Now summer 2017 Transfer Window has closed, where do you expect us to finish?

[metalgear]

i think the other teams will progress faster than we did, and while we can get used to wembley, we won't have a home ground advantage like last year.
i expect man u, Emirates Marketing Project, liverpool and chelsea to be ahead of us. but we will still do better than arsenal!

 

[jabbathehut]

agreed

 

[AdamB]

Think that both Man C and Man U will be in the top 3 somewhere; Cheatksi are vulnerable to injuries to certain players but if they keep their players fit then are also a top 3/4 team.

Think we're definitely better than Arsenal, and probably Liverpool. CL football should hit Liverpool given they haven't added much this summer; plus they're more of a known quantity now that Klown has been in charge for over a year.

So whilst we could realistically finish anywhere between 1st and 6th, 3rd or 4th should be the expectation. 5th would be disappointing but just about understandable. Still think that, like last year, 2nd would be us outperforming.

A 3rd consecutive CL qualification would be amazing and a brilliant way to go into the new stadium

 

[El Guepardo]

Why would second be outperforming? And don't bring out the whole story about money again. We have an excellent team, and manager. The team works well together and we play to a good system.

 

[Danishfurniturelover]

I like the Traore kid at Middlesborough.

 

[AdamB]

Why would second be outperforming? And don't bring out the whole story about money again. We have an excellent team, and manager. The team works well together and we play to a good system.

Two parts of an answer, of which one you won't like:
- money: Man U, Man C and Cheatski are way beyond us in terms of resources. Our natural peers over the longer-term are Arsenal and Liverpool. Liverpool has an advantage because of a larger fan base resulting from their success 3 decades ago, however that should gradually decline. Arse has had more recent success. But money and success in football are highly correlated so you should ordinarily expect us to finish average 4th-6th places finishes over the longer-term....so 2nd is outperforming
- regarding this season, as a said above Man C, Man U and Cheatski all feel like top 3 or 4 teams; Liverpool possibly. If you have 5 teams going for something and not much between them then finishing 2nd is outperforming as you're finishing in the top half of those, particularly when we're playing half our games at an unfamiliar/neutral venue whereas others are playing those 19 games at home.

Last point is that your comment 'We have an excellent team, and manager. The team works well together and we play to a good system' could apply to each of Man C, Man U, Cheatski and, to an extent, Liverpool.

 

[jts1882]

All else being equal, to match last season we need to match our home form. We have already dropped more points at Wembley than we did at WHL last season. I don't believe the Wembley jinx but it will be hard to produce even close to last season's home form. That means we have to improve our away form to stay where we are, while our competitors have strengthened. I think this would make second this season even more impressive. I'd say third would be a sign of improvement overall.