Can't say I'm especially enthused at the moment about the season ahead in the sense of thinking it'll all be great. That's not to say I don't think we're heading on the right track, it's just that there are so many things we don't have a clear indicator of yet.
For example, Warburton seems like a decent choice for the manager's job, but let's not get carried away. I don't think it's been the case on this board but there are a lot of people who just assume if he gets backed on the players he wants to bring in he'll be a success. For me he doesn't have nearly enough of a track record to think it's likely, much less a certainty. There are good signs there, but we have to see how that translates into results.
Time is another potential issue. We don't have a lot of it before the season starts, and while I wouldn't say a few dodgy early results would be catastrophic, if Hearts could go on a run of success last season there's no reason Hibs or St. Mirren couldn't do the same this season. Regardless of the progress we might make during the season, it might be necessary to be consistent throughout to finish 1st. MW is giving a lot of lip service to the long term fix rather than short term, and while long term is more important, he still has to make his squad do what he wants very quickly.
Speaking of the squad, that is probably the area of greatest concern for most of us. I don't think are many tears being shed about losing the players who were out of contract - Foster's the only one I think could have still made much of a contribution going forward - but we haven't brought in much to replace them. The squad was a bit bloated last year so numbers in themselves aren't so much the issue as is the quality in certain areas. Arguably we've strengthened most in the area where we had a couple of decent options already. We certainly still need more effective players in the midfield and forward areas and a new right back. Maybe the new manager has it covered between targets and existing players, but for now I don't have much faith in our attack.
Pre-season isn't giving us a lot to go on with behind closed doors preparation continuing (we went down 3-2 in a 3x30min session against Spurs u21s the other day) and I'm trying to remain optimistic but I'm very cautiously so. Can't wait for us to get back into it and actually see the results, basically.
