What are the chances of winning promotion next season.
The Championship will be more difficult than this season. Teams that will do well will be
Leeds ,Hull, , Sheffield Wednesday, Sunderland, Derby, Norwich, Aston Villa, Fulham.
We must do better at home as we only won 10,drew 8 and lost 5. we dropped 31 points and won 38
Away we won12, drew 6 and lost 5.We dropped 27 points and won 42.
Its was great that we picked up so many points away but we need to make Craven Cottage a Fortress.
Sunderland would do well to get top half, their owner is not interested, the players are all old, out of contract, overpaid, without Championship experience and worth little, and Moyes also has limited C'ship experience. I can see them bottom half.
Sunderland are a mess
Hull have about 10 players and will lose their manager
Boro who knows
How is that more difficult than the prospect of Newcastle meaning 1 of the 3 promotion spots was over before a ball had been kicked. I'm amazed we aren't favourites.
I personally think the league is much weaker this coming season with Brighton and Newcastle going up, and weaker teams in terms of stability and squad replacing them - Newcastle and Villa came down with huge financial spending power, one spent wisely and the other didn't and look what happened. Sunderland will probably perform similar to how we did, I can't see Hull faring much better with the state of their ownership, and Middlesbrough are without Karanka who masterminded their push into the prem. I'm not even sure if Villa will make top six to be honest, yes they spent a load of money but they haven't exactly set the world alight since Bruce rocked up, they seem like a case of throw money at it and hope for the best. I fully expect us to be up there next year, Derby and Wednesday would be guesses for being up there with us, Norwich would expect to be challenging, maybe one of the three relegation teams, potentially Villa if they sort themselves out, and then I'm not really sure who else because there's a group of 6-7 teams that are similarly average after that. If Hudds go up then I'm not sure how Reading will do (surely their luck will run out and they'll return to mediocrity at some stage??), if Reading go up then I'd expect Hudds to be there again as long as they keep Wagner.
At the end of the day, I cannot see any reason to suggest that next season will be harder than last season. What will be will be. I wouldn't worry how good other clubs may or may not turn out.
As long as Fulham get their act together, build on their strengths and strengthen their weaknesses. Be prepared, organised and make the Cottage a Fortress once again. We need a deeper squad. Despite the dissapointment of finishing the season being beaten by a penalty that never was, we still finished on a high, in as much as we know we have a good team, that with the right surgery will be a Championship winning team.
We are not that far away. How many teams in the Championship can be sure of that. Apart from the three teams coming up from Division One.
All the others more or less finished on a bad note.
What's important is that the club, try and do business early to settle in any newcomers quickly, and get their first choice targets in asap.
Remember we beat Hull 4-1.
If we strengthen with a striker and avoid serious injuries we should at least be in the play-offs.
In any and every season you play what is in front of you, when you play them, and all the many variables that contribute to 'difficulty' level are impossible to figure. 2017/18 will be similar to 2016/17 in being a challenge on a game by game basis and any 'favourities' right now are just guesses based upon whatever formula someone is prepared to rely upon. By April 2018 it may be clearer who the 'favourites' are but even that is not necessarily a given....
It depends entirely on who we lose, hang on to, and sign over the next 3 months.
Sheffield United will very much be there or thereabouts
The most important thing I think is that we hopefully will be better than we were at the start of last season. With a few additions in the right places and not losing too many from the squad. We should be further along. As for the other teams. There will always be good and bad and a few shock teams along the way. It should be interesting. But we should be better too and it may not mean promotion but we should be going in the right direction.
When do the fixtures get published. Then I can plan my winter trip to UK to maximise the number of Fulham matches. (and finally get to meet some FoFers).
Quote from: jarv on May 20, 2017, 03:05:06 PM
When do the fixtures get published. Then I can plan my winter trip to UK to maximise the number of Fulham matches. (and finally get to meet some FoFers).
June 21st I believe
Quote from: Buffalo76 on May 20, 2017, 03:23:26 PM
Quote from: jarv on May 20, 2017, 03:05:06 PM
When do the fixtures get published. Then I can plan my winter trip to UK to maximise the number of Fulham matches. (and finally get to meet some FoFers).
June 21st I believe
Correct - these will be the fixture dates before Sky interfere
The drop zone will be interesting with some big clubs appearing to be in real danger. Bristol City minus Tammy, Forest & QPR all need decent/substancial recruitment.
Do we want Bradford or millwall coming up?
Yipeee! :yay: Back down The Den next season! Get those old campaign medals out :medal: :medal:
Of the teams relegated last season, only Newcastle went straight back up, and we took 6 (easy) points off them. If we can keep the nucleus of our current team plus a couple of good quality additions I see no reason to think we won't be challenging promotion again come next May
I think we can do similarly to what Brighton did next season.
Brighton-14/15 season : 20th
15/16 season : 3rd and out in playoff semi finals
16/17 : 2nd
Fulham-15/16 season : 20th
16/17 : 6th and out in playoff semi finals
17/18 : who knows
Quote from: Statto on May 19, 2017, 09:02:30 PM
Currently on SkyBet we are second favourites for promotion, just behind Aston Villa in 1st believe it or not
The moment new breaks about a Cairney transfer we will drop from promotion favourites to mid table hopefus.
It would not surprise me if there are other teams that will turn out to be strong favourites to stake a challenge for a top two or top six push for promotion. There of course will be the bigger clubs amongst a dozen that will be thinking, hello there is no reason not to fancy their chances if they have a good summer in the transfer market.
Quote from: AlexW132 on May 19, 2017, 08:50:34 PM
Sunderland would do well to get top half, their owner is not interested, the players are all old, out of contract, overpaid, without Championship experience and worth little, and Moyes also has limited C'ship experience. I can see them bottom half.
Sound familiar(ish)?
Quote from: andersons11 on May 21, 2017, 10:57:24 PM
Quote from: AlexW132 on May 19, 2017, 08:50:34 PM
Sunderland would do well to get top half, their owner is not interested, the players are all old, out of contract, overpaid, without Championship experience and worth little, and Moyes also has limited C'ship experience. I can see them bottom half.
Sound familiar(ish)?
Exactly, can see them following very much the same patten as we did.
Yes Sunderland have been flirting with relegation for a few years now, and having finally gone through the trap door, and Jermaine Defoe I would imagine would not be there to bail them out.
It could be a long ride back for them.
Middlesbrough, Villa, Fulham, Derby, Wolves would be my top 5 in no particular order I think norwich, sunderland and Hull we be top half but much depends on there summers. Ive not included Sheff Wed as there were lots of rumours about there manager being sacked and reading huddersfield also have question marks over there managers for next season.
villa will be a threat IMO
but in this division it is hard to know because of crazy management in so many places. the managers must be allowed a reasonable time to get their feet under the desk
i think if the owner backs joca with appropriate transfers we will be in a good place especially because of the style we have adopted.
QPR could be restricted by FFP
Quote from: Andy S on May 22, 2017, 05:09:07 PM
QPR could be restricted by FFP
QPR will be restricted by the fact they simply aren't very good.
Moyes has gone so maybe they'll regroup and come back better, or take a year to reorganise..!
Who knows. 12 months ago if you told me or anyone that Huddersfield, us and Reading would be in the playoffs no one would believe you.
Sunderland and Villa will need to throw money at it, teams like Barnsley could surprise and then you've got the sleeping so called giants like Norwich and Derby who continue to flatter to deceive.
But all in all, there's no hope in predicting what's gonna happen, just get ready for one hell of a ride!
