Post by WyomingWhite on May 10, 2010 18:27:28 GMT -1
Now the dust is starting to settle and we can start looking forward to next season I was wondering what my fellow Leeds fans are thinking about our prospects next season.
Usually, the top of the table is dominated by the fallout of the Premier League, but somehow I feel next season this will not be the case. Hull and Pompey are in financial dire straits that parachute payments will not alleviate, plus both will have fire-sales of their best players over the summer without the funds to replace such players with quality alternatives.
Stating the very obvious, the strongest teams in the division this season will be promoted and gone from this division, leaving perhaps only the play off losers and the few teams that underperformed this season, (I'm thinking Sheffield Utd and Middlesbrough primarily,) as Leeds' main competition next season.
Even with no additions to our current squad other than a good replacement for Beckford, (Billy Sharp was at the players promotion party...), I feel we could perhaps be competitive enough to be maybe knocking on the door of the play-offs, or at least settled in the top half of the table come May next year. With several improvements likely to be made to the squad our prospects will only be improved..
With 4-6 good Championship quality players brought in, (including three new defenders to play alongside Kisnorbo, a decent ball distributor/holding midfielder in the Batty mold, perhaps a winger, and another striker in addition to a Beckford replacement), I honestly feel it's not unrealistic to be looking at the playoffs as a minimum target and perhaps be realistically setting a target of auto-promotion rather than it being just a pipe-dream. I'm saying saying we will finish in the top-two, but it should be our target. (The phrase "Aim for the stars and you'll hit the moon," springs to mind.)
It is said that promotion to the Championship is worth around 10m to a club, therefore it would hardly be a gamble to preempt the increased revenue by spending 4-5m over the summer to; a) ensure our survival in the division, and; b) to improve the squad to a level that should be competitive in the top third of the division.
Our core squad contains several players that would perhaps flourish at the higher level of the Championship playing slightly more structured, regimented football - Becchio, Snodgrass, Kilkenny, Kisnorbo, Higgs, Howson and perhaps Johnson and Gradel are good enough to be rewarded with a place in next season's squad in my opinion, (and obviously Beckford too *if* he decides to stay which is unlikely but still not out of the question at the time of writing.)
With some current fringe players such as Grella and Somma and a couple of academy newcomers expected to stay at Leeds and be given a clean sheet to impress in the closed season, (after all Somma virtually kept Lincoln up single handedly while on loan there), our squad needs only tweaking and improvements in personnel rather than a massive overhaul. Half a dozen astute signings and I believe we could perhaps compete at the top end of the division.
What does everyone else think about our chances next season?
Usually, the top of the table is dominated by the fallout of the Premier League, but somehow I feel next season this will not be the case. Hull and Pompey are in financial dire straits that parachute payments will not alleviate, plus both will have fire-sales of their best players over the summer without the funds to replace such players with quality alternatives.
Stating the very obvious, the strongest teams in the division this season will be promoted and gone from this division, leaving perhaps only the play off losers and the few teams that underperformed this season, (I'm thinking Sheffield Utd and Middlesbrough primarily,) as Leeds' main competition next season.
Even with no additions to our current squad other than a good replacement for Beckford, (Billy Sharp was at the players promotion party...), I feel we could perhaps be competitive enough to be maybe knocking on the door of the play-offs, or at least settled in the top half of the table come May next year. With several improvements likely to be made to the squad our prospects will only be improved..
With 4-6 good Championship quality players brought in, (including three new defenders to play alongside Kisnorbo, a decent ball distributor/holding midfielder in the Batty mold, perhaps a winger, and another striker in addition to a Beckford replacement), I honestly feel it's not unrealistic to be looking at the playoffs as a minimum target and perhaps be realistically setting a target of auto-promotion rather than it being just a pipe-dream. I'm saying saying we will finish in the top-two, but it should be our target. (The phrase "Aim for the stars and you'll hit the moon," springs to mind.)
It is said that promotion to the Championship is worth around 10m to a club, therefore it would hardly be a gamble to preempt the increased revenue by spending 4-5m over the summer to; a) ensure our survival in the division, and; b) to improve the squad to a level that should be competitive in the top third of the division.
Our core squad contains several players that would perhaps flourish at the higher level of the Championship playing slightly more structured, regimented football - Becchio, Snodgrass, Kilkenny, Kisnorbo, Higgs, Howson and perhaps Johnson and Gradel are good enough to be rewarded with a place in next season's squad in my opinion, (and obviously Beckford too *if* he decides to stay which is unlikely but still not out of the question at the time of writing.)
With some current fringe players such as Grella and Somma and a couple of academy newcomers expected to stay at Leeds and be given a clean sheet to impress in the closed season, (after all Somma virtually kept Lincoln up single handedly while on loan there), our squad needs only tweaking and improvements in personnel rather than a massive overhaul. Half a dozen astute signings and I believe we could perhaps compete at the top end of the division.
What does everyone else think about our chances next season?
