Where do you think we will end up this season?

League position

  • Top 2

  • Top 6

  • 7th-12th

  • 13th-21st

  • Relegated


Results are only viewable after voting.
Be interesting to see how we get on at Blackburn and QPR, but I'd take losses in those if we beat Coventry and Derby at home, lose Bristol City away and beat WBA at home. That would be 9 points from 18.
I'd like to keep at least one of those two clubs honest with a draw or a Boro win. Blackburn win and they are 10 points ahead with 19 to play, that should be unassailable. Boro win and it's a point gap and we start to test their mental strength.

QPR, it's a 2 point gap and they have a game in hand right now. But we have 2 matches and they have 3 before we play. Realistically we could be playing to overtake them in the table on the same number of games.
 
:LOL: :LOL: that would be some feat!

Joking aside, we're not going to get there, but would you take getting to the FA Cup final, against a top 10 side over promotion? I wouldn't, and probably wouldn't even take winning it (with the risks the additional games come with), over that.

The FA Cup has lost it's interest to me, especially when outside the top flight. Yeah, fair enough go for it when you're going to be comfortable in the Prem and not have a chance of top 4, as there's nothing else you can do, but for everyone else it's too much of a distraction. It's a target for teams in the prem from 5th to 14th I think.

I don't even value that it gets you in Europe, as you're only there for one season and players know it's a one off, so probably wouldn't sign because of that, unless they knew there was a massive cash injection coming too.
Yeah, looking at the club accounts and what we 'owe' the parent company a few years in the Prem would probably make Gibbo a lot happier than a cup win and another three seasons in the the EPL.
 
I think we will finish around 4th or 5th providing we keep Fry and McNair fit. I do worry about our replacement CB’s if they need to play a few games on the trot.
Wood is raw and inexperienced, Bamba has ricks in him and Hall if he is ever fit, has the pace of a milk float. I would really like us to ideally sign a competent left footed CB this month (as well as a competent keeper).
 
I'd like to keep at least one of those two clubs honest with a draw or a Boro win. Blackburn win and they are 10 points ahead with 19 to play, that should be unassailable. Boro win and it's a point gap and we start to test their mental strength.

QPR, it's a 2 point gap and they have a game in hand right now. But we have 2 matches and they have 3 before we play. Realistically we could be playing to overtake them in the table on the same number of games.
I'm not really bothered by what's above us, only slight concern is Stoke and less so Huddersfield. If we get enough points form this next six games, then I would assume we have enough points no matter what, either the tow below us will fail, or QPR/Blackburn will have a bad run.

Those above us will lose their fair share of away games, and Blackburn are on a run which is above their level, that won't last.

Blackburn might sell Brereton too, if they get a good offer.
 
I would take an FA Cup win over Promotion. Ive seen us promoted into top division 6 times since I started following Boro. I would love to see that first FA Cup in the Trophy cabinet
I get that, but the FA Cup isn't worth what it was, and everyone knows it. It's not even worth what it was when we were last in it.

I'd rather have 2-3 seasons in the prem, than an FA Cup win against the top 5-14, as I don't see the rest really putting in much effort. We've had a few finals and some of them have cost us some of the best players we've ever had. I'd have rather had Juninho for another couple of years, than get to the two finals in 96/97 etc.

I just hope to hell we don't field our best side and get beat by a makeshift Man U side, as it would just be a big risk, for a 1 in 300 shot.
 
I get that, but the FA Cup isn't worth what it was, and everyone knows it. It's not even worth what it was when we were last in it.

I'd rather have 2-3 seasons in the prem, than an FA Cup win against the top 5-14, as I don't see the rest really putting in much effort. We've had a few finals and some of them have cost us some of the best players we've ever had. I'd have rather had Juninho for another couple of years, than get to the two finals in 96/97 etc.

