Garth Crooks on BBC "Southampton have slipped into second in the table while remaining under the radar, without our full attention. But they are doing extremely well. They have momentum and are keeping their form going - and now they do have our full attention. They have such a good spirit in the team and therein lies their success."
Yeah Garth, no one noticed (even the hundreds of football writers who have written and analysed the very situation) that a team widely tipped to struggle after a highly publicised "mass exodus" has been conspicuously sitting in 2nd place for weeks now.
He is right though...people saw us in 2nd and 3rd, but thought it was a false position because we are only a few games into the season...now they can see we are the real deal. We may not win the title, but no one laughs at the idea of us getting into Europe now.
Turns out whenever Garth looked at the table on his phone his thumb was covering 2nd place every single time.
Typically, after He and Danny Mills chewed over the fact that they'd been wrong about Saints, they fell back on the old,
ah, but they've not played anyone decent excuse. Well excuse me, but we've won away to WHU, Swansea, Hull City, all of whom are having respectable seasons and are decent teams that the big clubs would have difficulty with, away from home. We should have got something from the Spurs away game [OK, we definitely lost that one] and the Liverpool game was the first 1st class competitive game the side had played together. The hadn't gelled yet.
The fact is, they've been caught with their traditional punditry pants down. They are so caught up with their big 4-6 clubs that they can't see past them. The big clubs who aren't performing haven't gelled, so we are constantly being told. Well here's an answer back - what about if Saints haven't gelled yet either..? I mean really gelled, but are playing as well as they can while they are getting their act together, eh..? That would be a shock bigger than the one they are weekly having to absorb and are running out of reasons to explain away.
Nobody, bar Claridge and maybe Hartson have actually given them any chance of going all the way, and staying in the top 4-6. Fact is, Claridge is more positive about Saints than most supporters, but that's a measure of how he comes to the table with no baggage, and fair play to him for that. There are still too many who can't stop saying
it couldn't happen to little old Saints, could it, whereas he says,
why not..?
And I say, why not..?