I was thinking that our preparation for this season has been poor. Started with being thrashed by Arsenal preseason. It never really got much better from that point onwards.

Apparently a poor preseason, sacking Tuchel, hiring Potter, multiple key injuries and no consistent first 11, firing Potter, hiring Lampard just as things looked to be on the up a bit (not much, granted, but we had a decent defensive record and were creating chances) under Potter. 

Anyway, now what? Pochettino comes in, we get rid of deadwood, then what? What will Pochettino have to do to get us into the top four again? I mean we had pretty much the same group last season.

That team were mins away from knocking out Real Madrid at their place. They went to the Bernabeu with intent and tried to win. I see such low confidence for most of this season, it's frustrating.

The Dortmund (2nd leg) and Milan games had intent, the players were trying to win. Apart ffom those games i never saw the same intent almost all season in the league. 

Do we think the following will be enough to get us back to where we are competitive again: 

- Trim the squad

- Buy an efficient goal scorer who can score 15 to 20 goals. 

- A good preseason

- high fitness levels

- our best young players implemented 

- keep a consistent first 11 (one of the most important one for me) 

I'm curious to see how shot the confidence of the players is and how long it takes to recover. I think anywhere from 6th to 10th is realistic expectation, next season. I think we are some way off and, more importantly other teams will strengthen. Newcastle aren't dropping out of top 4 any time soon, I don't think.