I just hope to hell we don't field our best side and get beat by a makeshift Man U side, as it would just be a big risk, for a 1 in 300 shot.
What was the fa cup worth in 1975 ?
wgst was the World Cup worth in 1930 or 50

Football is about winning silverware not just league games . Perceptions change all the time on cups , the world cup wasn’t what it is now in the 1930 but we’d love to have that on our shirt just as we would an fa cup in our cabinet
 
last season shows it doesn't always work out like that, it depends how quickly you can integrate the players into the system.
I know but atkeast we have some logic to feel we can improve . Our goals for should improve and we could also find another striker ready for next season in Connolly and balogun
 
What happened to the OP on this thread? He was all over the Board posting 30-40 times a day for 5 weeks and then vanished?
 
What was the fa cup worth in 1975 ?
wgst was the World Cup worth in 1930 or 50

Football is about winning silverware not just league games . Perceptions change all the time on cups , the world cup wasn’t what it is now in the 1930 but we’d love to have that on our shirt just as we would an fa cup in our cabinet
I'd say the FA Cup in 1975, was not far off the winning the league in 75, although I wasn't even born then, but now I would say getting 4/5th is better. Not sure about the World Cup back in 1950, but that's pretty much every players pinnacle now. The World cup is different though, as it's in the gap when the league stops, and every team and player are there 100%.

I don't think silverware is, not in the way you mean it, at least, not now. I think players like what comes with the silverware, as in the long slog against the best teams, it's the cherry on the chocolate cake, but a cherry on a cake of mud isn't so appealing. The FA Cup doesn't hold the same prestige as it did, as the best teams field weakened sides, it significantly dulls it.
Players who win the league and CL say it's the most important by far, players who win the FA cup make a big deal of that, as it's the best thing they're capable of winning.

Don't get me wrong mind, the FA Cup is possibly the biggest trophy we could win in the next 10 years, and should be our no 1 target, but that's only because we have 0 chance of winning the prem or getting in the CL. But it doesn't mean it's a priority now, the aim is to get into the prem so we can build a side which could win the FA Cup, as this one can't, as teams 5-14th are miles better than us.

Us getting into the Prem now, would be a bigger achievement than at any other time, as it's harder to get into it now, as comparatively we're a less wealthy club compared to others, compared to when we last went up, and the times before that.
 
I'd say the FA Cup in 1975, was not far off the winning the league in 75, although I wasn't even born then, but now I would say getting 4/5th is better. Not sure about the World Cup back in 1950, but that's pretty much every players pinnacle now. The World cup is different though, as it's in the gap when the league stops, and every team and player are there 100%.

I don't think silverware is, not in the way you mean it, at least, not now. I think players like what comes with the silverware, as in the long slog against the best teams, it's the cherry on the chocolate cake, but a cherry on a cake of mud isn't so appealing. The FA Cup doesn't hold the same prestige as it did, as the best teams field weakened sides, it significantly dulls it.
Players who win the league and CL say it's the most important by far, players who win the FA cup make a big deal of that, as it's the best thing they're capable of winning.

Don't get me wrong mind, the FA Cup is possibly the biggest trophy we could win in the next 10 years, and should be our no 1 target, but that's only because we have 0 chance of winning the prem or getting in the CL. But it doesn't mean it's a priority now, the aim is to get into the prem so we can build a side which could win the FA Cup, as this one can't, as teams 5-14th are miles better than us.

Us getting into the Prem now, would be a bigger achievement than at any other time, as it's harder to get into it now, as comparatively we're a less wealthy club compared to others, compared to when we last went up, and the times before that.
I get the economic argument for promotion and am sure Steve Gibson needs that.
I also can't wait to kick off again in the PL and with hope.

But if I was guaranteed to lift that FA Cup in May then I'd jump at it from a sporting perspective and them memories.
I'm 59 and Dad is 85, we are running out of chances to win the biggest domestic cup competition in the world.
But we're a long long way off guaranteed to win it even if we win at OT.
 
But if I was guaranteed to lift that FA Cup in May then I'd jump at it from a sporting perspective and them memories.
I'm 59 and Dad is 85, we are running out of chances to win the biggest domestic cup competition in the world.
But we're a long long way off guaranteed to win it even if we win at OT.
I get that and I'm very much with you, but now is not our time. We need to look in the other direction to make it a possibility of being our time, and also have the benefit of playing at OT every year again, as well as other places.

