It is time for a major cultural change.

Everyone in football now sees Saints as easy pickings as we continue to provide other clubs with their best players and managers. Today the Sun is suggesting that six of our players will leave this summer. Other newspapers have been selling off our players for us through the last days of the season. Routinely on MotD pundits say how certain of our players are what other clubs need. That needs to be turned around and I long for the day when I hear a pundit say that a particularly impressive player is just the footballer Saints need.

We must break this perception because as it stands we will never get any trophies if we just let our best assets move on.

We as fans have now become cynical in that we too expect it to happen and shrug our shoulders. Everton fans have been boasting about their triumphs during the last few days but we will never have any triumphs if we continue to let our stars slip through our fingers.

Our Board must stop this rot now and break this mould or Southampton FC will continue to be seen as that friendly little family club where there are rich pickings to be had and everyone knows they will never amount to anything in the world of football. If we are to be taken seriously

WE MUST STOP BEING A SELLING CLUB FFS.

The erosion of the Saints fans' loyalty cannot be allowed to continue.

 

Think that we may find every club is a selling club to a degree.... And we have just tied down 3 key players to 5 year contracts...

 

But that has not altered one jot how the media and other fans see us.

No one believes we are serious about upping our game and that is our weakness.

 

Got any ideas how this is going to happen Godders, or is it just your usual grumbling about the world? Saints are like most other clubs in that there will always be bigger fish, comparatively. Show me a club that doesn't get picked over by the bigger boys in the playground and they will be on a pretty small list...

 

I'm not sure we can do anything other than grumble, to be honest. We have no power, and if we can't take the pain that goes with the joy of being a football fan we should change our spectator sport.

The culture of the club was changed irrevocably when we sacked Chris Nichol. Managers had been treated with kid gloves until then. The untouchable Ted Bates produced football that made us wince (the alehouse brawlers with their 9-0-1 formation); Lawrie Mac managed to get us relegated in his first season. They had not been dumped as they might have been at other clubs. The sacking of Nichol was a statement from the club that they were going to join the big bad boys.

So that's the world we operate in, St G, whether we like it or not. An old mate of mine used to run a very successful business. When he recruited anyone he'd ask their intentions in terms of how long they might stay. If they answered that they hoped to stay forever they didn't get past the first round. He told me he looked for employees who wanted to be a shooting star. Zoom across the heavens doing an amazing job, and then moving on to bigger and better leaving my mate's company in a better state than when they arrived.
We surely cannot doubt that RK has done a great job. The likes of Sadio Mane came to Southampton to put himself in the shop window. Can we deny that if he left tomorrow that his recent form hasn't helped the club qualify for Europe?

We are a stop off for many players, and will be for aspiring managers. It's the way of the world. It doesn't stop me being hurt by RK's departure. This is especially true given his "honourable man" stance (akin to badge kissing a la Lallana), but I have only one sane option. Stop supporting Southampton FC. Sadly, after 60+ years it's got to be a bit of a habit.

 

My loyalty has not been eroded.

You must stop flapping Godders.

 

Doesn't matter what the media thinks...only what we do. We are no more a selling club than anyone else. We lost two in the last summer and stopped two leaving. Three have signed new contracts, the nuisance is that we would have hoped to resign more...now they may wait. However, we will sign other good players. This is just an annoying hiccup.

 

Pedant alert. Is this a direct instruction to me? I must stop "flapping Godders". Or is there meant to be a comma between "flapping" and "Godders" making it an instruction directed at Godders.

If the latter, then we must defend the right of Godders to flap!

 

And from the gloom there shines wonderful optimism. Reinforces what I've always thought, when there's a crisis get a woman's view!

 

You clearly haven't heard me have a good old moan. I don't get called Victor for nothing you know and people aren't thinking of a footballer when they call me that.

 

Think what quite a few people find frustrating is that we are more than capable of standing up for ourselves in these type of matters , but for some reason always come out the loser. Why? Once or twice is understandable, but everytime? Money plays a part in things we all know that, but I truly believe there is more to it than that. There has to be something going on with the board behind the scenes, I'm convinced of that now. We seem to be that nice guy who holds the door open for someone else and than stands there like a complete mug while everyone else walks through aswell taking advantage of our good nature.

This needs to stop.

 

Shouldn't there be a question mark at the end of your first paragraph? If we're doing pedantry, that is.

 

Boom!

 

We are not suffering. We are a good club and doing a fantastic job.

2014 - 8th
2015 - 7th
2016 - 6th

10-12 top players sold. 2 managers poached.

The progression keeps going. The club keeps getting stronger.

For the love of happiness and life, by all means moan to clear it off your chests, but stop panicking. This club has a fabulous structure, a great board and excellent owner. We are here to stay!

This is annoying but a compliment. The greatest form of flattery is imitation. Spurs want to be us. Liverpool want to be us. Now Everton want to be us.

Nobody can be us, except us.

Come on you Reds.

 

This is how I'm looking at it as well.

But there are lots of people that think "we can't keep doing this". We will see

 

I've said for several seasons that we will see a meltdown the first season we finish lower than previously. It will happen and the last three years have made it more likely to happen. It won't be a bad thing when it happens.

 

I think Saints fans are entitled to be pissed off. We produce numerous top quality English stars and they pretty much all leave. We find obscure managerial talent and each time they piss off. We finish sixth in the league and the press doesn't even notice. We improve every year but all the press sees is a selling club. It's a bit like getting 10 A*s in your exams but your mum and dad only mentioning that you don't have a girlfriend yet. **** off press. **** off disloyal managers. **** off mum and dad.

We are doing everything right, but are still treated like arseholes. Grrrrr.

 

It's not like your mum and dad doing that, it's like your neighbours and peers doing that. I don't give a **** what the neighbours think or say.

As Sainst fans we just enjoy our success for what it is; fanbloodytastic!!!

We don't need a pat on the back, we know how good our club is. Stuff the rest.

 

That was said last year.
And the club management structure arguably makes the replacement of a manager (rather than players) the lowest risk of all

It remains to be seen how many players (that we would rather keep) actually go

 

I think everyone likes a pat on the back now and then. Certainly, our success is fanbloodytastic, but it would be nice to shown some respect on mainstream media like MOTD.