Slaven Bilic targets top-six finish for West Ham next season (except he doesn't) - what about you?

http://www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/slaven-bilic-targets-topsix-finish-for-west-ham-next-season-a3544151.html

Classically misleading headline, where what Slav actually says is:

The ambitions are - the minimum (is) to finish in the top 10, but with the hope or plan to break into the top eight, top seven or top six.

Seems reasonable to me.

I think any season where we average less than 1.25 points per game (47+ points which typically gets you to around 12th/11th) is likely to be a bit disappointing.

If we make top 10 next season, that would do for me, comfortably.

Comments

  • edited May 2017
    My idea of success is consistently top 10, 3-4 years in a row.
    And I don't just mean scrapping through in the last couple of weeks but achieving the magical 40 point threshold by February/March.
    Don't think we've ever done 4 in a row. Last time we we did 3 in a row was 1998-2000.
    We invariably follow a good season with a mediocre season or a relegation battle.
  • It will depend on our transfer business in the summer. With our current squad we are looking about 14th, 15th at best. If we spend some money on 3/4 quality players then i would target a top 10 finish.
  • If our current squad can stay fit we can finish 10th already, but that's a big ask given our history with injuries

    Say all you want about some players not being good enough but how rare is it to lose players like Antonio, Obiang, Kouyate, Ogbonna, Byram, Masuaka, Cresswell, Ayew and Feghouli for weeks or months not to mention Carroll and Sakho being out for most of the season as per

    Preseason was awful, disrupted by injuries, transfer targets getting away and obviously the Europa League which didn't do us any favours at all

    Top 6 isn't realistic next season as we can't compete financially with the top 6 and they are leagues ahead of us and Everton (if they keep koeman) will have lots of funds if lukaku and Barkley leave (could get £100mil for the pair) so 7th is probably a long shot

    The recruitment just has to be better for us to push on, too many stop gaps and players who don't improve us and keep our best players

    Fact is almost everything that could go wrong did last season (Injuries, Europa league, Payet, Stadium troubles, poor signings, rescinded red cards etc) and we are currently 12th and 4 points from 8th
  • Top 10, a solid top 10 for me.
  • With our current squad we are looking about 14th, 15th at best.

    Funny that given we've just finished 11th this season....

  • Thank heavens that's all over with for another season. Having waved cheery-bye to Hull, Middlesbrough and Sunderland I have to say that, rather than thinking of league positions, I am wondering more about which three teams will be worse than West Ham in 2017-2018.
  • Next season will be better

    #promise
  • With our current squad we are looking about 14th, 15th at best.

    Funny that given we've just finished 11th this season....

    Good management , we've overachieved
  • With the finances / stadium we have. We should be competing with Everton. Top 8 is what should be our minimum.
  • But it took Everton time to be were they are now, just as it will us.
  • My summing up
    Goals let in 64 ,,,very poor
    Goals scored,,, average
    Finished in 11th on 45 points "pleased""
    1 point from finishing 8th , but goals let in needed to be 2 points.

    Hull go down with 34 points 3rd from bottom the next team above have 40points
    TBH this very uncomfortable season , new ground ,, players ,, unsure,, reliable has gone
    Have a good summer all
  • stay up, beat spurs :)
  • If I can take anything from this season it's that Slav is our man. I completely understand those who criticised him at times during the season and he certainly invited it at times. What I find however when looking back is that he has shown he can win when we need to, even if we have to field a team way beyond full strength, I also have seen consistently through the season a team which has worked for each other and played with brilliant attitude, when we won and when we lost. The team were never more together than when adversity struck when Payet left and to me that speaks well of the manager and Captain.

    If Slav and the board have learnt from the mistakes of last summer and if we can provide him a proper attacking unit and a full back at the very least I really feel things will look up again next season.

    It's was nice to finish on a positive note today and 11th is quite astonishing as to be quite honest with the team we have fielded in many games this season we couldn't have been surprised to have gone down.

    Well done Slav, well done the whole team....... not your best work but you wore the shirt properly and that pulled us all together and pulled us through. ;ok
  • There have been a few factors in our struggle (compared to last year) this season. The move, the injuries, the Payet etc.

    However, I think with the addition of two decent strikers and a RB/RWB there's every chance we'll do appreciably better...

    Arthur has shown he's a decent young prospect who'll hopefully get better next season.

    We'll have Fonte, Ogbonna, Reid, Collins and the Reeces competing at CB and hopefully not being injured a lot.

    Byram needs an experienced player in his position to learn from and cut out the headless chicken tackles and shirt pulling but he's definitely got good attributes too.

    Feg, Ayew, Lanzini, Antonio, Kouyate, Obiang behind the strikers are good options without even incorporating Fernandes and Nord who'll both hopefully grow too.

    The rumoured striker targets are I guess just that. But until they disappear we may actually bag a couple of good 'uns!

    Optimistic and positive unless the TF window disappoints. But we have plenty of decent players in our squad and they all will have had that much more experience at the new ground
  • I think finishing 11th is a good return this season, but I hope that doesn't paper over the cracks.

    For me, the key signings we need to make are a striker, a right back and a defensive coach. And anyone we sign needs to have pace. One of our biggest strengths in 2015/16 was our pace on the counter, and we just don't have that in the same way this season.
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