We've got a real possibility of getting up there in the next couple of years, need to make the chance of that happening as high as possible, it could be 10 years of prem football, which we all miss dearly.
 
Sporting glory supercedes a big payday. Any day off the week. Some folks may buy into the drivel perpetuated by sky that finishing 4th is more glorious than wining the fa cup. I certainly don't.
 
Sporting glory supercedes a big payday. Any day off the week. Some folks may buy into the drivel perpetuated by sky that finishing 4th is more glorious than wining the fa cup. I certainly don't.
Probably easier to say if you're not nigh on £200 million in the hole with your own money, with the added pressure of FFP watch dog breathing down your neck ready to pounce (as you keep showing them up in the press).
 
I'd say the FA Cup in 1975, was not far off the winning the league in 75, although I wasn't even born then, but now I would say getting 4/5th is better.
Ask Leicester fans if they would swap their FA Cup win for finishing one place higher last season?

Also, there will be nearly 10,000 Boro fans at Old Trafford next month and not one of them will be hoping we get knocked out so we can concentrate on the league. We still talk about the amazing night at OT when we knocked Man Utd out of penalties under Karanka. It doesn't matter that we didn't go any further in the competition as memories like that night are precious. Also winning at OT in 2015 didn't harm our promotion bid, given we won 10 out of 12 following that match.

Let's just go out to win every game and see what happens.
 
Sporting glory supercedes a big payday. Any day off the week. Some folks may buy into the drivel perpetuated by sky that finishing 4th is more glorious than wining the fa cup. I certainly don't.
Depends on the standard of the player, some would be aiming higher. But the standard of that glory is lower than 4th in the league though, it's a false glory to me, and a glory only aimed for when higher glories are unachievable.

Like the FA Cup for us, it's unachievable in the next few years, so we need to concentrate on what is.
 
Ask Leicester fans if they would swap their FA Cup win for finishing one place higher last season?

Also, there will be nearly 10,000 Boro fans at Old Trafford next month and not one of them will be hoping we get knocked out so we can concentrate on the league. We still talk about the amazing night at OT when we knocked Man Utd out of penalties under Karanka. It doesn't matter that we didn't go any further in the competition as memories like that night are precious. Also winning at OT in 2015 didn't harm our promotion bid, given we won 10 out of 12 following that match.

Let's just go out to win every game and see what happens.
Ask them how it compares to winning the league, I bet it's not 1/10th.

On route to that final Leicester beat:
3rd Stoke City (A) 4–0
4th Brentford (A) 3–1
5th Brighton & Hove Albion (H) 1–0
QF Manchester United (H) 3–1
SF Southampton (N) 1–0

The only good team in that list is Man Utd, who rested key players as they were concentrating on the league, and Leicester fielded their best side, and were at home. It's not like they beat the best, who were trying to be their best, not like how it used to be ~20-30 years ago, and even more before that. To me, that's not a massive achievement, for a club who won the league a few years earlier. It's not like Leicester were like when they were the size of us, when they beat us in 96/97, I bet they valued that more than the FA Cup in 2020, and that was a lesser cup then, but the cups were worth more then.

Of course, Man Utd will be a great occasion and I don't hope we get knocked out either, but in reality we will, or in the next round or the next, and if that distraction or injuries costs us promotion it will all be for nothing, and forgotten next year when we're all whinging we finished 7th.

It's just priorities, every club has a main aim, so that should be number one, at the relative expense of everything else.
 
Depends on the standard of the player, some would be aiming higher. But the standard of that glory is lower than 4th in the league though, it's a false glory to me, and a glory only aimed for when higher glories are unachievable.

Like the FA Cup for us, it's unachievable in the next few years, so we need to concentrate on what is.
Nonsense Andy. It's a knockout competition played over a handful of games.
 
We usuallt never win at Bournemouth so the gap whatever it is now...add 3 points to that.it will be tough but if we won for once at Bournemouth.... id say 2nd is possible
 
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