We all know the story about Marcus coming into save us. Redemption is an evergreen theme in any narrative, as proven by the popularity of the The Christmas Carol, or, for those of a religious bent, the New Testament. When we dropped to League One we were thankful for our very existence. Sure we had a ten point penalty, a final sting in the tail from our previous owner, but renewal was promise enough for us. But did the ten point penalty actually help us in the long run? That we had (and still have) an academy capable of training superstars was not in question. That we tried to blood a young and green team in a league as tough as the Championship, rather than blend youth with experience, was proven folly indeed, albeit folly partially dictated by our financial position. The result was poor morale. Whilst the thunder-clouds of fiscal insecurity no doubt played their part in our downturn, it was the pervasive gloom of constantly losing (we had flirted with relegation in the previous season) that truly sapped our confidence. In our first season in League One, there was no expectation placed upon us. Yes, our debts were fully paid and yes, we could now concentrate on building a team without worrying about the balance sheet, but, with the points penalty, it seemed unlikely that we would bounce straight back up. In short, after so many years of tension, the pressure was off. If we did make the play-offs it would be seen as a major achievement. Not making the play-offs, but being within ten points of them gave us the moral authority to claim that we could have been a contender, without the potential disappointment of losing in the play-off lottery. We could sit back and enjoy the football, as many of did with our foray in the Johnson Paint Trophy. Younger players from the academy could start to shine in the less prestigious backwaters of League One, where their mistakes would not be punished as harshly as they would in higher leagues. A team was constructed and polished with confidence. We won 23 games in that first season. Winning became a habit, one that would serve us well in the next season which saw 28 victories. Fortress St. Mary's was becoming a formidable place to visit, as Championship teams are now beginning to discover. So, my question to the forum is, was the -10 point penalty really a blessing in disguise?
Agreed, not sure if I ever said it on here but I said it to a few mates of mine. Administration turned out to be one of the better things to happen... Oh wait that's badly phrased... What I mean is it gave the club a kick up the backside and a chance to start a fresh and it is certainly working.
Many clubs have never recovered from it, but yes, it's worked out fantastically for us. Not the actual points penalty but the owner/s we acquired: Willing to invest in the team, club and local community with ambition - something we've been crying out for.
With Nicola Cortese we have been very very lucky. Administration made the club more attractive to buy but I look at other teams like Leeds and I doubt any of there fans would state going into administration was good for the club despite them bouncing back up as they have Mr. Bates in charge. What I do agree with though is that getting relegated to league 1 was good for a club the size of Southampton. You look at the form of Leeds, Norwich, Leicester and they came back with a renewed vigor to the championship. Charlton look likely to follow suit. Whilst clubs like Coventry, Derby & Ipswich are all just treading water in the championship and struggling to build the confidence and winning mentality.
Good question..! What I believe is, is that it gave Saints a good amount of time to regroup. If you had asked fans whether they would have preferred to have been promoted after the first season in League One, and all that would have flowed from that, probably 90% would still say YES. But, in a sense, having to stay in League One for one more season, allowed Saints to be more prepared than otherwise. Saints ended last season in second place, 3 points behind Brighton. There's no likely scenario that can realistically show Saints winning that League though. Bringing in Adkins earlier may have done the job. Keeping Pardew might have done the same. That's past, and Saints achieved second place [we're very good at being Runners-Up, less so Champions], but significantly it was two seasons in League One. One or two supporters [me included] have the occasional thought that it wouldn't do Saints any harm to stay in The Championship for two seasons, building further upon very good foundations. The backlash of that though is the danger that several players may be tempted away, spoiling a settled side. Of course, Saints may stay in The Championship for a few seasons anyway. Promotion this season isn't guaranteed, however thrilled we all are at the prospect. No, I don't think the extended stay in League One did the club any harm at all, and may well have contributed, in its own way, to a possible straight promotion to the Premier League.
When you have a problem, the best way to deal with it is to tackle it at its foundation. That's quite difficult in football unfortunately, but we made it somehow. I don't know if it's the points penalty that was the blessing, or just the fact that we were relegated, but major change behind the scenes is what was needed, and that is what happened. Had we avoided the penalty, we might have made it up first time and might even have made it into the Premier League by now. On the other hand, failure to promote would have been unacceptable and might have made things even worse. We'll never know if it could have been even better, but we can be pretty damn pleased with how it actually turned out.
