Early Expectations for 2015/16?

[Ian Royal]

I thought it might be interesting* to see how our expectations develop or change over the close season, so I intend to do a poll at the end of each month on how we're all feeling we'll do next season. I'l leave each poll open for 15 days.

So, what's your end of season gutshot feeling for next season? I've kept the options nice and broad.

It's virtually a month since our last game, we've released / sold / not offered a new contract:
Guthrie, Knight, Yakubu, Travner, Edwards, Lincoln, Henly, McLennan and Gogic.
Andersen is in limbo not offered a contract but not yet released.
Federici has opted for Bournemouth.
Pearce is rumoured for Derby.
We're apparently interested in Fodderingham - Swindon's goalie, but have made no signings.
No news on Karacan or Kelly.
Moore, Sweeney, Fridge, Andresson, Collins, Davis and Scheving have signed new deals in the youth side.

We finished the season with a win, but had lost 4 in a row before that and gone 9 without a win ending with just 2 wins in 14 games. League only obvs. We made the Semi-Final of the FA Cup for the first time in almost 90 years and were an inch from making history and the Final. We were conceding fewer goals under Clarke, but scoring fewer and picking up fewer points.

[blueroyals]

I'm fully expecting another relegation battle.

Any transfer money we have will need to go on replacing Feds, Karacan, Pearce.

We'll be lucky to start next season with a similar strength squad.

[Ian Royal]

I'm expecting the same. Unsurprisingly negative at the moment on the poll (85% say below mid-table). Lets hope as the months go on we get mainly good news.

[Royal_jimmy]

I actually expect us to do better next season but I don't expect us to be challenging for promotion. We have some good quality players still on our books (McCleary, Williams, Hector and Obita) who underperformed and we have some promising youngsters coming into our team. We haven't lost anyone important to the squad except Federici. As long we we find a reasonable goalie and a couple strikers who know where the net is I think we'll finish top half.

It all depends on who else comes and goes. If we sell Hector, Williams and McCleary and bring in unknowns and end up with some average goalkeeper like David Forde then I will be a bit worried. At present I will be bold and predict us to come 11th.

[Mid Sussex Royal]

Its a lucky part of decade so I'm going 1-6th.

1925/26 div 3 champions
1975/76 promotion from div 4 (next promotion following 1925/26)
1985/86 champions third tier - record breaking 13 wins start of season
1995/96 - successfully avoided relegation following season long struggle
2005/06 - tier 2 champions record 106 points

[Snowball]

REALLY difficult to predict ATM

Not worried about Feds going as I think we'll find a decent enough replacement.

Not really worried about Pearce going. Though he's "OK", (and I quite like the bloke) ask yourself how you'd feel if we were signing a sort-of-Ok, bit-slow CB, who has passion but no real stand-out class. I certainly feel both Hector and Cooper can be better CBs, and I presume we will get in a good solid, experienced CB.

If we lose Karacan, I'll be more worried, but we simply don't yet know.

My current guess is 6-7-8th, but that's almost pure instinct and trust in SC.

We could yet lose Hector, Pearce, Karacan, McLeary. We might (somehow) offload The Pog. It's crazy-tough ATM

[mikey0406]

If you take our first team....

Feds
Gunter....Peace......Hector.......Obita
Williams...chalobah....Karacan
Mackie...Pog.....Mcleary

At this point if Peace leaves if we manage to keep hold of Jake Cooper this might be his breakthrough year, we then have youngsters plus terdinand for cover. In midfield we have options with Norwood and Hope Akpan plus youngsters coming through. Mackie will be missed but dare I say it that HRK and Blackman are options there with cox backup to Pog.

although still not the strongest team we should sustain a season not battling relegation if players are fit from the start of the season. Money saved in wages will help cover the shortfall from previous seasons. if one or two players come in to replace those outgoing fees will be relatively cheap and wages will be at least half!

don't count us out yet

[Maidenhead Royal]

Right now we have a pretty big shopping list, but nothing we can't manage:
Goalkeepers (Fods and Hamer for me)
CB - we need someone who can lead because our only decent leader is off to the Rams.
Left winger - Someone who gets balls into the box and get into the box himself.
Striker - A guy with pace and/or skill (preferably both!) who can strike with confidence and competence. Gets into the box when needed as well.

There you go. If we get all that, I would consider that an excellent summer and would lay the framework for a better team in 16/17. With that, I would say 6-9th. Without it, 13-19th.

[NewCorkSeth]

Our team is honestly not that bad.. Its been said a lot but we have some great young talent (kuhl, cooper, Stacey, Fosu) some younger players building experience to go along with their talent (obita, hector) and some top championship players (McCleary, Williams, Akpan)

Ok that last one was a joke...

Add in to that team some average championship players (Gunter, Norwood, hrk, Cox, pog) and some key signings and we have a top ten team. So im optimistic at this point

[3points]

think we will be at the top of the bottom half of the table. Fully expecting us to be difficult to beat next season, but not score many goals (thinking someone like Sheff Weds this season)

[King van der Kwaak]

It's worth bearing in mind that there's still three full months before the transfer window shuts, so I'm not unduly worried about the situation currently and so I'm going top-half of the table.

