Measurement of success

Ive been thinking a lot lately about this. What does everyone here think would make for a successful season next year? I get the impression from a lot that only play offs are acceptable.

However, I feel this is an unrealistic expectation. We have floundered in this league for a long time now and have middle little forward movement from season to season so why should we suddenly expect no less than play offs?

I guess the question is what do you want to see different next season from the last few? For me, I want to see a more consistent team selection, more focus on our own game rather than the opponents and players who work for the tactic rather than their individual game. Im fairly confident karanka can instill these traits into our squad but I still dont think play offs are the be all end all next season, though certainly possible. Id be happy with the above plus any kind of improvement on our league position and some clear signals that we can challenge in the next 2 years.

What I think would make for a successful season next year:

A top 6 finish - we've never managed to finish in the top 6 since we've been down in the Championship. There's no reason why we shouldn't be aiming for a top 6 finish next season if we have a good summer transfer window - but this is Boro, expect us to sign Ishmael Miller and Sammy Ameobi on deadline day.

20+ goal striker - We've been crying out for a confident striker for too long now. I don't think Graham, Juke or Kamara are the answer. Look at Burnley, Ings and Vokes are hugely responsible for the success they have had.

Better discipline - We've given away too many penalties this season and had too many players sent off. This is ridiculous! Players need to learn to use their heads more often.

Obviously I'd like play offs or promotion but in all honesty, I'd just be happy with an improvement in this season and clear signs that we can challenge consistently.

even considering the awful start we had this season we were essentially a few mistakes/poor decisions away from a playoff place. Dont want to sound like a deluded fan but a club of our size really needs to be in the top six considering the money we have spent, if we get the 2 chelsea lads back and we can spend a bit on the squad(which im sure we will) we will surely be in the top six next season. Anything else would be a huge disappointment for me

Size of the club doesn't come into it for me. Look at sheff wed, forest, leeds etc, fairly big clubs who have underacheived for years.

Fact is, were a mediocre championship club for a long time now with some.very average seasons and league finishes. Theres 24 teams vying for 6 places and theres no reason why we should believe we should be there ahead of anyone else, especially considering recent years performances

Size of the club doesn't come into it for me. Look at sheff wed, forest, leeds etc, fairly big clubs who have underacheived for years.

 

Fact is, were a mediocre championship club for a long time now with some.very average seasons and league finishes. Theres 24 teams vying for 6 places and theres no reason why we should believe we should be there ahead of anyone else, especially considering recent years performances

True but we have spent alot more money than them teams though, looking back under strachen we spent vast amounts of money for this league and got no reward, under mogga we spent our fair share of money and even under karanka we have spent big on tomlin in January.

looking at our squad we should be more than good enough to be in the top 6

We have Omerou, Woody, Ayala, Friend, Williams. These players would get in alot of teams in this division, we have leadbitter that teams were offering 3 million plus in the summer, whitehead has alot of prem experience, alot of teams would love players like chalobah in their team, adomah, carayol, tomlin and butterfield are all more than good enough for this league plus we have a premiership striker up front for us

With this starting 11 we should be anything but a mediocre championship club. Their are teams above us with worse squads than us. Our minimum expectations next season should be top six surely.

Realistically I see us challenging in 3 years time.

If i were Gibson I would say this to Karanka.

Next season -14/15 - Finish in the Top 10, alongside a good cup run (past the third round).

I feel that this would prove that we are in the top half of the Championship teams which I believe that we are. However, we dont apply ourselves in all games to be better positioned in the league.

15/16 - Challenge for the PlayOffs.

We all know that our squad on our day can beat anyone. However, by this point alot of our first team players will contain youth players who will have gained some experience. The people in mind here are Gibson, Main, Reach etc. Players who are currently on the fringes or are playing first team football in a lower division.

Added to this, with Karanka's full season in the league previous, along side his half season (this season) I would like to think that he would have stamped his authority on the players from the group up throughout the club. Expectations of what is required is no longer needed to be said. Everyone will know what to do.

16/17 - This is the season that we can consider ourselves in my opinion dead certs to be in the top 6. The most important thing that I want to see is a Boro team play with an identity. If i were to try and describe our team under Moybray I would say we played for the counter attack. With Karanka we are defensively solid (most of the time) however, when we go forward im not sure on what 'brand' of football we try to play. Hopefully over the course of the next two seasons we would have established this.

Obviously, there are alot of factors to consider in this, i.e who comes up and down etc. But judging by our appalling 2013 and the fact we were all talking about sneaking into the play offs, i as a fan would like to think that by then we would try and challenge and be considered in the names of the better teams and not referred to as 'the likes of MIddlesbrough' in mid table mediocracy.

To be honest, im getting a bit tired of every year the play-offs being seen as being a couple of seasons (or more) away.

I honestly think we're good enough to make the play offs next season. You dont even need to be that good or consistent in this league to get in the play offs. All we need is to be slightly better/luckier/make a couple less sloppy mistakes in just two or three games than we were this year and we're there. Fine margins!

The teams that are in the play off spots now have all lost about 11/12 and drawn about 10 games each this season. When you look at our stats, we've only lost 1 more game than most of them. It's our inability to turn draws (we've had 16) into wins that's cost us. Remember all them 0-0 draws...

Realistically I see us challenging in 3 years time.

 

If i were Gibson I would say this to Karanka.

 

Next season -14/15 - Finish in the Top 10, alongside a good cup run (past the third round).

 

I feel that this would prove that we are in the top half of the Championship teams which I believe that we are. However, we dont apply ourselves in all games to be better positioned in the league.

 

15/16 - Challenge for the PlayOffs.

