Which three teams are we likely to finish above.

[The Swan]

My three would be     Bournemouth. Brentford. Burnley. ( If Burnley get relegated this season then Southampton)

[JoelH5]

Bournemouth, whoever comes up from playoffs and whoever doesn't go down out of Burnley or Leeds

[H4usuallysitting]

Manure & the dog track lot

[LC]

It depends of who stays up. But I think we'll finish above whoever goes up from the Championship next season plus we should aim to be above: Burnley, Leeds, and Brentford. I think Brentford will struggle next season, just like Leeds have stayed up this season as well. So there's 4 teams we should finish ahead of.

I think Southampton will be fine but it's a team we can pick up points against.

[We Are Premier League]

 Bournemouth, Brentford and playoff winner - think most/all other squads will be stronger than ours.

[Whitestone]

Impossible question to answer until our recruitment is complete. The current squad would finish in the bottom three.

[filham]

Bournmouth, Burnley, Forrest.or Leeds, Soulhampton, Brighton.
There is more than three targets and if Brentford and Brighton can manage mid table this season why shouldn't we next.

[Fulham 442]

Impossible question to answer until our recruitment is complete. The current squad would finish in the bottom three.

Exactly this...

[Huxley]

Everton doesn't seem to be flush with cash anymore. Maybe overextended themselves and the resale price of Richarlison and Calvert Lewis has dropped a fair bit. Not sure how long Hasenhuttel will stick with S'oton and vise versa, especially if they sell ward-Prouse.

[Kingjay81]

Both Norwich and Watford finished with more points than us when they got promoted from Championship (97 and 91) and will both finish this season with even less points than we got when we got relegated from the premier league last season!

Just proves how ridiculously hard it is. Recruit superbly well then we have a chance. If the recruitment isn't absolutely spot on then we'll be back where we started!

No pressure!

[rebel]

All of them, simply because we finished the season with 'diabolical performances', losing more games in the last 16 then we did in the first 30. I know fans will say we got promoted etc, but we couldn't string a sequences of performances together, so on that basis we would struggle.     

[Wingnut]

Hard to know until we see our XI and how Marco sets up the team. If we have the same XI that ended the season, and we play open football, we'll finish bottom. If we sign the right players, and have a nice balance to our play, I can pick five teams that we'll finish ahead of, and I'd include Southampton, see Sky Sports tonight, in that list.

[Andy S]

This is a very good question if asked on the morning after 30th July. If asked at any Tim before that it is not likely to any more true than selecting lottery numbers. I'm not saying either will be unsuccessful but not likely

[Woolly Mammoth]

Impossible question to answer until our recruitment is complete. The current squad would finish in the bottom three.

Precisely

[bencher]

I think Marco was the ideal manager to get us promoted from the Championship with his attacking brand of football. It remains to be seen if he is ideal to turn us into a PL stable team. We saw what happened to Slav. Parker spent a year making us a conservative side with the goal of using that to avoid losing games in the PL, and it wasn't enough. Will Silva prove to have the balance the other two lacked? Recruitment is critical. If Brentford hadn't lured Eriksen, they may have gone down. We will need those 2-3 players that really make the difference in tight games.

[rebel]

I think Marco was the ideal manager to get us promoted from the Championship with his attacking brand of football. It remains to be seen if he is ideal to turn us into a PL stable team. We saw what happened to Slav. Parker spent a year making us a conservative side with the goal of using that to avoid losing games in the PL, and it wasn't enough. Will Silva prove to have the balance the other two lacked? Recruitment is critical. If Brentford hadn't lured Eriksen, they may have gone down. We will need those 2-3 players that really make the difference in tight games.

Slav was actually getting there, he got some decent performances and results, but the Khan's and Co panicked.
I could add more but won't

[The Rational Fan]

Impossible question to answer until our recruitment is complete. The current squad would finish in the bottom three.

Precisely

With FFP enforced, it should be two of the promoted teams and Everton to be relegated. Unfortunately, the premier league won't be punishing Everton and won't let us overspend FFP. So it will be the three promoted teams as favourites for relegation.

Of course, if we finish above the other two promoted teams, there is always the chance of an injury crisis or overconfidence leading to a a lack of investment with another existing bottom half premier league team.

If we spend early in the window, other teams above us will invest to prevent us overtaking them, but a few late buys on deadline day that are good long term investments might catch the teams above us by surprise.

[Donnie Lonegan]

I think we'll get it right this time and finish about 15th.
What worries me though is the lack of real quality in the names I'm seeing us linked with.
If you buy championship quality players, don't be surprised when you become a championship team again.

[Donnie Lonegan]

I also see that everybody thinks we'll finish above Bournemouth, well we couldn't beat them home or away this season, and in one of our best seasons ever, we finished two points above them.
Teams like Wolves, Leeds, Aston Villa and Brentford have all made a better job of staying up than we have, so I won't be surprised if Bournemouth can be added to that list.

[Deeping_white]

I also see that everybody thinks we'll finish above Bournemouth, well we couldn't beat them home or away this season, and in one of our best seasons ever, we finished two points above them.
Teams like Wolves, Leeds, Aston Villa and Brentford have all made a better job of staying up than we have, so I won't be surprised if Bournemouth can be added to that list.

But surely on the flip side, they weren't able to beat us either and never looked likely to so why would anyone think they're magically going to be better than us next season with a coach who's already showed the only way he can be remotely competitive at that level is to park the bus and hope for the best?