Where do we sit in comparison to the other sides in the league?
Financially - 3rd? Budget significantly less than OF, but at least on a par with Hearts n Hibs
Historically - 3rd - we've won more competitions than anyone outside OF
Size of Stadium - 3rd (Hearts & Hibs pretty much the same)
Attendance - 5th - behind OF and Hibs and Hearts this season
I guess from the above you'd expect us to finish somewhere between 3rd and 5th. We've finished 2-2-2-2-4 in the last 4 seasons. On the surface that looks like we've done slightly better than expected, but when you consider that Rangers just returned to the SPL 3 seasons ago and have been utter gash (despite having had bigger budget etc) it's not quite as impressive.
You'd also expect us to be hitting semi-finals as a bare minimum in the cup competitions if we're supposed to be the 3rd best / biggest club in the country. In the last few seasons we probably have achieved that. You'd probably have hoped we'd have picked up more than 1 trophy in that time though.
I'm a realist... and like to think i'm fairly balanced about these things - but for me the big blow was when we didn't go all out to catch Celtic 2/3 years ago when they were there for the taking, and to keep ourselves clear of Rangers who were back in the top league and clearly going to improve with each passing season. Rather than investing a bit more cash and going at it with real belief that we could do it, we settled for being second best, allowed Celtic to pull away and Rangers to catch up, and now I'm sorry to say, we've blown it. The chance was there, we didn't take it, and the reality is we're now going to be battling for 3rd and hoping for the odd cup final ever couple of seasons. Our squad is significantly weaker than it has been for a few years and I'm not too optimistic for next season on that basis.