People are fond of saying it it is the hope that kills but we must never give up hope. In the Fellowship of the Ring Gandalf says 'It is not despair, for despair is only for those who see the end beyond all doubt. We do not." We do not see the end beyond all doubt at the moment so we have more than hope on our side. The doom and gloom merchants and the Ralph must go nutcases must not be listened to. It is not time yet for despair.
The hotel manager in 'The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel' puts things very succinctly: "Everything will be alright in the end. If it is not alright, it is not yet the end"
Rationally, I agree with you. I just wish that little voice that keeps saying "We were too good to go down in 1974" would shut up. For the 90%+ of fans too young for this refernce we fell from top 6 at Christmas to being relegated despite Channon and Osgood and some pretty decent players around them. The problem then, as now, is that losing runs become very difficult to halt. Realistically we need probably 6 points to be comfortable. We come up with reasons for the run. Last night, we were up against an Everton team flush from their Anfield win, for example. Absence of key players is having an effect. But ultimately we don't look good for goals just now. Those who want Ralph to go are mad. Of course they are. But beginning to consider relegation when you've taken one point from 27 is not simply doom and gloom.
And, playing devil’s advocate, let’s just say we were to go down in that 18th spot ...... We would definitely lose Ings & Bertrand (both of whom, I’m seeing, are likely to be off, according to posters here), probably Prowsey, Stuart and KWP, but we would, more than likely, keep many of the current team and some of the “deadwood” (as I’ve seen alluded to) may decide to jump ship. We could, potentially, rebuild with younger players and bring some more experienced players towards the end of their careers in to help. The owner may just bail out (hopefully) as he’d realise we’d get no more money and, perhaps, with our record, we might get someone who actually cares - after all, didn’t Marcus come in with a plan? We could well keep Ralph (depending on his contract) as he really seems to care passionately about the club and we may find ourselves able to better compete with a smaller squad ..... This is purely hypothetical, of course, as I’m convinced we won’t go down, but, if we did, would we still support Saints? I know I would ......
I'm sure we beat Everton 3-0 on the last day but it wasn't enough. Yes, for older readers, we did used to beat Everton.
Do you not see how necessary a world of pains and troubles is, to school an intelligence and make it a soul? - John Keats