Ljungberg targets top four - POLL

[Scaloni Is The Messiah]

I'm not going to complain about having ambitious players who want to achieve things with West Ham. Good on him. And if we were to win that game in hand (and we've had five better results in the past 18 months) we'd be pretty well-placed to at least have a shot at it. It's highly highly unlikely we'll get there, but I suspect it's easier to get into the top eight if you're aiming for the top four. Don't think it would work if we set our sights higher than that, though, because if you take it too far, it has a negative effect.

[szola]

Why not aim high? I just don't understand the reason for not wanting to win every game.

[Rocket]

It's easy to achieve your goals if you always aim low.

I like Freddie's attitude, although this season I think (like most) that 4th is unlikely.

Re. Ljungberg himself - I think it has to be taken into account that before joining us he was at Arsenal for 10 years, and his various injuries. Now that is settled and fit, we appear to be seeing the best of him - except for shooting when he should cross!

[carnage]

Liverpool - Champions League and FA Cup involvment, not looking that great at the moment.
Everton - UEFA Cup and League Cup involvment - Players away in Africa
Blackburn - Small squad - Nothing to be afraid of
Pompey - FA Cup involvment, players in Africa, nothing to be afraid of anyway
Villa - Like us nothing, but a smaller squad
Man City - FA Cup involvment, nothing special at all based on the last 2 games and their previous 4 or 5 games, gone right off the boil.

We have no other commitments, we need to go on a good run no doubt but why not? Players coming back etc
Also, after we have played Liverpool 7 of our last 10 League games will of been against the top 9 so we are due some easier games. Beat Liverpool and who knows, its cerrtainly more achievable than staying up was with 9 games to go last season.

[BillUp]

I only said yes as a positive mental attitude by far exceeds a weak minded attitude so if it rubs off on everyone it can only be a good thing!

[ButterflyBoy]

The main aim for this season is to finish above the Spuds. Anything else is a bonus - Althought I've no objection to landing fourth spot

[Albie Beck]

Look where they are now though...

I fully accept that - but getting to Europe before they were quite ready caused them a hell of a wobble. Having said that, Boro did ok under MacDuff.... :shock:

[mrchewy]

If we get 9 points from our next 4 games and have any sort of decent finish, who knows where we'll finish! This season, above spurs will do me

[feurio]

It can only do us good to try and "reach for the stars". Certainly better than to mourn about all the injuries. As long as we (the fans) don't get overexpectant and put too much pressure on the players everything will be fine. So good job Freddie i guess...
P.S. cockney hammer, can't belive you've got that ugly thing as an avatar!

[comebackjoecole]

Completely unrealistic, and a bit absurd.
More chance of me winning the lottery. Twice.

Mid table would be just fine this season.

[Eastbourne Hammer]

I predict a loss week in, week out on the predicition league. I'm damned if I'm going to start being positive about things now! :lol:

[hammer1975]

i find it odd that a number of other threads are cnuting bellamy and ashton off and saying what a good job cole has done yet on this kind of thread everyone is saying that our form will improve at the end of the season when bellamy and ashton are fit and we can push for CL..........

All for positive attitude but if anyone actually believes that we stand any chance of making CL football has got to be mad. As James P mentioned it's more difficult to gain on clubs in the top half than the bottom half but we would not have to simply catch one club we would need to catch and overtake everton, liverpool, man city, portsmouth, villa AND blackburn....what are the chances of ALL of those clubs having a cr@p run-in??? Even UEFA is optimistic ....... please lets not turn a successful season into a disappointment.

[spiky_simon]

Couldn't answer the poll, because it is unrealistic IMO, but we should be aiming high.

