The last 2 weeks have made the best memories for me as a Saints fan overall, from the absolutely rocking St Marys to the incredible scenes at Wembley. I will never forget these and this is why we are football fans for these moments.
Yeah, both the Koeman seasons were incredible, but in hindsight there will always be a feeling of what-might-have-been, especially when you look at the quality of the squad he had. We finished 3 points off Champions League places in 15/16
Finishing runners-up to Liverpool was pretty good and if we hadn't arsed up against QPR we might have won the title that time. That will never, ever, happen again, unless the Super League becomes a thing or we get taken over by Intergalactic Zobzillinaires.
This season has been aces, but it's hard to top finishing 6th for me - that team; Pelle, Fonte, Mane, Tadic et al - could've been footballers, could've been mistaken for supermodels. It was so much fun being a real nuisance to the big boys - 3-1 away at Chelsea being one of my faves.
Markus, as much as we all love him, didn't invest nearly as much as Dragan has. It's just that the timing of Liebherr's involvement was so vital.
Liebherr died at age 62, but he looked more like an 80 year old. Dragan is only two years younger, at 60, but he looks about 30. So we've got another 50 years I reckon.
Up until 2 weeks ago I would have said the 15/16 season, even if I was well aware that we'd go up via the play offs. What makes this season edge it for me was never in a billion years did I think the way we did it would be so amazing. Yes taking apart Sunderland 8-0 and Villa 6-1 was pretty special, but I will never ever forget the St Mary’s leg of the play off semi. Everyone was taking the piss on social media about the idea of meeting the coach and yet it was ****ing grade A mega. The atmosphere, the goals the flares Then Wembley on Sun. I was very lucky to go to Wembley for the JPT final but Sunday was 200000x better. I don't think I'll ever financially recover from the game and if Mrs Lincoln finds out exactly how much money I spent on beer I'm ****ed but totally totally worth it. I ****ing love this club.
Last few weeks have been amazing. Sunday in isolation was my fav game ever due to the atmosphere. It hasn’t been my favourite season ever though. For me that was Adkins promotion season through the championship. That was just vibes every single week. To this day I have no clue how we only finished second. But it does feel good to have our club back. SR have made a lot of mistakes but I hope this is the start of something special. The fan base has blown me away last few weeks. The flares, the atmosphere even when it looked unlikely we would go up. I hope we continue this as it’s ****ing amazing
I'd say it's definitely up there for me but probably not the best. The fact it came immediately after loads of ****e ones definitely helps it's case. It'll almost certainly be better than next season too.
Probably my age but I would say my favourite seasons were the 2 Keegan seasons and the runners up/ cup semi-final one in 83/84. I used to travel away every fortnight and have some amazing memories of those times. Another great season was Chris Nicholl's 4-2-4 team in 89/90 when our young front four were ripping up defences up and down the country. All the Liebherr/Cortese seasons hold special memories and the Koeman years too. This one has been fantastic too with some wonderful matches and atmospheres to cherish.
Well of course he didn't. He only owned us for one year when we were in League One. And then it wasn't too much later that Cortese and Kat started disagreeing on finances. That's (for me at least) where the "What if?" comes in. He seemed to be far more interested in the club than Kat was and I suspect he could have been convinced to spend a lot more.
Easy to do when the money isn’t yours. If I remember correctly Kat had a big tax bill to settle. And she wanted to keep a closer eye on Cortese than her father did. If she had little interest in the club she wouldn’t have kept her 20% holding.
It's clear she has an emotional attachment to the club, but was (understandably so) reluctant or unable to invest, which is fair enough. Was so good to see her there Sunday enjoying herself, and carrying on St Markus's legacy. She was even taking her own photos and it just reminded me of dear Markus from 2010. Long may the Liebherrs be involved with our club.
Dragan pointed out that you have to have money to invest in a football club and luckily his other businesses are doing well. As they say you can become a millionaire owning a football club but you have to start as a billionaire.
I'm not particularly intending to criticise her and I didn't say she had "little interest" in the club, I said he was plainly more interested. It was his choice to invest in a football club and not hers. I suppose interested may be the wrong word. Caught up in the project, emotionally invested, motivated, excited, however you want to put it. I think owning a football club excited him in a way it didn't excite her. Nothing wrong with that. Anyway, my point is that Markus chose to invest in the club and he and Cortese clearly had a strong working relationship and a somewhat similar way of thinking. I suspect if he'd lived longer he might well have invested more money. Perhaps quite a lot more. That's the great "What if?"
