Peterborough chairman Darragh MacAnthony has set his club some ambitious targets for 2008-09 and I'm sure there was a hint of a smile when he passed them on. I hope.
1. Average crowds of 7,500.
2. Posh to score more goals than any other side in the Football League.
3. One of the Posh strikers to win the League One Golden Boot and to be the leading scorer in the entire Football League.
4. Posh to win League One and bring some long overdue silverware to London Road.
5. Posh to have two lucrative cup runs.
6. To be able to turn down a £4 million bid for one of his players.
7. To announce a completion date for the club's new 20,000 all-seater stadium.
8. To see a local player come through the ranks and play in the first team.
9. To improve the infrastructure at the club which in turn will improve the services to the loyal fan base.
No pressure then Fergie. (Though I'll take a couple of those, and we should beat the crowds!)
Still Little Fergie accepts that it might be the bare bones at Roots Hall but there not bad bones dismissing any suggestions that Posh are in for an easy ride in their League One opener at Southend on Saturday.
The Shrimpers are so short of senior players that they cancelled their press day team shoot this week.
Only 19 players have been given squad numbers, three of them are goalkeepers, two are players on the transfer list and two more are youth team players with no first-team experience, including the only left-back on the club's books. (Ha, 20 now!)
On top of that key midfielder Alan McCormack is injured, but Ferguson insists his side still couldn't have had a harder start as they set off in pursuit of a second successive promotion.
Ferguson said: "I'm aware that Southend are short of a few players, but they will still field a very strong starting XI. They are a very good side who I expect to challenge for promotion. We will not be concerning ourselves too much with their situation. It's all about how we perform on the day and I'm very confident we will play well. If we can get a positive result against a very strong side like Southend then it will give us a lot of confidence for the rest of the season."
The Posh players were due to be told the starting line-up for Southend at training today. Ferguson admits he had to wrestle long and hard with one or two selection decisions.
The manager will not publicly announce his side until shortly before kick-off, but left-back Jamie Day will definitely not be involved. He has missed most of pre-season training after undergoing an operation last month, but will play in a reserve team fixture against Norwich City next week.
New winger Sergio Torres is fit after recovering from his ankle operation and will be involved at Roots Hall while new midfielder Paul Coutts could be the surprise inclusion in the side.
Posh fans can pay on the gate at Southend. The club have sold more than 1,000 away tickets for the match, but the rest have now been returned to Southend.
Southend fans appear to be fearing the worst against a side still on a high after winning promotion from League Two last season.
So our propaganda campaign has worked, come on Barny, grab a hat-trick.
(If your fit. Bugger, I'll edit that.)