What Saints team was that? In my lifetime, we've always been doing something exciting, whether that be winning the FA Cup as a Div 2 team, signing the European Footballer of the Year, signing England's Goal keeper, coming runners up, or years and years of just staying up. Apart from one Chris Nicholl season and Dave Jones season, there has always been something going on, even if not always positive.
To be fair, I'm quite aware of what Puck was going on about in his post, overall. His concern is that we will lose that super-ambitious cutting edge that we've got used to these past few years.
I am liking the way that KL keeps pulling the rug from under all of the know all speculators feet. Has anyone actually got a punt right yet?
In the media or on here? I got quite a lot right Think the papers just wanted a story, so let their imaginations run a bit wild.
Supporting a local football club isn't all about how many trophies you may win, it is more like a marriage, when you stick together "for better or worse" and I didn't choose Saints, it chose me. Having said that, there is no reason to suppose that we will be any less ambitious now that NC has gone, but even if we are, then I will be happy to support the new regime. It must not be forgotten that NC was not the owner and the Liebherr family were bankrolling his ambitious plans (it was also their money that saved us from oblivion) and it is their perogative to fund the club in any way that they see fit to. We have a brand new world class academy and it won't be dismantled overnight, so at the very least we will still have a production line of top young talent to boost the first team and our infrastructure means that we are an attractive proposition for a new owner IF Katharina ever decides to sell the club. To sum up, the future of the club is still bright, but more importantly, is still here.
I stopped reading at his point only pulling your leg, valid points, but please don't compare my beloved football team to being married.
Marriage, they do say, is like a pack of cards. At first, all you need are 2 hearts and a diamond. At the end, you wish that you had a club and a spade. Mrs Fodder however, is lovely so this does not apply to my situation.
[appreciated your other points, but to answer your metaphor] I suppose what I'm saying is, is that Saints have built up such a momentum of pin-pointed ambition, have achieved due recognition of such, and have got all the right infrastructure in place that it would be hugely sad to let it all go to waste in the steady delivery of mediocrity. This is our time. There have been Saints fans from children, who have grown up and died and never known the club to be on the cusp of what they might be capable of achieving in a few short seasons. So, to use your metaphor, if we do waste it and become mediocre again then I'll be thinking about the terms for divorce, because I ain't going back there again.
No, I would stop having anything to do with football. I'm not genuinely interested in anything football wise apart from Saints. Any interest I show of other football things stems from my interest in Saints. Once I make that go everything else becomes meaningless. There are a wealth of things I could turn back to doing, or even try something new.
Having blasted Cortese for his talk of Europe, GMI is now slating Katharina for not talking of European ambitions. You really couldn't make it up.
TSS has pretty much stated my position, although I don't know if I'd actually lose all interest in Southampton. To continue the relationship theme, there are times couples are very, very close and times they're a little more distant. Good times and bad times. I haven't seen most of the successful teams FLT talks about. My first Southampton game was with my dad in (I think) April 1990 when Saints were still a decent team. We got season tickets that summer. The quality of the team slowly declined and gradually so did my interest (the quality of the team wasn't the only reason for that but it played a part). I stopped going to games somewhere in the mid-90s although my dad kept his season ticket. I still kept in touch with results and went occasionally when he couldn't or didn't fancy it. My interest was rekindled again when I went to uni and, perhaps strangely, even more so after we got relegated from the Premier League. What I'm saying is that there's been a lot of talk about Europe and really challenging the big clubs and that's exciting, even if it may not be achievable. With our rich owners and some ambition the club is in a position where we could actually do what Cortese said he wanted us to do and the club could be more successful than I've ever seen it. If, after all the talk and all the hope, we go back to the days of the mid-90s when we made up the numbers, were usually safe with a few games to go in the season - despite popular belief we didn't perform a miracle escape on the last day of every season - and there was little prospect of actually winning anything then that will be quite deflating and I'll probably lose a bit of interest in the club. That doesn't mean I'm going to start following Arsenal or anything, it just means I'll be disappointed.