02 Nov 2017 13:19:20
This is response to Saint Duke's post on the transfer rumour page.

I for one am sorry to hear that watching the Saints at the moment is so depressing for you. I think from most of the messages and posts you read on here, most if not all agree that it is hard going at the moment so you're not alone if that does give you any comfort. Nothing any of us has posted or will post on this site is going to make the team or tactics change is this is just a forum for getting things off your chest and batting ideas around but its cathartic at least so let my try and put a positive spin on the way you're feeling at the moment.

Supporting Saints has always been a roller coaster in my life time - mid to late 1980s onwards. After the moments of success on the 70s, my childhood was spent forever fearing the abyss of relegation as Saints seemed every season to pull it out of the fire in the last game of the season to stay up for another year. Then came the 90s with little change until Hoddle brought us league comfort for the first time in decades, only to ditch us for his real love, Spurs. The bar of expectation was raised. We can compete in this league. We want more of this. Then it seemed the board would conspire to hold the team back, or it least that's how it appeared. Little investment on the field saw little progress until Strachan came in and suddenly brought a bit of swagger back to the side. However, that didn't last long as a fall out with the board, probably over spending and ambition put paid to the best spell in the sun we had had in my years supporting Saints.

So when all that promise fell away and we quickly tumbled out of the league, it was hard to take. Little changed in the Championship and after failing to get straight back up, money was tighter and again, lack of ambition and spending lead to us falling to the third tier of English football. But it was the best thing to happen to us.

In League one, we were far better than pretty much everyone in our promotion season. With the caveat that we were down there, watching Saints became a pleasure once more as we were prolific and won so often. The bar was raised along with our expectations. Runners up in the league, the Championship performances were equally impressive. We had goals of play-offs and promotion in both of these leagues and we got there. In the Champ, it was at the first time of asking. We were riding the crest of a wave. We went to Wembley and comfortably won the Johnson's Paint Trophy. Silverware. The bar was raised again and the team delivered with new owners and investment making it all happen.

Back to the Prem and we all hope in the first instance to stay safe and the job was pulled off. We had a good, young manager drafted in and more success in league positions followed as we started to defy the critics and challenge for Europe whilst playing good football. Poch left and was replaced by Koeman who changed a few things but the team carried on where Poch had left off. And so, four seasons went by with us punching above our weight and becoming accustomed to challenging for Europe each season.

But Alex Ferguson said that the lifecycle of a team is about four years and then you have to change things up. Start again. Rebuild. And I genuinely think that's where we are. We've sold more players than we've brought in during that period of success with Poch and Koeman. The club's idea is that we bring young academy players into the team but despite the odd appearance of 3 or 4 in our recent successful spell, none have broken in and held a place. This season, I can't recall any of our young players coming in. I'm not sure if that's down to the club or the coaching staff. The Premier League is a very competitive and pressurised environment and let's not forget, we have a new owner now, whose expectations may be very different to those previous.

1.) 02 Nov 2017
02 Nov 2017 13:32:59
(Cont. )
So, we’ve had a long period of about 8 or 9 years where the team has enjoyed a good spell of success, won things, brought confidence in the team and excitement about winning and playing well. We’ve signed some good players at last and carried on despite the doom-mongers predicting failure every time Liverpool and Arsenal circled our best players. That inspires pride and grit and belief that our team will carry on, despite adversity. It’s only natural that now we are on a bit of a dip, it will feel a little depressing to everyone. You’re not wrong for wanting the team to play well and win matches. It’s what every fan wants. But don’t hang-up your season ticket just yet.

This season and last do appear very transitional. Last season, we had an owner looking to sell and players unhappy with the decline of the team and blaming the manager for it. We’ve had a summer of changes, a new owner after much wrangling and arguably our best player openly sought a move away and sulked when it didn’t come. On top of that, we brought in a new manager. We shouldn’t be so surprised we haven’t hit the ground running.

I think a lot of the concerns relate to the team’s performances and how nothing appears to have improved after last season. We hoped for a fresh start and return to success but instead, it feels like we’re still the same team as last season. Then, as now, we struggled to score goals and we failed to address that over the summer with signings or bringing in our academy players and it’s unclear why. But, we are not hopeless. We are winning games and we sit in the middle of the table. We are far away from the relegation fights I grew up on. We only appear to be struggling because we have enjoyed such a long period of success. There must be at least 9 other teams in the league who look at us and think, ‘wouldn’t mind their problems’.

