Records being broken right, left and centre. 3 or 4 goals being scored on a regular basis. St Marys being a fortress. I have been cheering on the Saints all of my life, and with the possible exception of one year under WGS, I cannot remember a period of such consistent good news on the pitch ever, although reading some of the posts on here, you wouldn't guess! So, what will it be like when we lose 2 or 3 on the bounce? (I am not being negative, as that could next be against top Premiership sides ) Can we be mature and patient? Will we all forget where we came from, and suddenly call for heads to roll? Without a doubt, this has been a roller coaster of a ride and it can't continue forever, so eventually we will have to get to used to losing more than the odd game. Can we all do that without getting tetchy?
Of course we'll get tetchy and angry! If we don't finish around the playoffs there'll be calls (by idiots) for Nigel to be sacked, but we just have to grin and bear it. The season is 46 games long, not 6.
This team has been winning nearly 3 out of 4 games for at least the past year now and after nearly every loss we go on to win the next game. That sort of consistency is Man Utd-esque and I can't see it suddenly blowing apart. The squad is settled and NA debriefs after every match and "draws a blue line under it, then moves on to the next game fresh". I said this on a previous thread, if you look at our games you have to go right back to Rochdale away for our last match that we truly deserved to lose.
For all that Ted Bates did, watching Saints was a frustrating experience way back when. It wasn't Ted's fault, but mainly because of the ambition of the club, which was to make up the numbers, and that was all. Yes, they were in the Top Division, but they couldn't go further. On the occasions where Saints qualified for Europe, during Ted's reign, he openly admitted that we just didn't have the depth of squad to achieve anything. Moving onto Lawrie brought a change. First, we were relegated, but then we won something..! Then we were promoted again, and under Lawrie there seemed to be a sense that the club could do more. IIRC, the first public calls for a new stadium were made back then, to push on. However, Lawrie had to operate under the same boardroom attitude as Ted - Saints were there to make up the numbers, so Lawrie was already massively overachieving. That's why he really left Saints - because he could do no more. And so it went on. Come the new stadium, and Saints had an opportunity, but no money. Strachan was brilliant, in his own way, limited by a financial straitjacket again. But at least we appeared to be doing something positive again, instead of merely treading water. Then the bottom dropped out of everything when relegation happened and eventually financial ruin. But, as they say, every cloud has a silver lining. Right now, I'm arguably the most positive I've ever been as a Saints fan. Yes, it's the Championship and not the Premiership, and it was actually still better between 1976-86, but we didn't have a modern stadium back then, and modern facilities, so, in hindsight, that puts a dampener on those days, because they were always going to end sooner rather than later. Plus, nowadays we undoubtedly have one of the most solid chairmen in the entire football league. If he says something will happen, it happens. That's rather reassuring. What with Adkins and the team on a remarkable run of record breaking form, what is there to pick holes in..? Anything I could think of would be mere carping. I think it's bloody brilliant.
The question is, why does it feel so good now? Looking at it objectively, we've played well in 6 games at the start of a season in the second division of football. Hardly what fairy tales are made of. But you can tell from the atmosphere on here and in the stadium itself just how positive everybody is feeling, but with the facts as they are, why is it so good? My thinking is that it feels like we're finally about to get our compensation for the horrific 04-09 years. All of us (hopefully all of us anyway) were still staunch supporters during those years, although it felt horrible to see the club you love get ripped apart, the demons (some horrible, some scapegoats) of the likes of Lowe, Wilde, Poortvliet, Wotte, Crouch, Fry, Redknapp, Wigley, Burley etc etc are all in our past, we struggled through those days and we're out at the other side being led by people like Cortese and Adkins (and Liebherr, RIP) finally allowing us to dare believe that we have a direction that isn't as simple plummeting downwards. Since Markus and gang took over it has looked like the only way is up - and the whole satisfaction at the moment is coming from the fact that we have the results to prove it, and long may that continue.
I think Cortese, and the legacy of Markus, is the difference. Although it's difficult to imagine, let's try... If Adkins was working the miracle with the board of Lowe & Co overseeing, we'd feel great, but we'd always be thinking that the rug would be pulled out from under us, at any moment. With Cortese it's totally different.
