You covered that all nicely FLT couldn't agree more. Players come and go and always will - the club is bigger than them all and we'll find more players if need be.
Would I accept it? Well there's no way I can refuse to accept it so I'd have to but, despite what we and Norwich have done in the last few years, the Championship remains a very difficult division to get out of. A few other thoughts: 1. Yes, Bolton are £136.5m in debt. That's obviously not a healthy situation BUT £125m of that is owed to their chairman so it's not as bad as it first seems. 2. We would undoubtedly lose players if we were relegated. To some extent who would leave depends what happens during the season but I wouldn't be surprised to see any of Ramirez, Clyne, Lallana, Schneiderlin, Cork, S Davis, Lambert, Rodriguez, Boruc, Mayuka, Shaw, Sharp and Gazzaniga leave. I'm not saying they WOULD leave but it wouldn't surprise me to see them go. 3. People are suggesting we could force Ramirez to stay if we didn't get a good enough offer. Didn't Ramirez go on strike when Bologna refused to sell him? What's to stop him doing the same with us?
What happens, happens and I'll renew my ST either way. Can't say I'd be too happy, but the show goes on and I want to see it.
To be honest would there be a choice not to accept it? Strewth with my length of service as a Saints fan I have had to live with many ups and downs over the years.........Saints have always been and will always be my 1st choice football club.
Agreed Beddy, having chosen Saints as a young lad, I have had no choice but to accept every twist and turn of their colourful history. Relegation would be just another bit of agony to have to cope with I suppose. Definitely not the end of the world, especially if NC and NA are still in charge!
Great post FLT and am in your corner with this. I would suggest that we would not loose that many of our players as many think especially if we don't improve and get relegated. At the moment few appear to be pulling up any trees in the Prem, so which clubs are going to gamble millions on players that have failed to keep us up? I would suggest our top players who we believed to be Prem quality are struggling to prove that at the moment and unless they start to shine then we will take them down with us. They have proved that they are good enough to get out of the Championship so going down with our team (and NA) in tact would give us the best chance of coming straight back up.
Until this season started I had missed just 7/8 games in 7 years. ST Holder for the past 7 plus went to all cup games. Prices soar this season and so far I've been to three.
Nice sensible posting all round. I personally would not be happy with relegation. I can barely stand to lose a single match let alone drop a division again but that's more down to my own competitive nature. I want to win and that's ultimately what football is about. I happen to believe it would be so much harder to get out of the championship after being relegated. You become a target for every club that want you as the scalp. We didn't have that as much last year coming from league one. We would undoubtedly lose players and our revenue would be reduced. If we can stay in this division we will have a seasons worth of experience to build upon and teams coming up from the championship which are more likely to be picked off. I also don't see why we should not be able to compete in the premier league as it stands. We have ambition, we have great team spirit and we have Cortese. I believe our youngsters need to cut there teeth at the highest level in order for them to fulfil their potential. The Premier League can inspire so much in the youngsters. I know I would rather see Luke Shaw going to head to head with Antonio Valencia as opposed to Lee Tomlin. What is the point in football if you accept defeat before it's happened? Having said that, if relegation was an inevitability, my support for the club would remain the same and I would attend games as much as I would in any division.
No Saints fan right now should be "accepting" relegation. It is November FFS!! I will, if the worst happens, accept it in May, but if we all accept it now, then this creates too much defeatism and negativity, which extends from these pages onto the stands at St Marys, and from there onto the pitch and into the dressing room. Back in the 90's our fan base was a lot more gritty, a lot more fired-up in these situations, and a lot more positive, even with the ****e that we had for players back then (Le God exempt of course). Premiership survival is akin to winning the ****ing league itself. Don't any of you remember those final games at Upton Park, Villa Park, the dear old Dell? Magic. Let's show some fight people. If a player makes a mistake, encourage him, don't moan etc All it will take is two wins on the bounce, and suddenly we'll be transformed. Our squad is young, our manger is young, everyone is learning, but we can DEFINITELY do this...
The question is "would you" not "do you". I don't accept it now! But I would if it happened, it's not the end of the world. As for Ramirez, he only made trouble at Bologna because their chairman broke a promise to him. And they still got decent money for him didn't they?
