This year

[billythefish]

How do you think it will go? I actually think that the signings so far look pretty decent.

Doubt we can mount a serious promotion push but we should be mid table me thinks and who knows if we can get a couple of decent loan signings in then we might do a tad better. Think Bristol City could do well this season and be the ones to beat.

[Burf]

I expect it to be largely terrible...as anything that happens on the pitch is just moot whilst the Sword of Damocles
continues to hang over our heads - probably get to about December, in about 13th place & then get 10 pts deducted for
some more off the field shit.

As for the side, well Pressley is just filling it full of Sweaties & people who've failed to be any good anywhere else really.
But I don't expect anything else really - he's doing a grand job all things considered... but unless he somehow manages to land
a couple of gems up front in the next fortnight I can't see us scoring many goals. Having said that I think we might not concede as
many ? So all in it'll be business as usual...different season, same old shit.

17th .

[billythefish]

Never expected you to plump for that chap!

[AD]

Pre-season thus far has been far from ideal, which doesn't help.

I'm impressed with the signing of Johnson especially, Pugh will be an able replacement for Adams and first impressions of Allsop from journos etc have been good, although whether he can adequately replace Murphy is another thing coming. Not sure who's going to replace Christie - maybe Clarke will go back there or Phillips will step up (though I'm not sure he's ready) - but I have this feeling SP sees Willis as more of the full back, which I totally disagree with - he's more sturdy and not someone blessed with huge pace or likely to get forward IMO.

I'd like another CB as I'm not convinced by any of Webster, Seaborne, Willis or Clarke and haven't seen enough of Urquhart. So I think Johnson will help the backline be more cohesive but overall I think the defence isn't much better than last year. Which would be fine if we hadn't shipped loads.

Attacking wise we've lost so much from last year - Wilson, Clarke, Moussa and rumours of Baker going too. The replacements seem adequate but not much more - none that really stick out to me but i wouldn't have had Wilson down as a 20+ a season man ever so we may be surprised.

So I think we'll be relying quite heavily on the coaching and management skills of SP. I think we'll spend a lot of the season looking nervously over our shoulder and the big question will be will the pressure on a very young squad be too much for them like last year?