Just the musings of happy Saints fan - so I thought I'd stick it on the old forum and see what everyone else thinks. Feel free to disagree as these are of course only my opinion.... so here we go... A couple of weeks ago someone raised the question of how far have we really come? Although it is still only 1/4 of the season gone, we have now played both teams occupying (at the time we played them) positions 2 & 3 in the league and we are unbeaten against them. Indicative of our position are the post match comments from Nigel Clough saying that "a 1-1 draw at home is a very goodpoint".......whereas the other Nigel.... Nigel Adkins, is disappointed, stating it wasn't up to our usual standard. All in all, I'd say, so how far have we come? A very long way in my opinion! Further than I think, any of us really thought we would be this season (Come on, be honest, you didn't really think we'd be here at the top of the division did you?) Much further than we'd imagine NA & Nicola Cortese would get us at this point in time - despite what we knew to be at the time as "just wishful thinking". I hope now everyone, Fans, players, general public and most / least importantly the footballing press, get it when NC and NA start talking about the future. It is going to happen and they have proved this already! The whole Barcelona set up seems fanciful and just too far fetched to be believable - after all we are by comparison a smaller (but not small) club. Then so was top of the Championship (with a clear margin to boot!) only a few months ago. Maybe NC's vision of THE footballing academy will be our path to future greatness - especially in light of the Financial Fair play rules which are already affecting the way clubs are being run. So the answer to the question? A long way from where we were only a mere 2 1/2 years ago. The club is internally unrecognisable now and so maybe the question is no longer "how far have we come?" to more likely, "how far will we go"? That I cannot even begin to predict, so I'm just gonna sit back and enjoy the journey... and raise a glass to NA, NC, the boys on the pitch and the boys and girls in the back room staff... and maybe drop Poyet the odd email too...
around 2 years ago we played stockport away in league 1. we dreww 1-1. since then the 2 clubs have gone in opposite directions - stockport out of the football league and saints as close as they could be to the premier league. the saints team that day included Davis, Harding, Schneiderlin, Lallana, Hammond and Lambert. 6 players, over half the team that are still with Saints playing a pivitol part of us being at the top of the championship. Similarly last season 1st home game we lost to plymouth - since then plymouth and saints have gone in opposite directions It shows that with the right blend of players and good management and belief you can turn things around. Saints have gone from strenght to strength. we have come a long way.
To my way of thinking, the only limit Southampton FC have is Nicola Cortese. That reads as if I'm going to criticise, and nothing could be further from the truth - I'm a fan of The Don. For my money, Cortese has more ambition for this club than 99.9% of the supporters, the staff, the players, possibly even the manager, and without thinking at all hard about it, me included. I leave the 0.1% for any odd variables and the extreme optimists. The reason, I'm not as ambitious for SFC, being that I simply can't imagine Saints being where Nicola says he wants us to be. He talks regular Champions League and I'm prepared to guarantee that, hand on heart, most Saints fans can't realistically believe it either. I mean come on, can you..? So if you're reading this, or a media department staff person is, and is thinking... those people don't think we can do this, it's not that. We can't imagine it happening [OK, I'll talk for myself], I can't imagine it happening. We've had so many let downs and misses [and not even close misses either] and plenty of boardrooms that have had the attitude that... Southampton FC doesn't do that sort of thing that we almost dare not believe it, imagine it, or worst of all, hope for it. I'm actually beginning to allow myself to hope like hell that raising Saints to a particular summit makes good business sense, and that there's money to be made in furthering the cause. I know that what Nicola says, he means, so when he says Premier League, Champions League, building the club to compete with the best in the world, and so on, I've got to take him seriously. If this is so, then these are very early days in the future success of Southampton FC. How far can we go..? Ask Nicola is all I can say. He's the limiting factor, after all. If he says we'll get there, we'll get there.
I have watched Saints for decades, most in the PL, and was used to thinking of us as a nice spirited side that could produce the odd fantastic result, but would never achieve anything, except perhaps the odd cup run, because of inconsistency. But I still enjoyed being a Saints fan. We dropped to the Championship where I thought we would shine, but it was yet more struggle. The last two (and a bit) years has seen us become a real team under a great manager. We were a big club in League 1 (as we should be) and now the leaders in the Championship. We are playing as a team, something I hardly remember before (as I only started supporting about 1990). I cannot see us being like the big PL teams, but I can see us being a good PL side with financial stability, good academy, good football, and best fans in the world. Europa League, why not, but Champions League may be a bit too far (but our younger fans may live to see it in the future).
