Is this the best time ever to be a saint?

For the first time in the club's history we have achieved a top 10 finish for 4 consecutive seasons.

The most consistent period before that was the early eighties

79/80 - 8th
80/81 - 6th
81/82 - 7th
82/83 - 12th

Before famously being runners up the next season.

We have now had an 8th, 7th, 6th and in our own hands for another 8th or at worst 10th.

Add to that a cup final this season we should all be very excited shouldn't we?

Maybe not, reading forums or listening to fans at the ground you would think we are in a relegation battle and its all doom and gloom.

So, where do we go from here? Are there exciting times ahead, are we an established top 10 team, will we get better or have we peaked.

The team that finished 8th last season, Liverpool have gone on to a likely top 4, the team that finished 10th last season, Chelsea have gone on to win the league.

So what for us, flying high or will the bubble burst.

 

Yeah but after finishing 6th last season, we should've been in the CL at least.....

 

There's a pattern there RAWMOK.... next season its second!!!

 

Expectation has caught up with Saints. People have got used to the club getting stronger and stronger every year, and for every person who says, 'I'd just like a top 10 finish and a cup final at Wembley', there are easily as many who'd rather get a higher position in the table than the previous year. Being in cup competitions is fantastic, but it's league position where rival supporters and pundits tell you your club is a ****ty-good-great team. And when people look back they recall that Southampton were a great team back then, and so it goes.

I like to see Saints climb the table. If we appear in or win a cup final, I don't want it at the sacrifice of our league position. But we were never going to improve this season because the board missed a trick in the striker department. I'm not going to moan about it again though because, considering the injuries and circumstances, 8th and a cup final is pretty damn good going. But next season I want better. And I absolutely expect Southampton FC will want better as well. And no more missed tricks.

 

I'm sorry but we can't have any of this positivity you know, we're all supposed to be miserable!

 

Saints fans are not alone. I know Stoke, West Brom & West Ham fans who, for very similar reasons, seem to reflect what myself & other Saints fans feel.

Perhaps it's the Premiership as a whole? The Leicester miracle might actually have been the WORSE thing to happen to a mid-size club. Now it's been done, fans don't think "it might happen to us now"... they think... "it's definitely not going to happen to us or to any other club our size ever again".

So, finishing 8th isn't that much different to finishing 17th. It's avoiding relegation. If you don't have a cup run, the season can be a lot of defeats and few wins.

Plus, so many clubs all play the exact same risk adverse style now. The 3 going down weren't "plucky" they were just a bit ****ter than the teams above them.

 

If it was just a table business, the answer would undeniably be "Yes!"

However, the truth is that the best time to be a saint was about three years ago, when we didn't believe in glass ceilings, our badge slapping captain was a man of honour, and our managers never left us - we left them.

Since then it's been like Christmas after learning Santa isn't real. The presents are still nice, but some of the magic has gone out of it.

 

Don't blame the club, blame the system, we are lower in the food chain than the top seven and our manager left to triple his salary to the seventh placed team remember.

 

I'd say the "best time to be a Saint" should always be when you are in the late teens/early 20's. No matter how the team is doing at that specific point, if you are not going to as many away games as you can, having a good sing song, acting up a bit and generally doing the stuff you will be embarrassed about in later life.... then you are not doing young age properly.

It's something that I think football is in danger or losing. Lads between 16 & 25 used to the biggest age group at football matches. Now it appears to be 35-50 if St Mary's is anything to go by.

 

Yep, the old terraced days were fun if not a bit dangerous (I stood in the Leppings Lane 5 years before the tragedy), all seating had to come in to progress but something was lost when the terraces were replaced.

 

I agree and the increase in ticket prices over time, stadia changes for a lot of clubs and the abundance of football on TV has had an impact.

I recommend the world football phone in from Radio 5 to anyone as a great weekly show on the game. Available as a podcast and a good listen during the working commute.
On that Tim Vickery often talks of the crowd atmosphere in Argentina as being amongst the best in the world, because the game can almost be secondary behind the customs and rituals performed by supporters and the crowd still feel as important to the football experience as the players.