[DjBelz]

completely unrealistic obviously. Amazed by the poll results so far. Obvbiously have to aim high blah blah but top 4? way over our heads. We need to work hard, keep doing what we are doing and MAYBE with a bit of luck we can jump a couple of teams into 8th or so. Just because players are returning doesnt instantly make us stronger - I would argue our form at the moment is a result of the fringe players fighting very hard to maintain their place with imminent return of their more 'illustrious' opponents. I dont think its a done deal that we will become immortals (which is almost what we need to make the top 4 from here) because of the return of a few players.......

enjoy what we have now, aim to keep it going, and by all means lets aim for champions league football in the years ahead, but its way out of context now..

[rare as rockinghorse shat]

Couldn't answer the poll, because it is unrealistic IMO, but we should be aiming high.

Yup...

I want to vote that we should be aiming high, but I don't want to be part of a voting unit that appears to think that we will be top 4 so I refrain from voting.

[k-r-c]

Defining part of our season is the next 4 games.

Potential there to take 9 points + any bonus points v Liverpool.


Can be the difference between europe or a safe mid table finish.

[chalky]

Completely unrealistic, and a bit absurd.
More chance of me winning the lottery. Twice.

Mid table would be just fine this season.

Hey, the name of the game, in football or anything else, is to aim, without busting your budget, to be the best. If you have to settle for less, then so be it, but sure as hell, if the top is not your aspiration, you will never ever reach the top.

[leveller]

Hey, the name of the game, in football or anything else, is to aim, without busting your budget, to be the best. If you have to settle for less, then so be it, but sure as hell, if the top is not your aspiration, you will never ever reach the top.

It is about time a member of the playing staff came out and made it clear we were aiming for the best finish we could possibly hope for, Curbishley should be doing the same. As professionals, I can't think why they would want to do anything else but this. At the start of the season I would have said a UEFA Cup spot would be the most we could ever hope for, but top 4 is now, although very unlikely, a realistic possibility in that stranger things have happened in football.

I have a lot of reservations about Lundberg but the right words definitely came out of his mouth on this occassion.

[Houdini]

To a certain degree I can understand Curbs stating that we are aiming for solid, mid-tabledom. After all if you state that you are aiming for Top 4, the Press has a field day at your expense with every defeat and more ridicule if you fail at the end of the season. (Especially while we remain football's Enemy No.1 for so-called "cheating"). On the other hand, if you say you are aiming for the middle and you finish higher then you are up for kudos not ridicule.

However, stating you hope to achieve solid mid-tabledom publically doesn't mean that is all you should aim for. Behind closed doors tell the team that Top 4 is the target (and for all we know, maybe he does). I think it's bloody great that this type of ambition is felt amongst players and staff; I'm just not sure I would be shouting my head off about it.

[clarke]

It would be nice for us to aim high, but he's being unrealistic imo. It would be nice to challenge the top 4, but I recon he'll be long retired when that time comes. I'd like to see us consolidate our top half finish this year, finish as high as possible in the non-European places, (Uefa cup would be a bonus), and then in the next say 5 years try and get it so that we are consistently pushing for those Uefa cup spots.

If we want ambition, why not announce the intention to win the Uefa cup within x years? I'd certainly be happy with that. I'm still happy that in my lifetime we got to the FA Cup final, we didn't win, but we got there.

But then, I guess many would complain it's not the champions league etc. It would be great to get into the top 4, but for us to finish 1st 2nd 3rd or 4th, one of the existing top 4 can't, and imo Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal and Man U are just too good over 38 games domestically to be overthrown atm. Even in a few years, it looks like we're at the end of a long queue with Villa, Portsmouth et all seemingly all ahead of us.

As nice as it would be to be successful, I don't want to be Real Madrid, I want West Ham United. When we beat say Man U, do you ever think that any Man U fan has been as happy and jubliant as you that evening? Or even Green saving a penalty from Defoe? That was a ****ing mini-parade back to the pub! Any other team would have moaned that they should have won. Suppose thats one other thing that infuriates me about supporters of the 'big 4', they always 'expect' to win every game.

I don't want to be like the Spurs when they finished 5th a few years ago, ****ing moaning that they didn't get champions league. I'd like to think that if that happened to us, we'd all be celebrating finishing 5th and qualifying for the Uefa cup.,