Second Stain's and Fran's comments have hit the nail on the head for me. To be honest, I would just be happy to be back in the Premiership and settled more than anything. I keep using the example, but i'd love us to be in the position of Stoke or Sunderland because they are what I would call established Premiership clubs. At this current time, if I was The Don (and that really would be something!), I would be soley focussed on getting Saints to that position of Premier League stability, rather than have aspirations of Champions League etc. My worry would be that the short term goals would be neglected in terms of the real big ambitions - in essence, I would hate it if we 'did a Leeds'. However, I am confident that Cortese has a wise head on those Italian shoulders, and if his aspirations are to get us to the Champions League then I am with him all the way.
We have come MILES, saw us playing in league 1 when Liebherr and Cortese take over, Nicola then said we have a 5 year plan, 1st get out of league 1 in 2 years- job done. and a Wembley visit on route. 2nd He said he would bring in quality players- Lambert,Cork,Fonte,Fox,Do Prado,Barnard-job done. 3rd He said 3 years to get from Championship to premier League-We look ahead on that 1 by maybe 2 years the way we are going. 4th he said we will invest in academy and they have. He also said WHEN we go back to the premier league he wants us not battling relegation every season and that then the cheque book will come out,Also he said St Marys could be made bigger,Today the RFU said it hopes to use StMarys for the next rugby world cup and that the use is tied in with Development of St marys to at least 42,000. When Nicola talked about Barcelona I think he was pointing to the fact that most of their team has come through their academy, to be honest everything he has promised he has so far delivered so if he says we will be like Barcelona can you question him? It bloody fantastic to have Owners and a Chairman that only says what he means and delivers on what he says. long may the Liebherr's and Cortese Reign. COYR.
The use of the stadium for the Rugby World Cup may be dependent on an extension, but Nicola will only do it if it fits in with the plans for the football club. It's great to have such confidence in the financial side of the club. We must remember that if we ever think NC is being a bit tight with money (relatively speaking)...we want long-term stability and development at this club not risk taking.
I think we have come a long way. However I have a feeling (and this isnt a pessimistic one) that now, right now is the best we will ever feel as a saints fan. Thats not to say we wont go up etc, but to be playing like we are with all the positivity and the big crowds I cant see it lasting just because teams dont continue winning in style forever whether we go up or stay in the championship next year. At the start of the season I didnt want us to go up(stupid I know), however week by week it becomes apparent you need to take your chances and even if we do go up and back down it will no doubt be good for the club financially. I only hope that IF we do go up and I am still 50/50 on this that we dont attract the premadonas we started to attract in our last few years of the PL and under burley. I think my sons experience of Saints sums it up. He was born in 2002 and just missed our so called 27 years of PL history. I was gutted for him beyond belief under the impression he will grow up thinking Saints are a small time team getting fed up . However looking back I have to say I wouldnt have swapped the last 2.5 years for anything else. I am living the dream when it comes to watching my team play and long may it continue. However I am soaking it up as if we do get promoted things will change whether for the better or worse. However I like it just as it is....
Fran ......My understanding is that the Rugby world cup does not need us to increase the capacity. We were chosen because of our existing capacity and our location.
It's other people who seem to say it's dependent on an extension...I assumed they'd read it somewhere. I think we'll get some small games which will be better in front of a small but filled stadium.
If you enjoy watching them now you would have enjoyed them in the 60's and 70's the only thing that has held us back is the lack of investment from the then board. The guy Charlie Notte I think his name was. He owned the land and what was then a motor cycle race track, Just up the road from the old Dell. Big enough to build a stadium the size of St Mary's, although at the time he was proposing a 55000 Capacity stadium I believe. He offered the land and track site in exchange for a share of the football club. They turned him down........because they said they were not looking for new partners and not thinking of building a new stadium. Very very narrow sighted was the board in those day's no ambition. With in a few years of that offer Saints were in the first division selling out each and every week practically needing extra capacity. The Lawrie Mack era you would have loved the football back then but not the ambition of the board......Oh when I think of what might have been.........
Very true Beddy, Lawrie was screaming for more investment in the team during the 1983 - 84 season because he knew we could go all the way. It never came and we only finished 2nd in Div. 1 when we could have won it. The next few years saw us get to 2 FA Cup Semifinals but we didn't have the resources to repeat the feat of 1976. From then on, we struggled most seasons in the Prem, and the rest is history. As for the future, I agree with everything that's been said above. Nicola Cortese sees no limit to the ambition of this club, and neither should we.
