Have heard quite a few negatives about the season so far and thought I would add my thoughts. Although the two relegation's were painful, they were not as bad as knowing that the club I have supported for a third of a century was a mess and being controlled by vultures. We are now run by a sound team and the last three years have been great So many wins, two promotions and a cup. In many ways the most successful period for the club in my time. However, i did not expect this to continue in the Premiership. The are six or seven clubs that have a solid history of at least doing well in this league, along with quite a few more who have the experience of staying up. Just look at us in our last spell at the top. We had a tiny ground and poor income, yet we kept staying up because we knew how too. My hope was never Europe, or even mid table. I just wanted us to stay up, and I still think we will. The Man C game was brilliant, probably one of the most exciting premiership games I have seen in ages. The bounce from that was that we probably went into the Wigan game feeling too confident and we had no right too. For me we deserved to lose and I just hope the players learnt a lot from the experience. It was always going to be tough with the start we have, but hey, we are playing Man C, Man U and Arsenal in our first few games! I have been dreaming of this for years and now it's here, so have to enjoy it. We have a good squad and it is being added to. We have the players and the management to survive. I personally think that we have a better than evens chance of surviving. My biggest memories of many moons ago... sitting in front of teletext, on the last day of the season, as the goals were coming up and screaming for Saints to survive, which we did. Looking back, I am sure I got more excitement than the mid table teams, much more. Can I have some of the same please? We can leave qualifying for Europe till next season
Welcome lostinMK. Enjoyed your post, but I don't want to be screaming for survival. I want to be safe with a few weeks to go and spend the time yawning and waiting for the next season. Have you heard the ancient curse: May you live in interesting times. No thanks, not this season.
I know exactly what you mean. Season after season of last day of the season torture. I particularly remember listening to Solent in the car knowing that one goal against us or for Man City in another fixture (if memory serves) would send us down. Nerve racking! If we went down this season (and I don't think that we will) it would be sad but just a blip on our path to ultimately fulfilling the plan which was always to be an established EPL side on a sound business footing, playing a fast passing, attractive style of football, "the Southampton way".
Great to be back playing the top sides again but of course there are potentially ten or eleven teams who could find themselves fighting for points come May and we for sure will be one of them.When we had fairly regular survival scraps in our last top flight period we did however have our great talisman Le Tiss and some pretty mean scrappers like Dodd and Benali to back him up all of whom were badge kissers who were reliable and true to the shirt and boy did they get us out of some scrapes.I am not sure this side has the same kind of spirit as that group time will tell after all they have the 'winning mentality' so they will all have to adjust their approach a bit as that is going to change for sure. We do however have some talented players and with some added steel and experience it would be nice to think we can scrape through and some how survive this campaign and then really get a foothold in the Prem but i fear much will depend on Corteses reaction to a new situation of losing as opposed to winning and how that affects the dynamics between him and Nigel.But i am all up for enjoying what should be great season and whatever comes along the fans should back the side in what will probably be a dogfight at the bottom as without positive backing we will go down as i can remember well how fantastic the support was back in the days of Tiss and the boys in our previous battles against the drop.
The fans always seemed more supportive then as we were used to struggles (unless that is typical rose-coloured glasses). We now have some fans who expect constant success. We are all in this together...good and bad times.
Having lived through the last seven years, relegation doesnt worry me If it happens then so be it, The Championship was great and starting the season looking forward th try and win something is great rather than facing a season in the Prem hoping we don't get embarrassed by one of the big boys
Good introductory post, I know what you mean, we've had a disappointing start to the season by recent standards, but really we all should have expected these opening games to be very difficult. I still feel like we can challenge for a top ten spot with shrewd signings this week and a bit of luck, so I'm not particularly worried about relegation right now.
Just being in the Prem is great. We are only two games in and I am surte that we'll put things right. I did say a few weeks back that there was a possibility we could start with nil points from the first four games. It still leaves 34 games to put it right.
No reason to panic as you say, and stability and consistency is a lot more important than rapidly changing managers or players etc.