I feel that the once famous English atmosphere at grounds has been slowly eroded.

 

Agree with many of the previous points. While the league positions have been good recently, since the summer of 2014 the bubble of hope/happiness has perhaps burst. This season has been coming for a while. I've said for the last two or three years that our progression was precarious and as expected it's only taken one relatively poor transfer window to set our league position back 3 or 4 years so it all feels a bit... pointless I suppose. The possibility of new owners is somewhat interesting and if (BIG if) the club follows through on Krueger's talk about longer contracts and turning down offers for players then we may see a change. We'll see.

 

In answer to the OP question it is a silly question because the answer is quite obviously a resounding yes.......now on to the moan................

...............

I agree (a bit) with CBK (surprise) Saints were crap through my youth but I was Saints obsessed then and would hang on everything Saints did. Le Tissier was the world's best and no-one could argue with me (of course they all did but they were wrong.)

But still. The Op is right. good job because I would have been in a grave from "gobshitedness" if they had been in this situation when I were young!

 

It did seem an obvious answer, we have shown great consistency.

It just doesn't feel like it. The atmosphere at st Mary's has been generally poor, players/manager booed, and a overall feeling of negativity.

A cup final and being the 8th best team in the best league in the world is not bad in my book.

I'm not saying we are immune from relegation like most seasons when I was younger but we should be looking up.

Let's get behind the team for stoke and give the lads a generous send off

 

Oh the joys of reading and listening to football fans.

Four wins in a row at the start of next season (whoever is in charge) and all will be rosey again! Expectations will be high and fans can puff their chests out at work again.

We all want a win, some can just handle the tougher times better than others.

Smile, we're Saints fans.

 

CBK has a good point.........When I was in my very early teens and just before.......My pocket money just about allowed me to go to a match. Although it was in truth set up that way (and I had to do my chores to get it.)
I used to buy the cheapest ticket I could which of course was in the Milton road end. I used to see the people up in the seats and I used to think they must have all been rich to afford those seats.
The price of the cheapest ticket today puts a lot of youngsters off. Not because they don't want to go but the football is competing with all the latest gadgetry and x box stuff etc. By about 10 all have pretty well got mobile phones which on average take about a fiver a week and more to run etc. (Or so Im told by my grandchildren)
I have a grand son just coming up to 15 he is an ardent Saints fan but he doesn't go because he prefers to spend his money on some gadgetry or other. Unless Dad or Grandad fork out extra pocket money so he can or of course by him a ticket on a special occasions.
So IMO Saints, (or maybe football in general) really do need to look at their pricing policy for the youngsters and really improve on it. After all they are the future fan for the club!!!

Edited as you requested Fats.......

 

Replace the word "Saints" with "football"

 

We can all handle the tougher times Fats........Some just have different ways in expressing their disappointment.......

 

In some ways I think we were spoiled by playing in L1 and the Championship. Being a fan then - especially in L1 - was so easy because I basically expected us to win virtually every game and we did! The stress of previous seasons when we were fighting for survival in the PL were forgotten and although that stress hasn't returned I feel a different kind of pressure. Who'd have thought that now, instead of worrying about the drop people are worrying about not being high enough in the PL table to play CL football next season? In many ways, it's a great position to be in but I get the impression that our fans just aren't enjoying it as much.

As for me, it's definitely a great time to be a Saints fan - I've finally made it to St Mary's, had a trip to Wembley and have met some really fantastic people from this forum. I don't feel so alone as a Saints fan in this part of west Wales any more

 

We were also spoiled by having Sir Rickie Lambert as a striker. And contrary to many people's belief, he was just as effective in the Premier League for us as he had been in the preceding seasons. Mané and Pelle together were great in spells, but we suffered a massive blow when we lost Lambert and Lallana,especially in the wake of Jay Rod's injury a couple of months before..

Otherwise I agree 100% Helen! It's definitely the best time of all in my 50 years of supporting this great club.