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Would You Have Predicted This 5 Years Ago?


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If you try to think back 5 years ago, how predictable do you think the current position and state your club is in right now was? How much better or worse than you could have imagined is it? What is your prediction for where you will be in 5 years time?

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5 years ago we had better know players, but were on track for a very mediocre season. I was hoping we would have recovered and been back to CL regulars by now (not going to happen) but this is probably the most predictable outcome.

 

We're 8th by the way, 19pts in 16 games and a new manager has worked wonders, as this season looked like the one we would drop.

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Well 5 years ago i did expect us to fight for the title at some point, after last season i thought we would need a few seasons to get back in the top four and i was surprised to see us comfortable at the top for the moment. In the next five years i think we should be around the top four and in a few title races i doubt a lot will change from the current state.

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5 years ago we still had Moyes (for a few more months) when things were going a little stale for him and us. League position wise we were 6th in a division that was a lot worse and had to replace him with a relegated manager.  

Now we have a manager taken from a team that finished above us the last 2 seasons with no problem at all, just flashed a bit of money at him. Moshiri has bought into the club and invested both on and off the field. We're closer to leaving Goodison than ever before. 

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Good thread. 

It's 5th April 2012 then and at this point we were a day away from losing 3-1 to Notts County in front of 4,016. That 11/12 campaign was a tough one, we ended up using seven goalkeepers and eleven left backs if memory serves me correct and we scraped to a 20th place finish in League One, with four teams somehow being much worse than us that year.

At that point if you'd have said we'd get to within 90 minutes of Wembley in the JPT, miss out on the play-off's by three points, break multiple records on the way to the play-off final in which we'd lead 2-0 before losing, Russell Slade would end up as one of the best managers in the club's history, have the club sold to a supposed Italian billionaire who'd promise the world, get relegated from League One, miss out on the play-off's in League Two, have eleven managers in three years, see the Orient under-16's coach lead the side during a match, have winding up orders presented to the club, see players and staff go unpaid and the club fall out of the Football League in the next five years, I'd have thought you were mad.

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nowhere near fucking predicted the last 5 years. xD 

2 relegation battles. The greatest escape for survival the Premier League has ever seen. Achieving the impossible by winning the fucking thing. 

Sacking a manager after some controversial on/off field moments (ostrich-gate, strangling a Palace player), his son being involved in a sex orgy in Thailand while on tour with the club.

Hiring a manager at 66/1 who wins the Premier League. Sacking the manager who won the Premier League (alongside other factors). 

5 years ago we were a mid-table Championship side. 7 points off play-offs. Totally contrasting to the ambitions and expectations of the club now compared to then. 

We've also experienced one of the most dramatic play-off finales (Knockaert's penalty miss, Watford scoring down the other end to go through to the final). Well documented to be honest. 

Don't even dare to predict the next 2 years, let alone the next 5 years.

Who knows how our club will evolve after the last few seasons. The foundations are there to establish ourselves properly as a Premier League team. Not fighting relegation year upon year and doing enough in the last 3-4 months of the season. Maybe challenging and competing in Europe as a regularity, not just a one-off after one of the most sensational moments of the Premier League. 

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Forgot to say that it was 3 years ago today we gained promotion back to the top-flight. We played Sheffield Wednesday on Friday 4th April and won 2-1. Results on the Saturday meant we were promoted without actually playing on that day.

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10 hours ago, HoneyNUFC said:

If you try to think back 5 years ago, how predictable do you think the current position and state your club is in right now was? How much better or worse than you could have imagined is it? What is your prediction for where you will be in 5 years time?

I didn't even dream of having players like Martin Kelly, Wayne Hennessey, Frazier Campbell and Adrian Mariappa five years ago. Let alone Chamakh of Arsenal, Adebayor of Spurs, Sakho of PSG, Hangeland of Fulham, Ledley of Celtic, Cabaye of Newcastle etc. Even the managers we've had seemed really unrealistic. That with the trips to Wembley. It's been incredible really.

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5 minutes ago, ATL said:

Has anyone had a worse 5 years in England than Portsmouth?

@Smiley Culture might have something to say about that.

Portsmouth have had a good season so far, could be back in League One next season. 

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I think 5 years ago was when I adopted Stoke as my own. I wouldn't say much has changed, we brought in players like Bojan, Shaqiri, and Bony but to be honest we've went from around 11th-13th  before to just around... what 11th now? Finished 9th couple times. Not much has changed in all honesty. New players come in and go, tried playing pretty footy and ended up going back to physical football instead. Still sitting comfortably smackdab in the middle, never worried about relegation but never excited by a top 6 finish. FA cup run was 6 seasons ago so nope nothing in the last 5 has been a surprise.