In answer to the opening question: not without a fight. If we go down, we'll just have to accept it and be thankfully for the parachute payments which we would not have gotten had we not been promoted; and let's face it, none of us expected to be in the Premiership this soon when we got promoted from League One, so the parachute payments are a real windfall. But if we do go down, I want it to go down to the wire and know that the players fought tooth and nail for survival. Aside from the loss of a lot of good players - basically our entire midfield - a secondary danger is the loss of talented youngsters coming through the ranks. Of course, this is a double-edged sword. Lallana learnt his technique in League One, improved in the Championship and will no doubt improve in the Premiership. Had he been flung into the Premiership at an early age would he have matured into the player he is now? Certainly blooding our youth players in the Championship, where mistakes are less costly, has its advantages. Nonetheless I genuinely think we've got the talent to survive this season. We can score against the best, of this we are sure and have proven. Our problem is in defence. Purchasing defenders in the January window will be a lot easier than purchasing proven goal-scorers or creative midfielders. We now begin a run of games against teams that aren't in the top-half of the table, a run where we can hopefully build up confidence, not to mention points on the table. To maximise our advantage, we, the fans, need to be the twelfth man. Teams need to fear coming to St Marys, the boys need to be proud and we need to instil that pride within them. Your team doesn't need you when they're winning, they need you to believe when they're two-nil down and thirty minutes to go. Play up, play up and play the game, as Vitae Lampada reminds us.
If we were to go down there are so many unknowns which can not be answered until relegation is confirmed. Would players leave? Almost certainly yes, how many and how it would effect the team overall is unknown. If we were to go down the team will have proved that they are not up to the Premier League so this may put off potential buyers. Would the Liebherrs continue the level of investment they have shown in recent years? Who knows, they may try and cut their losses from the expenditure this season through the parachute we receive, or they may re invest trying to get us straight back up. One thing we can look at is the number of teams who have managed to bounce straight back, and the numbers certainly aren't in favour of relegated sides. Would the Championship be harder to get out of? Probably, we would be seen as more of a scalp than we were for the first half of the season last time, plus you can't emphasise enough what having a winning mentality does to a team. If we were to go down then we would not have that momentum that we had when getting promoted into the Championship. Would it effect support/attendances? For me personally it wouldn't, obviously I want us to be competing at the top level, but overall it doesn't bother me massively what league we are in. All teams have swings in attendance when the team is doing well and badly, and we would be no different. I think the difference between whether relegation would be a complete disaster or just an inconvenience comes down to what the owners/Cortese decide to do if it does happen.
It's an interesting phrased question, FLT. Others have made the valid point about us having to lump it or decide to become a Manure fan. I think what you are getting at is, would it be a disaster. Well, it would certain be horrible but it would be nowhere near as traumatic as 2005 was. Firstly because we all know what the Championship is like and it's an enjoyable place to watch football, and secondly because I don't doubt that we would come back up again quickly. Most of our best players have long or extended contracts, so they may go but not for a song. As an ambitious club I don't think that we would have a problem attracting players to replace them who would be able to get us promoted. Would Ramirez go? Probably but there would be other Gastons to sign when we came back up. In any case, I am confident that we will stay up. Call me a fully paid up Sandal wearer if you will, but this "glass-half-full merchant" refuses to consider Championship football as likely, in mid November.
I think you should never accept relegation before it is mathematically impossible. As for accepting it, if the worse was to happen you have to accept it. Not a lot of choice really.
Copied and pasted my comment from the other thread When we got relegated from the Prem I was gutted, will I be if we are this time? No not really. Back then all I knew was our constant struggle year in and year out. The Prem was like the Holy Grail to me, that is until we were relegated for the second time. I have to admit I didn't enjoy being in the Championship the first time hence stopping my season ticket. But I quickly learned there was more to football then just the Prem, soon as we were relegated to Div 1 I started to enjoy my football again. From our time in Div 1 until now I have been to all but about 10 games, I loved it and loved the time away from the 'big guns'. Going to all the grounds I had never been to and seeing a different side of football. Do I enjoy being back in the Prem?, of course I do. Will I feel down if we our relegated again? Yes but only a lil as I know now that football doesn't end when you're not in the Prem.
I would happily accept relegation if it meant a continuation of our emphasis on youth and academy mixed with an attacking and attractive style of play.
Just out of curiosity I wonder whether we are about to see another youngster get a chance to shine. With Seaborne on loan what cover do we have. Stevens and other youngsters I guess. I believe we are about to embark on a run where our youngsters will pull us from the brink. Even if they fail they will have learned a hell of a lot for next few seasons. As a serious Saints fanatic I really am quite excited with what looks like an exhilarating future. We have already seen JWP and Shaw stake a claim for more action and some of the others won't be far behind them is my guess. With the likes of Gazza, Ramirez, Cork, Mayuka, and Morgan likely to help shape our side for the foreseeable future I don't think the spectre of relegation will be haunting us for much longer. If it did, then I bleed red and white like the rest of you.