The club will have been fully prepared for Federici to leave, and so I've no doubt they've prepared a number of ideal replacements.

Pearce going doesn't really bother me, considering his experience, he still makes too many misjudgements - not necessarily mistakes, but poor judgements - when to close down, how to play from the back etc.. I think Cooper is a far better header and attacking threat at set-pieces but I do actually wonder if he'll benefit from a loan move first, playing week-in, week-out like Hector did - maybe to Scotland in a loan-swap perhaps?
The risk of that though, leaves Dom Hyam as the only real back-up if Ferdinand remains unfit - but again, the club will have been aware there was a strong possbility of Pearce leaving and again would've been prepared.

I think our midfield is actually one of the best in the division - it just needs pruning, hopefully Robson-Kanu, Akpan and Taylor. If we don't sell anyone in central/attacking midfield, then if Karacan, as much as like him, doesn't re-sign, then we have other options. Obita's been playing too far back too often so if he can be pushed forward, I think that'll be another option. Our youngsters in these positions - Fosu, Stacey, Kuhl and potentially Fridjonsson - are very promising.

Striker wise is where I see us the weakest at the close of the season. I'm not as yet convinced with Samuel as others seem to be, but I do rate Tanner. Novakovich looks promising, but he's more likely to be a key for the under 21's this year. All the others have not impressed - either underperforming too often (Cox, Pog and Mackie, if he were to resign) or just not being up to the grade required (Blackman). If I've got once concern re. summer recruitment, it's up-front.

If we get the striker situation sorted effectively, then I think's it's quite probable to aim for a top-half finish.

But I appreciate the current situation doesn't fill people with confidence and can understand the concerns. I'm not for or against Clarke at present, but I do think that Reading need to be progressing by October for him to win people over and to stay in his job. If we're still struggling in October, then that gives us plenty of time to still manage the loan windows and the January transfer window to turn things round.

[SCIAG]

Pearce going doesn't really bother me, considering his experience, he still makes too many misjudgements - not necessarily mistakes, but poor judgements - when to close down, how to play from the back etc.. I think Cooper is a far better header and attacking threat at set-pieces but I do actually wonder if he'll benefit from a loan move first, playing week-in, week-out like Hector did - maybe to Scotland in a loan-swap perhaps?
The risk of that though, leaves Dom Hyam as the only real back-up if Ferdinand remains unfit - but again, the club will have been aware there was a strong possbility of Pearce leaving and again would've been prepared.

I think you're a bit confused, or maybe I just misunderstood you.

If Pearce leaves, Ferdinand remains unavailable, and we send Cooper on loan, our options at centre back will be Hector, Sweeney, Keown, Hyam, and Dickie (and Gunter/Sammi/younger players). We would have no choice but to play an unproven youngster alongside Hector, let alone using them as cover.

I do think Cooper could benefit from a loan move, but that should only happen if we have three reliable options ahead of him. Otherwise he may as well get that experience with us.

[mikey0406]

If Cooper is guaranteed to start matches by Clark why would he need a loan move? the problem I see will be one of our ex managers picking up a job and attracting cooper to regular first team football and leaving us with little options at the back - just heard a whisper someones trying to poach

[maffff]

Target for me is upper mid table...

[Coppelled_Streets]

Hoping: Mid-table
Expecting: Bottom 6

[John Smith]

Hoping: relegation

Let's get it out the way and clear the decks, storm League 1 and use the momentum to go again in the Championship.

Expectations: 17th

[Coppelled_Streets]

Hoping: relegation

Let's get it out the way and clear the decks, storm League 1 and use the momentum to go again in the Championship.

Expectations: 17th

Because you always come straight back up...

[tidus_mi2]

Hoping: relegation

Let's get it out the way and clear the decks, storm League 1 and use the momentum to go again in the Championship.

Expectations: 17th

Why does everyone think relegation would be great and we'd storm League One? Big clubs sure, they eventually find their way out of it but we're not a big club, if we get relegated our attendances will plummet, I doubt we'd be able to maintain Category 1, regardless of the fact academy costs don't factor into FFP I doubt the club would maintain large losses when they can make large cuts in that area.

Look at Sheffield United, bigger club than us but they will have been down in League One for 5 seasons now, it's not necessarily an easy league to get out of, the only positive I could possibly see out of it would be that it would allow us in the short term to introduce our young players into the team sooner but the long term effects to the club are going to be far more negative than positive.

[elrey]

Expectations? Does anyone have any at all?

Maybe that we get our youyth players doing well so we can win League One the season after?

[Hoop Blah]

My expectations at this time are Clarke to shape up a half decent squad and take us to a respectable mid-table position with a hint of a play off challenge.

Obviously that's dependant upon him having the tools to do the job and we'll only know that in a couple of months time when we see what changes he's been able to make both on and off the pitch.

Fingers crossed.