I still have faith in MP as our coach. He is positive about changing the team to try to get the best results, although our best formation and starting line-up haven’t quite been settled on yet. If CP deserved more time and shouldn’t have been sacked, then MP deserves at least the same time, if not the additional period you feel CP warranted. We should give MP the season and see where we are. Also, the Eds on here reckoned that spending would be limited this summer with a new owner coming in late under the terms that he did, and we were more likely to see investment next summer. If that’s the case, there is still hope to cling on to, even if its waiting for the summer and seeing where that takes us. This season will be a toil at times and man of us, me included, have forgotten what that feels like. We don’t want a boring side, a mediocre side or a struggling side and I still hope the players and coaching staff will turn things around.

But even if things remain the same, its Saints. They’re our football team and I will support them each game through good and bad because that’s what we always have done and will continue to do. When things are hard and results a struggle, the team need our support more than ever. Now is the time to make sure you’re at the game (and not booing) to get behind the team so you can be smug about not being a fair weather fan when things improve later. We’ve only played 10 games, not even a third of a season. Plenty of time to consolidate, improve and make up ground. COYR.

2.) 02 Nov 2017
02 Nov 2017 14:16:25
Great post. There is a psychology concept called Familiarity Bias - which in shorthand goes - if things have happened recently - your brain expects them to happen again, even though the data and stats suggest otherwise.

So instead of using the promotion seasons and European season/ s as a guideline to what you expect from Saints - use other data - team value, league points, spending at other clubs etc and you will see that we are probably lucky to be in the Prem or at the very least not scrapping it out in the bottom 6 each season.

To float around at 10th place is actually pretty good - given that the 6 or 7 clubs above us are too good to win points off consistently - kind of puts us in the top 3 or 4 of our 'other' premier league table.

But Southampton is a great club and once in a while a team comes together that is better than the sum of its parts and with our buying in the £20m bargains that we seem to find that may well happen every few seasons - and the football Gods smile again.

But be sensible - we are unlikely to win the prem League - could win another FA cup say once every 30 years - won't win the CL or probably even qualify for it more than once every 20 years - and have a reasonable chance at the league cup once every 8 seasons.

So if you support the Saints because they are a good smaller club who punch above their weight and give you joy a few times a year by beating Liverpool or Arsenal etc - and bring through some excellent talented players - then COYS - but if you expect a huge trophy list and lots of Easyjet away games - then Saints is not the team to support.

One last point - our current stable of younger players - many joined when we were on the way down and out of the top tier - at an old training facility - and probably the better selection joined other clubs. Now we have been in the prem for a few years with excellent facilities and reputation for player development the younger 12 - 16 year olds should start to produce again in 3 or 4 seasons.

I am a Saints supporter by the way - just being honest about being constantly disappointing by over expecting the team to over-perform when compared to the last few years exceptional outcomes.

3.) 02 Nov 2017
02 Nov 2017 17:15:13
In reply to both posts responding to my post I think they are both eloquently put and make a lot of sense. My only response to them both is that I was stating my personal feelings regarding where we are as a football club, I don't believe we are in a transitional period I would rather call it stagnant and uninspiring almost as though we are walking through treacle. I really want to be wrong but there does become a time when waiting for the promised improvement you can lose a bit of faith. I have almost lost that and go to all matches now hoping we might get it right this time but deep down expecting as to struggle. I will never stop supporting the club ever but I certainly don't look forward to the weekends with hopeful anticipation, this makes me a bit sad, I know we can play better and I have just got a feeling it needs to happen pretty soon or we could be in trouble. As I have said it is just my personal opinion which I know this website is designed for however I respect all posts submitted and enjoy reading them regardless of whether I agree or not. Keep them coming guys.

4.) 02 Nov 2017
02 Nov 2017 17:20:54
Oh and just one other point in response to Figo's post I didn't say that Pellegrino should be sacked, far from it, my point was that I don't think he was the right replacement for CP.

5.) 02 Nov 2017
02 Nov 2017 18:26:12
Everything coming from southampton seems to be "transitional " or "looking for identity" so I agree they are in a rebuild, cusp type moment. I still would like to know more about behind the scenes. how are the youth players training, how are they getting on . because I don't know if I missed something but Josh Sims and Harrison reed looked ready and were performing well in the premiership. I'm not saying they should be starters I'm just saying I would like more access to the thinking behind where Stephens, mcqueen, reed, Sims and alike are in the squad setup. I appreciate the social media spoofs they do . always good for a laugh but I would rather watch an episode of films done on the squads younger players and fringe players (I know injuries have been an issue and they can't be too open with the information but fans are paying lots of money and sitting through some awful football. some clarity would be nice.