Enjoy it while it lasts........we are having a good time on the pitch.......if not entirely in the transfer market. We are going to come to a sticky patch at some time. It is these times when a manager proves his metal, as does the boardroom. If they are ambitious then they will do something about it,whatever that something is. When we get to the premier that is when this club will again have to really spend money if the Don is serious about playing in Europe, especially. He will need to expand St Mary's that's for sure and we will have to attract more fans. You are going to have to start bringing in between 35/40000 to be able to finance a real challenge on a regular basis. Anything less and you will be in the sort of trouble Everton find themselves in at the moment. The premier will begin to even itself out a bit more with the constriction of spending being put into place so you will be relying on good crowds to swell the coffers more. If you cannot attract crowds upwards of 40000 on a regular basis you are not going to be able to compete for the better players, nor in my opinion, are you going to get into Europe where the big money is.
Wise words, Beddy. Even bringing in gates of 40k we wouldn't have the pulling power of teams like Man City, and I'd rather not see us in millions of debt because of money we can't afford to spend. I wholly believe Don knows what he's doing, and he'll know the way to lead us through. We sold 44k and could have sold a lot more in the Paint Pot final, we could bring in crowds of 35k every week I don't doubt.
Well we often sold out in the Prem and that's what, 32k? And that was despite the best efforts of our then Chairman to put everyones back up. 35k plus is very achievable. Unless your stadium only holds 20k.
If we had started as any reasonable person would hope, say 3 wins, 1 draw and 2 losses, we'd be happy and hoping for a reasonably successful season. Our hopes have ben raised dramatically by our fantastic start. If we carry on our present form it would be wonderful, but I would hope that we would be mature enough to accept that times may get harder, mainly because other teams are paying us attention now. If the team are seen to be doing their best (which under Nigel they will) the crowd should stay behind them. I think we play exciting football, the team are fit, our manager is one of the best, and our chairman is supportive, but we have won a couple of games we could have lost so none of us should think we are invincible. But in answer to the question, yes it will hurt.
I remember going to the central library to see drawings and a model of a proposed new stadium where the power station used to be and what is now Toys R Us. I think it all fell through because the club would not have owned the stadium. I also think it was the time when McMenemy realised the club had very limited ambitions and lets be honest it is ambition that seperates our current owners from all our previous ones. Without a doubt we are going to go places with the Don but whether we can break into the big money may prove to be too big an ask. I do agree however that we could attract gates of 35k easily in the premiership with attractive attacking football. The key to the future could be investment in the expansion of stadium and I believe that should start now.
This is a fantastic time to support Saints. (my son is 10 and this is as about as exciting a time as when I was 10 (1980) and in the middle of a few great years for Saints) We have a good manager, a good leader/chairman and what appears to be solid support from Markus' family to keep us financially sound for the time being. Add to this the success we are having on the pitch and it is good times to support the Saints. If there is just one thing that I would like to change, it would be the gates. Yes, I know we are still well supported, however I would love to see gates of 30,000 plus each week. We had 25,000 there Saturday and it would be so good to see a few more of those gaps filled in to really signal the massive support behined the team. I'm being really picky, because times are good now. Let's just make sure we stay positive when the results go against us, and pleae keep the gates high when we hit a bad patch.
I agree with everything that's been said already. In 45 years of following this great club in all its roller-coaster glory, this has to be the best time of all, because everyone can see there is a future now, rather than decades of lack of ambition or ineptitude at board level and under-achieving on the pitch. (pause to thank Markus for making it possible)
After are start to the season and how we have played in all 6 games. If we failed to make the play-offs this season I would be disappointed, as I feel we have more than enough quality to earn a top 6 finish, if not higher. But take it one game at a time.
Our start to the season has been no surprise to me and I will be disappointed if we do not finish in the top six. Will I be calling for Adkins to go if we do not make it? Definitely NOT. With the squad we have and the structure in place we will only get better. I hope Adkins stays around for years and years.
I echo the sentiments made above - as a supporter since the middle sixties [as a small boy propped on a small wooden folding picnic to see over the parapit wall] it's hard to remember such a special time. Good post and, as seems to be becoming rarer on not606, some intelligent comments being made. I have enjoyed what has been written - thank you.
I would say that the odds are we are likely to lose a few in the near future, teams will quickly work out how to stop us (or at least slow us down) and once the goals scored column starts to dry up a bit our goals against looks pretty dodgy. We have conceeded 8 in the league to date, you have to go down to Leicester in 10th to find anybody conceeding that many. So I suspect that our run may well falter sooner rather than later, we could rapidly slip down to bottom of playoffs or even mid table, we mustn't let that lead to knee jerk reactions, instead have patience and trust the management team to sort it out because when they do I can see us once again pushing on and finishing the season strongly as we did last year.
