Agree how things turned out...but for four years it was grim and we'd have taken mid-table mediocrity.
That's actually a very good what-if question to ask, right at this time. What if, during the season of 2004-05, someone had given every supporter the option to take the club, with its then owners, and its ambitions of mediocrity, to continue in the PL, OR double relegations and a guaranteed rise back to the PL for 2012-13, with potential ambitions far greater than the club had ever pursued before, and with the financial backing and expertise to make it happen. I wonder how many would have stuck with the old regime..? And if you want to ask that question, then by all means do so.
At the time, I wanted to stay in the PL. I was used to a few good times, struggling and end of season relegation battles. Remember we also had to put up with Pompey being above us and crowing. We don't have the gift of seeing the future and we can't see the future now. In retrospect, the last three years have been the best in all the time I have watched Saints (though I loved the too short Strachan period).
I am as optimistic about the future as anyone, it's great to be Saint at the moment. But let us not forget that things were fantastic at the peak of Strachan's reign, medicore we were certinaly not, we were the best we've been in my lifetime and we did not lack ambition. Funnily enough reading Jay-Rod's interview the other day reminded me a lot of when Kevin Phillips joined - this is a club that's going places, he said, and I want to be part of that. But things turned around very quickly from there ...! It happens all the time, it wasn't that long ago that Bolton were where Stoke are now - are Stoke really there to stay? I'm not sure. The truth is the clubs that are safe from a sudden decline in fortunes can be counted on one hand. Let's hope we're one of then one day.