All's well that ends well as Shakespeare said. We've had a fantastic 2.5 seasons, with the JPT sweetening the disappointment of failure to get promoted in the first season. The reason we're having fun is that it is a long time since we've been a major player. The PL will be the test as we will once again be a minnow (cover your eyes, Nicola), although this time we will be well-drilled and well-prepared minnows. The PL will be exciting but also tougher on the fans...we will have to show our metal as well. Bring it on.
To some extent we were all spoilt by the 27 years in the top flight, and being founder members of the Premier League was a bit flattering to a club of our size and ambitions at the time. The events since 2005 have brought us all down to earth of course, culminating in administration and relegation in 2009. However, I would go even farther than the original question and say that failure to win the playoffs in 2007 was, in hindsight, a good thing, because, if we had gone back to the Premier League then, with the old guard still in power and the finances still looking dodgy, we might have turned into a Blackpool-type club, forever condemned to yo-yo between the Prem and the Championship. I remember that, apart from accusing Saints fans of arrogance for daring to believe we could go back up quickly, a lot of teams' fans told us that League One was "a hard league to get out of". Well in that context, 2 seasons at that level wasn't too bad at all, compared to Leeds and, especially, Huddersfield. If we had gone straight back to the Championship would we have been top a year ago? I doubt it, for many reasons, the biggest one being that we wouldn't have Nigel Adkins at the helm. We have been completely rebuilt, renewed, and refreshed by our saviours Markus and Nicola. I have absolute confidence that with the transfer window about to open, and key players returning from injury, we can continue the massive momentum we have built up over the last year or so and not only get promotion, but establish ourselves in the Prem as a permanent fixture.
By this reasonong a likely twenty point deduction for our neighbours will do them a power of good. They'll be a power house in football in a couple of years just like Luton!
The difference is that we at least had the facilities and infrastructure to make us an attractive prospect for Markus and Nicola. Pompey won't attract more than a flock of vultures in their present state.
Don't think even vultures could find any food on Pompey at the moment. Still think their best chance is to bottom out and rebuild from non-league. They do have a decent fan base and could do a Wimbledon.
I was looking at the Bristol City board yesterday, I read a comment on there for a City fan - a seemingly off-the-cuff comment - that they would be better off getting relegated this season, and then aiming for back-to-back promotions. But to be honest, there's some truth in that. The Championship is so competitive, that you cannot afford to just tread water - that will never, ever result in a play-off battle. Likewise, unlike the Premiership, the level of television income doesn't exactly make treading Championship water financially worthwhile. Coventry are the obvious, and most widely used example. They've done absoloutely nothing since getting relegated - following Preston's relegation 6 months ago, I think I'm correct in saying that Coventry are now the longest serving Championship club at present. That's not really a record to be proud of. Starting afresh can be a great. Building momentum can be a great thing. Relegation can lead to both. Sometimes you do need to take one step back before you can take two or three steps forward. Norwich have shown this to be the case, we are currently showing it to be the case (likewise Leeds to a lesser extent), and Charlton may well do something similar in the near future. Moving up a level, and Newcastle have shown this to be the case. So well done Coventry for not following the above ex-Prem names - not to mention the likes of Leicester, Wednesday, Forest, Sheff Utd - in getting relegated in the third tier. But maybe if they had of by now - and remember, when we survived on the last day under Pearson, Coventry also survived on that day and actually finished below us - then they'd be towards the other end of the Championship table right now.
We were lucky though in that our finances have been good for our two league one years and this year. You need the fan base and resultant income to survive in the lower leagues and attempt promotion.
I suppose that Hampshire CC getting relegated last season will give them the opportunity to rebuild and go for promotion again, which should pull the crowds back to the Rose Bowl, going down is not always the worst thing to happen.
I'm not convinced there'll be too much impact on the crowd sizes (if you attend first-class cricket, you attend first-class cricket. Doesn't really matter if it's division 1 or division 2), but I certainly I think relegation could ultimately help us succeed on the field and build a side capable of challenging for the County Championship. The squad is now packed with youngsters who, having had their introductions to county cricket, could now do with knuckling down and scoring big runs or taking sackfuls of wickets. Playing D2 cricket should help with this. If we'd have pulled off the great escape, we'd have avoided relegation by the skin of our teeth for the third successive year. And whilst it would have meant playing D1 cricket for another season, it would have most likely also meant yet another relegation battle.
For us I guess it worked out. However lots of less fortunate teams have suffered from the penalty and still haven't recovered.
