

[teddytheterrier]

Keeping Grant will not be easy.

[northnottsblue]

......now we’re going to Luton Town,Luton Town away,Luton Town away.
Can’t wait Roll on August !

[Deleted]

Top 6 for me. Anything lower is disappointing. We'll have to see who we bring in and who leaves though.

[colnevalleyblue]

We won three times in all competitions last season.

Majority of our squad seem to want out.

I'd take anything above relegation.

[Captainslapper]

Strange that Mbenza has talent, whilst Diakhaby is ineffective?

They were both ineffective, but IMO it was Diakhaby that at least showed glimpses of talent.

[explorer]

May 30, 2019 8:04:24 GMT 1 colnevalleyblue said:

We won three times in all competitions last season.

Majority of our squad seem to want out.

I'd take anything above relegation.

The majority of our squad aren’t going to get out, whether because they have contracts, we don’t want to sell, or (more likely) they would not be all that attractive to other clubs.

They might just have to suck it up and knuckle down, very few of them came out of last season with any credit.

Get a couple of good early wins though, and a lot of the disappointment from last year will be forgotten, both on the stands and in the dressing room.

[Terrier Ramone]

We might as well be glass half full as what will be will be. It all depends on who comes in & then we will have a much better indication of how good a manager Jan is - only next season will we know which players have responded to him & who haven't & what style of play he wants to use - hopefully, this pre-season we pick players who are a lot more effective than last.

There will still be quite a few teams prepared to flash more cash than us in the Championship but spending big does not always equate to success. You win things with a team that is better than its individual parts, as per our success a couple of years ago. Just like our last promotion season, I think we could finish absolutely anywhere in the division, from top to bottom, but unfortunately, then I was spurred on by what I could see DW was trying to implement. I'm certainly not writing Jan off just yet but he has a much tougher job than David did, as now the expectations are a lot higher, though to counteract that, the squad he has SHOULD (in theory) be better than the one David inherited. I'm still really looking to the season ahead.

[Deleted]

The only noises I’m getting are of a managed decline I just hope that’s to the championship and not further down. Rookie foreign manager, disbanding squad, trying to keep hold of players, financial pressures etc. Really hope the fans get a better effort than last season from the club.

[captainjack]

May 30, 2019 8:04:24 GMT 1 colnevalleyblue said:

We won three times in all competitions last season.

Majority of our squad seem to want out.

I'd take anything above relegation.

The majority of our squad are the reason we only won three times last season.

I’ll be glad to see the back of most of them.

[Tinpot]

I'm confident of a top 24 finish.

[Deleted]

I remember when we were promoted to the Championship and thinking fuck me where are the points going to come from.

Look at the the table now, there's absolutely nothing to fear

[Deleted]

The way some are talking you would think we were newly promoted whereby staying up is a success. Like I say, let's see what happens over the summer but anything below top 6 is failure for us now imo.

[crux]

May 30, 2019 9:20:41 GMT 1 @joseppi1 said:

The only noises I’m getting are of a managed decline I just hope that’s to the championship and not further down. Rookie foreign manager, disbanding squad, trying to keep hold of players, financial pressures etc. Really hope the fans get a better effort than last season from the club.

You could have made the same statement when Wagner came in!

However, the 'Rookie foreign manager' is a well respected young coach who we've been tracking for a while - it may not work out in the end, but at least give him a chance.

Playing squads are always evolving, but any club that gets relegated usually evolves more quickly.

We were relegated because the players weren't good enough - you can argue about formation, motivation or team selection if you want but on match days we weren't good enough. There are a number of players the club doesn't want to keep. All those out of contract were released, plus Zanka, Billing and Sabiri have already been told they can find another club and I suspect Flo and Hamer have also been told the same. Of the other players who we may want to keep, only Lowe has left so far and he was due to leave next season anyway. It wouldn't surprise me if offers for Mooy, Kongolo, Schindler and Hogg are made and if their valuation is matched by a club at a higher level, we shouldn't stand in their way if they want to go. Grant and Bacuna are the two players I'd try to keep hold of.

As for financial pressures? You must be kidding, for the next three years the club will probably be in the best position financially it's ever been - at least in terms of income and expenditure on wages. All the players have relegation clauses in their contracts to match the drop in income, plus we've already released Durm, Depoitre, Williams and Lossl who were on PL wages - with more to follow. We won't be rolling in money, but we should be able to reinvest some of the transfer fees that we receive in new players. Plus, we should be able to operate at a profit for a change.

Yes, last season was crap and I for one was glad when it was over. However it's definitely not all doom and gloom and I'm looking forward to next season already - despite probably not knowing who half of the squad will be yet!

