I can only speak for myself and what I see on this board. Generally I dont see everyone here believing we are more than we are. Personally I dont think we are an attractive proposition for incoming players whilst everyone is rumored to be jumping ship. I feel like we are a going to be a very different side to the one that flew out of the blocks last season. Whatever it is behind the scenes that has changed it has changed dramatically. If I were looking to start a job I would be looking for a company that was going places not losing its best staff. I think Saints right now are a pretty uninspring option for top players and we need to settle and sort it out before we can again think we are challenging liverpool for signings. Having said that I'm hopeful that the 'unknown' signings we have made so far will be a sucess with the new coaching staff we have.
In truth we need to do a lot more than finish high in the PL. We will never compete with the likes of Liverpool or Tottenham until we have earned our right to. In other words, large crowds, constantly up in the top 4 or there abouts, competing in Europe. The odd cup or two. We have got to be seen as serious challengers not fly by night one season wonders. After all what actually have we achieved? One FA cup, one runners up in the now PL, a couple or three losing finalists. On top of that a ground that only can hold 32000 odd. If they are serious about joining the elite they need to spend some money on these things, the rest should follow over time. However none of the previous mentioned clubs earned their spurs over night it took time and a decent following. We cannot even remotely compete based on a good footballing reputation for one or two seasons we just do not have enough history.
We need to compete toe to toe regularly with tottenham and everton first. Each of them could easily fall from grace the way Villa have done but relying on that to befall them would prove nothing.
You never read the 100+pages on the Man Utd forum about Shaw then? The arrogance -v- bedwetting; optimistics -v- pessimists is pretty universal across all clubs and part of the game. Not as bad here as SaintsWeb though. We seem to have more considered posts on here. Classic oxymoron quote on Saints web today from one poster was that he had "no faith in the boards ability to sign an unrealistic target like Rojo." I think as long as people don't get insulting and personal, the diversity of views is fine. The analogy of a forum being like a chat down the pub is a good one. If someone says they heard we were signing Messi we just have a laugh. We don't grab him round the throat and demand his 'source'.
Not strictly arrogant, but sometimes unrealistic judging by criticism of possible incoming players. We need talented players who can fit in, but too many expect ready made stars.
I blame our temporary problems on two things, the World Cup and the obsession with playing in the Champions League.
