[madsteve]

We still have to see this as a full season under Milan because the takeover was announced a month too late for any real improvement.
Our budget for this season was bottom 6, yet we're on course for top half finish. Our budget next season will probably be top 6 so we should see some real improvement

MM said that we had a Top Ten budget for this season. Bottom six was two seasons ago. Last season we had the 15th biggest budget.

Our top wage increased by just over 15% so it is reasonable that our overall wage budget increased by something close to 15%. If this is correct and all other teams kept the same budget as last season then we will have the 9th biggest budget in the division. If everyone else increased their budgets by 5% then we would have the 10th biggest budget in the division. If everyone increased their budgets by 10% then we drop to 12th biggest budget in the division.

However, this isn't my point.

My point is that we are very good at beating teams that will be in L1 next season but terrible at beating teams that will be in our division next season.

I was startled that we had only won two matches against team out of the bottom four since mid September - that is over six months and 31 matches.

This clearly shows that for six months we have failed in terms of tactics, formations & substitutions against all of the teams we are likely to face next season.

Sure we will see some improvement with a top six budget but I would like to see us punching above our weight like Bournemouth & Brentford. We have an inept manager who has conjured up just TWO WINS against any of the top twenty teams in our division from our last 31 matches. That is terrible & we deserve better.

My eyes tell me that we will never go up if SG stays as manager & the statistics say it as well.