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  • 4 years later...
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On 05/04/2017 at 09:23, Honey Honey said:

If you try to think back 5 years ago, how predictable do you think the current position and state your club is in right now was? How much better or worse than you could have imagined is it? What is your prediction for where you will be in 5 years time?

Good question.

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5 years ago we were:

  • Challenging for 3rd place in the SPFL.
  • Losing every game against Celtic, heavily.
  • Signing pretty much every player we had on a free or on loan (Senderos, fml)
  • Struggling to attract a decent manager.

Today:

  • Went invincible last season, and leading by 7 points this season (Celtic have a game in hand)
  • Playing in the knockout stages of the Europa League for a second year.
  • Haven't lost to Celtic in over 2 years
  • Went from a manager that lost 1 game in 56/57 to a manager that hasn't lost a game yet and we've conceded 2 goals in those 8 games, one of them being an OG.
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5 years ago in 2016:

  • We got promoted back to the Football League
  • Runner up in the FA Trophy final
  • A good foundation for a League Two team
  • Shit owners

Now:

  • Relegated back to National League
  • Out of the FA Trophy
  • Struggling for points after a really good run at the start of the season
  • COVID running through the squad
  • Decent owners who've gone quiet since the bad run of form
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In some ways not at all, and in some ways yes, weirdly. Even though that was an invincible season with a domestic treble, every problem that has played out since then was somehow already present. 

Rodgers' coaching papered-over issues with the squad being slightly unbalanced, lacking in defensive depth, and the recruitment being very erratic. Plus he raised the overall level of professionalism around the squad and the coaching, but I think everyone was quite aware that the change stemmed from Rodgers alone, and that the club had not really stepped-up at all beyond that. So things were going great, but I think everyone knew it wasn't necessarily a permanent improvement.

Rodgers leaving mid-season was a bit of a surprise, but only from a timing perspective. The real biggest shock in those last 5 years was that rather than looking for another Rodgers-type appointment at the end of that season, the club gave Lennon the job permanently without any proper recruitment process. That was the biggest point of divergence.

Rodgers was the driving force in the club, and a similarly ambitious manager as Rodgers might have kept the club pulling in the right direction, but appointing Lennon immediately signaled that standards were going to drop, on and off the pitch. I think the scale of the drop-off surprised everyone, but I think a lot of fans immediately felt that the club was going to regress dramatically from that point. Postecoglou has turned-out to be the exact kind of appointment that should have followed Rodgers -someone who is intense and demanding who wants to maintain a high standard - but unfortunately the club wasted 2 years trying to coast by on the achievements from the Rodgers era.

 

 

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5 years ago - Dec 2016

  • On the back of winning the league, we'd just qualified from our CL group and looking forward to a Round of 16 tie against Sevilla in Feb 2017.
  • League form was faltering. Ranieri had lost that 'buzz' and this was showing with our results. Didn't start well losing to Hull on first day of the season. Had only won 5 games up to end of Dec and were looking like we'd get relegated. The only thing saving him was the CL run...
  • Transfers - big outlay for very little return. Slimani, Luis Hernandez, Mendy, Musa, Zieler, Ndidi all bought. None of them ever really settled. Thankfully in a month's time we're about to buy Ndidi... 

Now

  • Holders of the FA Cup. First time we've ever won it. 
  • Puel came and went, we now have Rodgers who has increased our stock and reputation as a competitive club in the hope to 'break the glass ceiling' of the top six...
  • Two 5th place finishes. Qualified for Europa League for 2 seasons running. The context behind this is less glamorous, having been in top 4 for both of those seasons and missing out on the final day on each of those occasions.
  • Two lacklustre EL campaigns with unexpected defeats against Slavia Prague and an early exit for this season
  • A brand new 'state-of-the-art' fancy £100m training ground, mostly funded by the sale of Maguire.
  • Stability of the club is more solid and structured than it ever has been. Stadium expansion on the way. Player sales in the past have helped - Maguire, Chilwell, Kante, Drinkwater, Mahrez etc...
  • League form underwhelming, partly down to injuries to key players but also a change in style of play to more conservative and cautious, as opposed to regularly entertaining, progressive, attacking football.  
  • About to embark on another rollercoaster perhaps - iconic players getting older and may move on/end their careers (Schmeichel, Vardy), other key players may leave within next 12-18 months (Tielemans, Soyuncu, Pereira, Maddison, Fofana, Evans...). Think we're on the cusp of another transition period where decisions become more influential.  
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Five years ago on this day we were first under Comte and went on to win the League under Conte's 3 cbs system which as the season unfolded many seemed to copy.

