Expectations

I'd like to ask what everyone's expectations are now that Paul Hurst has left and what they were at the start of this season?

I expected us to be challenging this season after the cup money we'd amassed, sellout crowds and the advantage of having a manager and a team that had been together a few seasons.
Now i feel that this season is more or less over in October other than the possibility of being dragged into an 'exciting' relegation battle.
Next season with a new manager I'd guess some on here would be happy with a mid-table finish as he gets some of his own players in and is given time to build.

How many more years will it be before we are allowed to expect us to put a team together that is capable of a promotion to higher leagues?

Decent cup run for me and a top half finish . By decent I mean 3rd round

I don’t want to wait for next season for success, we are only in October so plenty of time left to hopefully turn things around. UTM

I don’t really care about the cup, although getting to round 3 and a good game would be helpful and enjoyable.

My expectations for this season were to consolidate and build upon what we achieved last season. Better players, better results on average (especially at home) and a league position that improved on last season too. My hopes, which, of course, are different to expectations, were that we might be in the hunt for a play off place, and my longer term expectations are that a club of our size should be doing that in this league, in time.

I expected us to be competitive and be secure and able to give anyone a tough game. I expected some disappointing results too. Maybe even the odd bad run. I’m realistic enough to take that on the chin and I’ve been watching football a long long time so can accept how that works without spitting my dummy. This is a tough, competitive league and it’s getting tougher each year as richer clubs keep upping the ante.

I don’t see better players really and I don’t really see too much of anything else I’ve written above, in terms of our objectives. However, with a strong appointment and a good January window we can still achieve the stated aims of season on season progress. An unbeaten run of half a dozen games or so will propel us to mid table. I’m not writing the season off. The play offs are quite a few points in the distance but I don’t buy the ‘we’re in a relegation battle’ narrative or mentality, and allowing that to creep into people’s minds will be corrosive and obstructive. We are Grimsby Town. We need to crack on, with belief and togetherness and get off the ropes and start fighting. There’s plenty of games to go.

I expected lower mid table given the talent we lost in the summer. Now my expectations are somewhere between lower lower lower mid table and a relegation scrap.

I’m still shocked about our decline since outplaying Bradford in the first half of that game.

At half time, we were in second place………cannot explain what has happened since.

I started the season with a belief that we'd finish 8th. I couldn't make my mind whether we'd skirt in and out the play-offs until ultimately just falling outside or whether we had a late surge that wasn't quite enough.

I don't think how we've played has been that bad, I think we've been equal competitors in most of our games, some of them more so without getting a reward, with only really Mansfield and Barrow that I thought the opposition were clearly better, neither of which we actually lost.

Believing we're competitive or using stats when they're in our favour means nothing when points aren't on the board, so much as I was sad for PH, it was the right decision I think.

It does make me think though that we have a squad that is capable of being around the 8th place mark. Whoever comes in I don't think they need to perform major surgery on the squad and have every chance of a few tweaks here and there to get a tune out of them, coupled with January for any adjustments as necessary.

With that in mind, given where we are now and being behind the curve points wise for a team you'd expect to finish 8th, I'm adjusting the expectation and thinking around 12th again is not beyond reasonable expectation.

That said, I'm not holding the next guy to that expectation, it's just what I think is realistic. I think the first three months will be him getting a feel for the place and adjusting, with a window in that too, and then a few months to knit any new signings in meaning I don't think we can be overly impatient.

I'm expecting, with the squad we have, that we are not involved in a relegation fight. If we are then I think we've not appointed well. If we end up finishing an uninspiring 16th place (ish) then it'd be disappointing but I'll not go crying about it, as always we'll simply look to next season.

One of the things I'd be interested to know, now we're in this position, what do fans WANT, points on the board however they come, football that excites and gets them off their seat or both without distinction between the two.

Quoted from Spurn boy

I don’t want to wait for next season for success, we are only in October so plenty of time left to hopefully turn things around. UTM

Quite right, the decision has been made early enough (I didn't think the new board would do it) for the new Manager/Coach to get to grips and push forward. Add a bit of New Manager Bounce and we could make playoffs. Why not? Chin up, Onwards and Upwards. UTM

I expect a new coach/manager to identify a way of playing, then identify the best line up and get them doing simple things well
If that happens the people we signed in the summer will start delivering their potential
This season has probably gone but there’s two thirds of it left.

I honestly just want to be entertained in the short term. I can’t buy this theory that scraping through games every week is how watching football should be.

I’m not worried about relegation, the players we have are decent enough I’m absolutely sure of that. Mid table will be fine now this season, but it still annoys me that we’re saying that in November when there was so much hope & optimism in August.