Cabrone

I'm neither. I have realistic expectations and will be happy if we hit them (stay up) but won't be down if we don't (relegated). Whilst I'm braced for a few pumellings I think this season is going to be interesting. If we can stay up then I think we'll consolidate and be much stronger next year so this season is a big one for Nigel and the team. COYR.

I think its because they dared to predict that we would come bottom. Anyone who predicts that gets attacked by the one eyed lot on here. Reality is this is going to be a tough season. The Reading match gave us an early taste of what we can expect, razor sharp finishing which sank us that night despite having most of the possession. Seriously, some of our fans need to reel in their expectations as they are setting themselves up for disappointment. Survival will be a great achievement.

Another reality check for the one eyed on here. 17th was and still is my expectation, if we survive we'll have done well this season. Keep on thinking we should have bought a quality keeper, KD is going to get beaten a lot this season and the team are going to have to show some real grit.

17th would do me just fine. That should be a bit of a reality check for the more one eyed on here.

3-0 SRL hat-trick.

Par for the course will be 17th. Mid table would be an extremely good season. Relegation would be dissapointing but not entirely unexpected.

Best of luck to him. He's going to need it if he wants to get paid at Pompey.

I think more fans are realistic than this BB would let you believe. This is going to be a tough season and 4th from bottom would be a result IMO. Need a class GK + CB to keep the goals against as low as possible.

Very overrated + media hyped player IMO. A couple of good goals against the Germans but against England he was pants and got nowhere against the Spanish. Wouldn't mind if he does play against us.

Don't know much about the guy but if he's captained Rangers and played international football it sounds like a decent signing in a position that we badly needed some strength. We haven't had a really good box to box midfielder since Quashie so pleased to have filled that role. Chaplow is attacking and Dean\Morgan are defensive but no-one really covers the whole pitch. Get a top quality GK and then a quality CH and we'll have enough to survive IMO.

MLT, arguably the most naturally talented footballer England have (n)ever had. Glad I was around to see his entire career, what a pleasure it was too.

I hope this guy turns out to be good but the Dutch LB at the Euro's was really dodgy and was still called up before Buttner.

From the day we got promoted I thought that 4th from bottom would be a result for us. Fans need to have realistic expectations for 2012/13. As it stands the current team would be likely relegation material IMO but we still have the transfer window to strengthen in key areas like GK, CM, CH so it all depends on who we we buy. First up is GK. We need a class keeper.

Me too, nothing against Jack Butland who may turn out to be a quality keeper but we are a newly promoted prem team who need better players right now if we are to survive. Being as no-one knows how Butland is going to turn out I'd go for a more established keeper. It's too crucial a position to experiment on IMO. £6M can get you a lot of good GKs.....

Whilst a new GK has been my no.1 issue since we got promoted £6M is a huge gamble on a GK that hasn't even played for Brum let alone in the prem. Being as this is our 1st season back in the prem shouldn't we be looking at more established\better\safer\cheaper GK options? Rob Green would have been fine with me and quite a few have mentioned McGregor who also would do a great job.

Yes, I think RL is good for at leat 10 goals next season. We'll soon find out. PS I thought Carrol was decent last night despite the fact that England starved him of service. If you are going to play a battering ram of a player then at least give him some crosses!

August Sat 18 15:00 A Manchester City PREM Sat 25 15:00 H Wigan Athletic PREM September Sat 1 15:00 H Man Utd PREM Sat 15 15:00 A Arsenal PREM Sat 22 15:00 H Aston Villa PREM Sat 29 15:00 A Everton PREM ---------------------------------------- Gulp.......if we could get a couple of home wins out of these fixtures I'd consider it a fantastic return. Emphasizes even more that we need a top quality GK, KD would\will have a torrid time against that lot. No big expectations this season, 4th from bottom will be a decent return for me.

Your bitterness clouds your judgement but if you feel that everything that went wrong with the club was all down to Harry Redknapp then that's your issue. Redknapp inherited a bloated squad full of journeymen caused by years of managerial merry-go-round, bizarre tinkering and injured players like Delgardo signed against managerial wishes. I saw most games of 04/05 and we were dire almost from day 1. Wasn't Redknapp our 3rd or 4th manager that season? You can't undo a mess like that with a click of your fingers. Most managers can't turn a squad around and gel a new team together in weeks. Like the pilot of a stalling plane falling out of the sky he wrestled with the controls but eventually ran out of height. The lesson is if you want a well run club then don't chop and change managers every other month and don't tinker without the full buy-in of existing staff. Thank goodness we have what appears to be a rational guy incharge now.

It just isn't that easy to pull a club out of the mess that we were in, even over half a season. The problem was years of mad experiments, managerial merry go round leading to a bloated squad full of journeymen, constant interference from above and poor morale. I watched most of our games that season, we looked like a beaten team waiting for the drop almost from the off. Spurs (a), Watford (a) and Pompey (a) were particularly memorable horror shows that stick in the mind. Once you are down there it is very hard getting out esp with all the shenanigins going on. Redknapp has his faults but few managers would have gotten us out of that nosedive. The club had been run into the ground. All IMO of course.

To be fair to Harry wasn't Clough (IMO the greatest English manager of all time) the same? His motto was 'football's a simple game', pick good players in the right positions, let them do their stuff and it works. Not even sure if he bothered to turn up to a lot of training sessions TBH. Don't understand the bitterness towards Harry. When he was here he was trying to float a sinking ship with a lunatic above him hell bent on employing rugby coaches and obscure academy 'gurus' above him on massive salaries. I would challenge most managers to have kept us up under those circumstances. What's more - he assembled a fine team in the champ only to be undermined by the chairmain who sold Crouch and handed Harry 90k for transfers. We were 1 or 2 decent strikers away from a bounce back to the prem IMO.

He's definitely better than KD and would have liked him here but £50k p.w is complete madness so it's time to look further. QPR need their heads looking at, they are going to bankrupt themselves if they carry on like this. Football has to get back into the real world.

The fact that so many on here turn their noses up at a keeper of the quality of Rob Green makes me really laugh. Who do they think we are to turn our noses up at a quality player like him? He is a proven premier league keeper and definitely better than Davis. Green would slot in as no 1 straight away. KD would be a very solid backup. Wages should be OK as he'd be a free signing. Not sure how they'd affect the dressing room though. The only question mark is why leave West Ham?

Top priority for me as it's a crucial position. The defence is going to face top quality strikers next season so we need as good a GK as we can get. A top class GK could save 10-15 points over a season. If Butland is as good as the hype then I'd fully expect him to challenge KD from day 1. That's probably what NA will say to him too as he's not going to want to come here to sit on the bench.

So they are offering Ricky 4-5 times more than Holt? If you are going to make stuff up then at least try to be a bit realistic.

Welcome back to reality. Whilst we were the prettiest girl in league 1, one of the prettiest in the champ now we're just plain Jane or even frumpy Fiona in the prem. That's life.