I predicted a top 6 finish which is why I am predicting nothing for this season

Gem, me too, thought we'd make the play-offs. This year we will. Oh no, I said it!

This time last year was a bit of an unknown. Didn't know much about Solbakken and didn't know much about the players he was signing. I hoped for promotion, I expected at worst we would be pushing for a play off place, and because of the unknown I remember saying that there was just a chance that things could go totally pear shaped

Early May I stupidly predicted we would just miss the play-offs.

But by early August when it was clear that our well run, profitable club had no intention to hang on to our best players I predicted we would do well to avoid relegation

In hindsight too optimistic

I figured a play off push was within reason.

Was still comfortably in reach in December as well

In the absence of any knowledge of Solbakken I assumed he would be average and that we would therefore achieve our par finish - just inside the playoffs and fail to go up or just miss out on the playoffs.

I predicted 7th and heartache about missing the play-offs.

I was right with the heartache but didn't in my wildest dreams think that we would be in Div1.

I didn't realise that relegation was a possibility until Stale had been with us for 3 months!

Jackett gives the impression he is using the pre season to get to know the players and what they can do and arriving at a formation that he believes will work.

I remember my first concern about Solbakken's sanity came when after playing no wingers at all in any of the pre season games, he played two in our first league game. What exactly was he planning in those pre season games?

Jenny Kackett E&S:

“I have followed Tiger Woods around to look at his professionalism.”

Not a lot else to say really.

I thought we would finish inside the playoffs.

Cinci, you're such a wum.

Cyp, I remember WITSS arguing against Tatter and saying he would back Solbakken even if we were near the bottom of the table...never in my wildest dreams did I ever think that could possibly happen, I remember chuckling at how ridiculous it seemed as a hypothetical situation.

I hate that bald barsteward and the stupid hairy barsteward that followed. I hope neither of them ever work again, not that it will require a great deal of prayer given their abilities!

I was expecting us to go up as champions last year.

Oh well, at least I can still laugh about it.

What you saying Ulf?!?

I didn't say under Solbakken did i

In seriousness, he may well have not been the answer but i don't think he would have taken us down like Saunders did.
He made plenty of errors, for a start he should have done what KJ is doing right now and cleared the dressing room of its problems.

I remember going to the Southampton game DJ. I'd felt really enthusiastic about the new season until that point but I felt seriously concerned then.

We were absolutely hopeless and I've never seen such a listless, disorganised, tired looking team. It was a big pre-season game and the players should have been the fittest they would be all year but they looked like England players when they're dumped unceremoniously out of an international tournament having played fifty league, cup, and European cup games in a season, exhausted and weary.

I had my doubts about Solbakken's style before that but I was totally going along with it, he was the expert after all and I've long been an advocate for managers knowing way more than fans ever do about the players and tactics. What worried me most though was that all of my fears and worries for that style and for what Solbakken were doing...were completely on display at Southampton.

I still dismissed it as an off day and assumed nobody could possibly be so poor a manager as to try and play a tactic that clearly wouldn't work with our players and dismiss fitness in football in the 21st century. Nuh Nuh!

I'm fairly certain I said top 2 but top 6 as a bare minimum

Ulf, you are close to the truth. What I actually said was that I was prepared to give Stale the 3 transfer windows to get it right, even if we were lower in the league than what everyone else wanted. I also said that I did not expect us to be in a relegation fight and said quite categorically that if he did get us relegated then it would be someone else's decision as to whether he was sacked or not. The fact is we got someone else in who was clueless and he was the manager who got us relegated, along with the players KJ wants rid of.

Bull. You said three years ‘cause that’s how long it took MM.

This time last year I was hopeful that we'd have enough about us to bounce back. I felt the relegation was self-inflicted, due to the premature dismissal of McCarthy, (and still felt angry that the decision had been taken in the first place), but was sure there was enough class about the club for promotion to be achieved. I even liked the nutty prof, SS, when he first arrived and made his introductory video.

Never in my wildest dreams did I think the mishandling of events would lead to further plummeting, and that we'd now be down below clubs like Yeovil and Bournemouth.

All that good work - gone down the drain...

So you're not bitter then Butey.

Yeah, me too. What an opportunity thrown away!!!

In any other business, the shareholders would have removed the Board for a mishandling so bad.

Pity we're a privately owned company!

I did feel bitter, but tried to hide it on here, (and to that end feel I was fairly successful).

I do wish we could turn the clock back at times...

A great opportunity indeed, 2011-12 will go down as my most disappointing season of all, we had the chance to stride forward, instead we lurched back.

Don't necessarily disagree with you Cinci, however even then we still had time to salvage things. The rest of course has been well-documented and is now history.

Only a complete fool would claim that 2011/2012 was more disappointing than last years debacle.

Agreed Cinci - 2012/13 was the most disappointing season of all. I think everyone associated with football was astonished where we finished. What a nightmare Solbakken and Saunders were. But its all over now and we have a proper manager

Last season was a disaster for sure.

But in 2011-12, we were on the cusp of estabilishing ourselves in the prem for a good few years to come, instead a handful of poisonous signings and a side that hadn't changed tactically took us backwards.

Add to the mix the shambles behind the scenes and for me its the worst season i have ever experienced.

Others may have different views, but im certainly not alone in my belief either.

Like I said, only a complete fool.