[Chips Longhorn]

To our advantage is the fact BCFC took a points deduction and also the actions against Wednesday etc meaning maverick owners and less likely to go down the "shit or bust " route

[ram]

I sure hope so as I had an email from the club yesterday saying only 80 SC left to purchase,non performance from the club would mean almost 18K folk conned.

[Torquayterrier]

We might have some sort of idea how our season is likely to go by around mid October but even then it's an unpredictable division. Leeds probably thought they were going to walk it before xmas and look how that panned out.

[kennyk2]

May 30, 2019 10:01:21 GMT 1 @delroyspipe said:

I remember when we were promoted to the Championship and thinking fuck me where are the points going to come from.

Look at the the table now, there's absolutely nothing to fear

Or to put it another way...

We were promoted from League 1 and you, like the rest of us were thinking, where are the points going to come from.

Prior to the second season in the Championship, most were thinking, where are the points going to come from.

Get relegated from the PL, and some very strange people are thinking, where are the points going to come from.

[Deleted]

May 30, 2019 10:23:31 GMT 1 ram said:

I sure hope so as I had an email from the club yesterday saying only 80 SC left to purchase,non performance from the club would mean almost 18K folk conned.

Conned how so?! It’s football. If anyone has bought a ticket because they EXPECT success or to romp the division and they’re going to cry if we finish 8th or 18th, then they’re idiots.

The only people who would suggest they are conned info buying a season ticket are those type S who ask for their money back after a rubbish away defeat? Yeah,..and my travel too...and 4 pints and a pie.

(we may well romp the league, which would be nice)

[Tinpot]

Pretty sure Billing has burned his bridges now....

As for next season, could be a promotion charge, could be a relegation battle or anything in between. We don't yet know what the squad will look like, although I'm beginning to lose optimism. My reasons:

1) It seems now pretty clear that Billing was one of the "disgraces". Somebody utterly at odds with Siewert. That in itself is not a worry, good & bad players alike can be a disruptive influence &/or fall out with the manager. It's that he was chosen for players' player of the year that points to a wider discontent.

2) The lack of movement thus far in the transfer market. Realistically, we've known for quite some time what division we would be operating in. Even officially, we were relegated pretty early, so I would have hoped that a lot had been done to steal a march on other clubs when searching for players. Ahead of our promotion season we started making agreements to sign players as early as April (still not officially safe from relegation when we signed Chris Loewe). So far, a few rumours here & there & a few out of contract players released but by & large our squad has a very familiar look to it. I'll start being a lot more concerned if the players come back for pre-season & the squad hasn't taken shape - but one of my big reasons for optimism is waning somewhat.

[galpharm2400]

always optimistic about a new season, no point being a fan unless thats so..

we got out of the championship before with virtually no money..

I don't personally think its as strong a league as it has been in the last few years..

absolutely no point in being despondent until its truly obvious its going to be a shitty season and then the humour kicks in and replaces despondency..

simple there is always another season and Town being well run means it will start without us being on the edge of falling off a financial cliff..

the fans out there crying for huge spending year on year may soon find that all 'football clubs' are not immune from going to the wall..

[Deleted]

Mid table would be success next season unless there are some inspired signings, and I do not mean expensive, but signings that come in at a reasonable price and prove to be very successful. I think with the people we expect to leave gone we will be left with an ok Championship side but not one that will challenge so replacements will be key.

[Deleted]

May 30, 2019 7:39:59 GMT 1 The Sheriff Strikes Back said:

Glass very much half empty for me. I expect a long, hard slog of a season with us not being quite relegation threatened, but not bothering the top 8 either. Signings will be underwhelming, Hodgkinson will disappoint a lot of fans, Siewart will do probably Just enough to keep his job until Xmas at least.

Obviously I hope I'm wrong.

Still looking forward to it though, as I love the complete unpredictability of the Championship.

the only people that in your words hodgkinson
will disappoint or those who are totally un realistic in who we may or may not bring in. lets just get behind the club and see what happens. One thing I'm sure about it will be a young side. you are correct about the championship there will be more twists and turns over the season than on a roller coaster

[detox]

I just hope we're not hovering around the drop zone all season, as we were up to when DW arrived...Sniffing around the top 6 will keep us interested,keep the fans on song and hopefully encourage us to launch a serious bid in the january window to push us over the line come May time..

The best thing would be to start the season with 6 or 7 victories, getting our name in the headlines and instilling belief in the players of our manager and his methods... This is what DW got.. 5 wins and a draw in our first 6 games, with only 3 playes starting the new season that finished the previous one... If JS can replicate that we could have a chance...