In that season, Hull, MIddlesbrough and Sunderland all went down.

Do any other clubs fans have a site as good as this one?

https://www.bounder.friardale.co.uk/Summaries/2016.htm

 

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1 minute ago, Waylander said:

Do any other clubs fans have a site as good as this one?

https://www.bounder.friardale.co.uk/Summaries/2016.htm

Our FoxesTalk one is superb for club history and player details, historical or current. Much better layout and visibly user-friendly than that. That site looks like it's stuck in the 90s.

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Just now, Stan said:

Our FoxesTalk one is superb for club history and player details, historical or current. Much better layout and visibly user-friendly than that. That site looks like it's stuck in the 90s.

Yes it is not perfect by far yet goes back to 1905 and has all the matches and players, scorers and those that were booked.

I would like to see assists yet when you consider it is a single individual it looks like a labour of love.

Do you have a iink for your foxes talk?

 

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7 minutes ago, Waylander said:

Yes it is not perfect by far yet goes back to 1905 and has all the matches and players, scorers and those that were booked.

I would like to see assists yet when you consider it is a single individual it looks like a labour of love.

Do you have a iink for your foxes talk?

 

https://www.foxestalk.co.uk/history/league-history/

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1 hour ago, Stan said:

5 years ago - Dec 2016

  • On the back of winning the league, we'd just qualified from our CL group and looking forward to a Round of 16 tie against Sevilla in Feb 2017.
  • League form was faltering. Ranieri had lost that 'buzz' and this was showing with our results. Didn't start well losing to Hull on first day of the season. Had only won 5 games up to end of Dec and were looking like we'd get relegated. The only thing saving him was the CL run...
  • Transfers - big outlay for very little return. Slimani, Luis Hernandez, Mendy, Musa, Zieler, Ndidi all bought. None of them ever really settled. Thankfully in a month's time we're about to buy Ndidi... 

Now

  • Holders of the FA Cup. First time we've ever won it. 
  • Puel came and went, we now have Rodgers who has increased our stock and reputation as a competitive club in the hope to 'break the glass ceiling' of the top six...
  • Two 5th place finishes. Qualified for Europa League for 2 seasons running. The context behind this is less glamorous, having been in top 4 for both of those seasons and missing out on the final day on each of those occasions.
  • Two lacklustre EL campaigns with unexpected defeats against Slavia Prague and an early exit for this season
  • A brand new 'state-of-the-art' fancy £100m training ground, mostly funded by the sale of Maguire.
  • Stability of the club is more solid and structured than it ever has been. Stadium expansion on the way. Player sales in the past have helped - Maguire, Chilwell, Kante, Drinkwater, Mahrez etc...
  • League form underwhelming, partly down to injuries to key players but also a change in style of play to more conservative and cautious, as opposed to regularly entertaining, progressive, attacking football.  
  • About to embark on another rollercoaster perhaps - iconic players getting older and may move on/end their careers (Schmeichel, Vardy), other key players may leave within next 12-18 months (Tielemans, Soyuncu, Pereira, Maddison, Fofana, Evans...). Think we're on the cusp of another transition period where decisions become more influential.  

Despite your club not winning much since their league win in 2016 I am often impressed by the players you bring through like Mahrez, Demarai Gray, Maddison, Tielemens and of course Kante.

Suspect you have good scouts at the club.

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10 minutes ago, Waylander said:

Despite your club not winning much since their league win in 2016 I am often impressed by the players you bring through like Mahrez, Demarai Gray, Maddison, Tielemens and of course Kante.

Suspect you have good scouts at the club.

We have a very good scouting network and history of recruiting the right kind of player off the pitch, too - and added to that is the expectation that we probably are a stepping stone and we know we're not the biggest club, but if we can buy cheap and sell for huge profits, it's kind of a win-win for player and club.

I perhaps wouldn't include Gray in the same sentence as Mahrez and Tielemans :P. Mahrez is probably one of the most skilful players we've ever had at the club, whilst Tielemans is arguably one of the most talented and has the potential to become world class. 

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