With a new year upon us and the warm fuzzy's still around what are the highs and lows of this Saints season so far? A few random thoughts.. For me, this run of games since beating Arsenal has been the most 'interesting' part of the season. The excitement of winning two 'season deciding' games. The signing of Adams (edit - AUSTIN. Charlie AUSTIN.) is an obvious season high. Steven Caulker playing up front for Liverpool has been simply brilliant. They've done so much for our upward growth. I've enjoyed RonKo's honesty. Its caused all sorts of turmoil recently but I'd sooner that than a manager who says nothing or speaks in cliches. The away win at Chelsea would be a high if they hadn't gone on to lose to everybody. Just took the shine off it. Shane Long's recent form. Brilliant. JRod's set back has been a big low. I had high hopes that he was going to recover well this year. Going out of Europe didn't seem like such a biggie at the time but with hindsight it was pretty disappointing. The negativity around the academy has been the worst part of this last month for me. Such a big part of the club's reputation. Schneiderlin in a ManU top : ( Shane Long's finishing. Imagine how good he would be...
There is always criticism from Fans when we go out of a competition early. The truth is imo that we just are not geared up properly for regular European football. Coupled with that the continuous poaching of our star players means we are likely to struggle for a while until we have both increased the size of our squad along with managing to keep our stars. An odd one out we might be able to cover but two/three key players is sheer suicide imo for progress. Also as I have said many times before we have to attract more punters on a regular basis. Which of course means the expansion of St Mary's which in my view is just as strong a need and also has to be given a priority certainly as much as the Academy was at any rate.
The season before last, Liverpool were flying high, but a slip away from winning the league. Liverpool had Suarez on fire (forget Sturridge for now - we won't need him where this is going), and it would be tempting for many of their fans at that point to provide a balm for their disappointment at losing both the league and Suarez by taking a look into a crystal ball and see what continued progression the team would be making, particularly when it came to replacing the Uruguayan genius. Cut to their last two games, with the line being led by one Steven Caulker...
High for me has been seeing Koeman react to a bad run by implementing a tactical change that, once the players adapted, has thus far proved very positive. It gives us a number of options that we've lacked for some seasons.
Meh, wait til they announce the recently leaked signing of Charlie Adams........ or Tony, or Gerry.....
The low for me was not putting United to bed at home. The high - winning two years running at Old Trafford....
I thought Cant get too optimistic but... Im feeling pretty confident about this one, wouldnt have said that a month ago.
Highs? Easy. Still enjoying having a football club! Seriously, having successive good seasons is such a rarity for a Saints fan. Signing Austin (no not Delgado) is high on my list. Beating Arsenal 4-0 was amazing, and the 3-1 at Chelsea. Like others, seeing RK challenged and rising to it. Talking about renewing his contract when we were going through a truly **** patch sent out the right "we don't panic" message. Lows? Morgan going. Losing matches we should have won. Morgan going. Losing 6-1 to bloody Liverpool. Morgan going. Seeing a forlorn Rickie Lambert last weekend. Oh, and did I mention losing our French International? That hurt!
Its been a contrast to last year in lots of ways but optimistic that it could turn out to be the opposite. Slow, uninspring first half and a storming exciting second half.