 

We all know that our squad on our day can beat anyone. However, by this point alot of our first team players will contain youth players who will have gained some experience. The people in mind here are Gibson, Main, Reach etc. Players who are currently on the fringes or are playing first team football in a lower division.

 

Added to this, with Karanka's full season in the league previous, along side his half season (this season) I would like to think that he would have stamped his authority on the players from the group up throughout the club. Expectations of what is required is no longer needed to be said. Everyone will know what to do.

 

16/17 - This is the season that we can consider ourselves in my opinion dead certs to be in the top 6. The most important thing that I want to see is a Boro team play with an identity. If i were to try and describe our team under Moybray I would say we played for the counter attack. With Karanka we are defensively solid (most of the time) however, when we go forward im not sure on what 'brand' of football we try to play. Hopefully over the course of the next two seasons we would have established this.

 

Obviously, there are alot of factors to consider in this, i.e who comes up and down etc. But judging by our appalling 2013 and the fact we were all talking about sneaking into the play offs, i as a fan would like to think that by then we would try and challenge and be considered in the names of the better teams and not referred to as 'the likes of MIddlesbrough' in mid table mediocracy.

If we go on like this we risk our best players being taken every season and perhaps even our manager which will put us back to square one, I know ffp is starting to kick in but i can still see us being within the top 7/8 spenders this summer

Playoffs next season is a must, if we dont we will start to loose players and also have to cut the wage budget further to save money especially if the crowds dont increase

I genuinely believe this squad, especially with a few additions in the summer, is more than capable of challenging for the playoffs. We would have been in the playoffs had Karanka had this full season in charge - I'm sure of it. The fact that we were even dreaming of the playoffs before today's match is a testament to just how much he has turned us around and has laid the foundations for a potential top 6 side next season. Defensively he's tightened us up unbelievably.. Who would have thought the side that let Paddy McCourt turn into Messi would finish the season off with one of the highest number of clean sheets in the division? Although it may be frustrating at times, he's also found a system that works for us - something we also haven't consistently had since we've come down.

He hasn't even had a full season yet. Keep our important players, get the Chelsea lads Omeruo and Chalobah back on loan, bring in a few signings and we should have the makings of a very good squad in this division. Roll on next season.

Play offs are not unrealistic and should be the mininum this club should aim for. You will have 3 teams coming down from the premiership that expect automatic promotion and 3 teams coming up looking for survival. So that puts us one of 18 teams looking for 4 play off places. But football isn't as simple as that.

The truth us it has taken 75 pts to finish in the top 6 in the last 5 years. That's 5 more points than we have ever earnt in this spell in the championship. But looking at this season out of the last 3 games if we manage, win 1 draw 1 and lose 1 (pretty average results that sums up this season) will put us on 62pts. So the question is can we earn 13 more point next season than this. 3 more wins and a draw??? I'd like to think we can. We defensively sound (when we can field 4 defenders)and are no longer a team that implodes under pressure.

In short I'm not naive or living in a dream world but these goals are achievable. And anything less will be disappointing, going on what's happened since AK has come in. And a summer transfers market together with a full pre season why not??

Can I just ask, I know financially we need PL football, but am I the only one that kind of enjoys being in the Championship?

I don't know. I like this league.

(Not that I don't want to go up, but...you know what I mean).

P.S. I may have had a few bottles of wine tonight.

Can I just ask, I know financially we need PL football, but am I the only one that kind of enjoys being in the Championship?

 

I don't know. I like this league.

 

(Not that I don't want to go up, but...you know what I mean).

 

 

P.S. I may have had a few bottles of wine tonight.

I fully understand what your saying. Would you rather see us getting turned over week after week in the premiership. Or competing at the top end of the championship. It's a fine line. And sometimes we have to be careful what we wish for. But to that end bring em on and hopefully we can see the good times back at Boro

I certainly don't expect a top 6 finish. I don't really expect anything. But personally I've seen enough to think that it's a real possibility under AK. When all is said and done, all I expect is a team with real drive and sustained effort. But what I ideally want on top of that is to see us maintain a competitive edge at the right end of the table. It's just nice to have a bit of excitement, instead of midtable mediocrity and straw clutching. We're far more likely to fail in a promotion bid next season then to succeed, as a top 2 finish is damn hard and has been beyond us for some time, whereas even a top 6 finish basically leaves you with a 1/4 chance. But it would be nice to go through the season in the mix.

Nutshell; work hard, make progress, hope for the best.

Play offs are realistic expectations for us, and a lot of people seem to back us to do well. Many pundits and betting stores have us in the top 5 to be promoted and that is for a reason. The one thing we lack is consistency or the ability to follow through with our season.

Eg. Take the 12-13 season under Mowbray. We were doing well up until the turn of the new year where suddenly our form took a poor turn and if it wasn't for our brilliant start then we may have been looking at another relegation.

Again take the 11-12 season for example. We went the first 11 games unbeaten but ended up finishing 7th due to a drop in form near the middle/end and then a slight revival.

Noticing a trend? There seems to be a run of wins, then a run of games without a win, especially from around the 30-40 games mark. Whether this is down to a lack of squad depth or not playing the January transfer window right, I have no idea.

Next season, we need to begin with a clean slate and hope that Karanka turns this Championship side into a Premier League one. Take Leicester for example. They've spent well over a couple of seasons and look to where it has got them, especially after the heartbreak they suffered last season and finally found a good strike partnership with a team that is good on the offence as it is defensively, with strikers they can rely on to get them goals when they most need them. IMO, we need to dig deep in our pockets and hope to mount a promotion charge next season and I am sure we should have a top quality striker at the top of our list.