Mid-Summer Expectations for 2015/2016?

[Lacoste]

A month has passed since the original post. What are people expectations for next season now?

I will post another one t the end of July to see what's changed.

[K.URZ13]

1st-6th

Sa to score 20+

[Platypuss]

Holding back for the "First week of July Expectations for 2015-16" poll.

[Ian Royal]

I was going to do this, but had second thoughts, particularly as nothing significant has happened since the first poll I did. One a month is excessive, so I was going to just leave it til towards the end of July. I do appreciate that my curiosity in wanting to check how expectations might change was completely losertastic.

I don't think anything has changed to move my expectation from 19th - 24th.

[Reading4eva]

Successfully adding Myhill at the back with Sa upfront and adding in Quinn and McShane will make a huge difference. Our squad isn't bad to start with and I can see Jem staying now.

I will be disappointed if we didn't finish the right side of the half way line

[Mr.Swainey]

I can see Jem staying now.

He isn't staying.

[Lower West]

Just checked the league table and RFC are still 21st. So no improvement.

I think a name change is required to elevate us up the league table.

[SCIAG]

Successfully adding Myhill at the back with Sa upfront and adding in Quinn and McShane will make a huge difference.

Find it hard to get excited about any of them except Quinn tbh. I'm not saying they couldn't improve our squad, Sa in particular is an unknown quality who could make almost any definite prediction about him look ridiculous, but I wouldn't actually feel any better about our prospects with Myhill, McShane and Sa added to the squad.

Still not expecting much change in final position from last season, feel the thinning of the squad will be roughly counterbalanced by player development.

[Coppelled_Streets]

13th-18th currently.

If we get the players we've been linked with then I'd hope we finish top half with a little flirt with the play-offs.

[Nameless]

We could easily have been 10 places higher last season. We lost too many points due to tiny mistakes. But most teams can say that, the margins for error are so small and the difference between teams is minute. If we take a few extra changes and avoid some of the defensive errors things will be very different. Big if.
Will the players coming in make those crucial differences ? Will not having a horror injury list give us more stability ? Will it take too long to get an all new team firing ?
Don't thing we'll get auto, don't think we'll get relegated but no one can be confident about where we'll finish between 6th and 20th until August when we know who will be playing.....

[Snowball]

The Sa signing makes me feel good on may counts.

The striker problem looks a lot less worrying ATM with Pog & Sa backed up by Cox, Samuel, HRK, but I like the fact that we've spent money brought in a touch of class where it's needed.

I now expect a VG, experienced, hard CB, ditto a midfielder, and once the keeper is sorted (and I'm sure it will be) I think this is a squad at least good enough for top eight, and maybe more.

I think I'd like to see a LB, so Obita could play LW (or a magician to get HRK to fulfil his potential)... and with Fosu eager to get game time, I think we have a very decent attack. (Not sure what the situation is with Stacey?)

[Green]

A month has passed since the original post. What are people expectations for next season now?

I will post another one t the end of July to see what's changed.

I hope you'll post a summary of your findings otherwise this is just a badly disguised attempt to legitimise post bumping and spamming.

[leon]

A month has passed since the original post. What are people expectations for next season now?

I will post another one t the end of July to see what's changed.

I hope you'll post a summary of your findings otherwise this is just a badly disguised attempt to legitimise post bumping and spamming.

[Lacoste]

Ok my expectations are still for a scrap at the bottom for the majority of the season.

One of my concerns, as much as I like him, is Clarke but no point going over that one again.

It's positive that it see we have money to spend again however it's who we are spending it on that's the concern. We seem to be thinking short term unless of course Clarkes aim is to stabilise us then make younger signings as he goes on.

Mcshane 29
Quinn 29
Donaldson 31

Sa is an unknown quantity and I'm happy to give him a shot. 27 is fine. It would seem though that fine are the days of fielding young, hungry and vibrant sides and it would appear that Clarke preferes older heads.

I know we haven't signed some of the players above but no one without fire etc etc. I think spending a substantial amount of money on someone like Donaldson would realise some of the fears o had about Clarke when he first arrived.

Anyway, Clarke is going nowhere so I'll back him and hope to be proved wrong.

[Woodley-RFC]

Top Six....... I rekon

[RoyallyFcuked]

Anything less than fighting for play offs is not good enough but don't be surprised if were not good enough.

[Ian Royal]

The Sa signing makes me feel good on may counts.

The striker problem looks a lot less worrying ATM with Pog & Sa backed up by Cox, Samuel, HRK, but I like the fact that we've spent money brought in a touch of class where it's needed.

I now expect a VG, experienced, hard CB, ditto a midfielder, and once the keeper is sorted (and I'm sure it will be) I think this is a squad at least good enough for top eight, and maybe more.

I think I'd like to see a LB, so Obita could play LW (or a magician to get HRK to fulfil his potential)... and with Fosu eager to get game time, I think we have a very decent attack. (Not sure what the situation is with Stacey?)

He's a Littlesque right winger who's played at right back a bit iirc. Not much pace but ties defenders in knots and a good finisher. A steadier player than Fosu with perhaps a bit less potential, but ahead of him currently and more likely to reach it.

[Nameless]

Not sure signing players aged 29 indicates short term thinking. There's comfortably 2-3 years in a player that age and that's about as far ahead as any manager can plan.
We have the long term covered via the Academy, Clarke seems rightly to be looking at ensuring we have some good experienced pros to mix in with the exciting youngsters.
Good strategy IMHO.

[Hoop Blah]

We've got a very young squad and a lot of our own academy graduates coming through to hopefully challenge for a place over the medium to long term, with a slight chance in the short term.

Because of that we don't need to buy young and hungry, we need to buy in the experience and proven ability to get the blend right.

[Baggie192]

Just checked the league table and RFC are still 21st. So no improvement.

I think a name change is required to elevate us up the league table.

A.F.C. Readind