Article: Just a thought | Football Southampton

firstly, thanks for a civil reply (you don't often get those without name calling). My point was that at the start of the season, they had low expectations, and even though they were in a higher than expected position, they didn't change the expectation levels. I know the Premier league is a higher standard, but the principal is the same; they weee abve expected levels.

I have however read your other post that said you expected us to get promoted, so our starting points are completely different. I never thought we'd be getting promoted this year.

 

you can't "take away" good signings just because he knew them. Pards had connections at Palace that may have got him a word with Fonte

 

And what are your thoughts now on promotion or would you still be happy with midtable.

 

Putting it into perspective, we have got 10 points from our last 10 league games, since the beginning of December. If we were to continue that form (of a point a game) to the end of the season, we would get 67 points, which last season would have put us to within 3 places of the Championship play-offs.

Make of this what you will, but to me it does not seem all doom and gloom, because even if we were to not improve at all till the end of the season (which is unlikely anyway with new signings yet to settle) we probably would finish in the play offs because this has been such a low scoring Championship season.

But even if we were to finish 9th, like 67 points would have got us last season, surely that's not too bad, it's what most of us predicted anyway?!

 

My 10-14th would be a bit of a bad collapse, but if we finished 7th, I'd be disappointed yes, but would look back and say that we had outperformed my expectations.

 

The scary thing with this"recent blip" as people keep calling it is we are now only 6 points above 7th but if you go back to the 20th november day after brighton at home we were 13 points above Blackpool who at the time were 7th. Not only that all the teams around us seem to be finding there form a bit more. We have surrendered our breathing space and this month is gonna be squeaky bum time.

 

Hi Kitch. It was me that posted the dictionary definition of support. - I'm glad it had such an impact that it still bothers you, even now.

I know you don't mean that as a dig though and what I'm about to write isn't intended as a dig at you or anybody else for that matter - I'm sure you have never hoped you are wrong more in your life.

Most of what I feel has been covered already but I'd like to have my say as the the Deluded comment has irked me a little (not the over protective. You are probably correct about that).

It is of my opinion that the deluded fans are the ones that didn't excpect this to happen at some point. We started great but it was only a matter of time before we got worked out. Did everyone really believe that the championship was easier to get out of than league one and that Nigel Adkins was the only manager with an ounce of tactical nous.

Don't get me wrong. I'm pissed off and frustrated. I could sometimes throttle some of the players for thier decision making of late but for me the season starts now. We have had our honeymoon period. We have proved that we have the quality to be top 6, everyone knows how we play and now we have to learn to adapt. It's just part of the learning curve.

You are right. It's not a blip and it is concerning but without trying to provoke you... in NA I trust. I've seen enough of the man to believe he will work it out. That's not deluded. It's confidence. There are a couple of managers in this division getting much less out of much better players, so I try and keep perspective.

Also to go over well trodden ground and maybe Nigel isn't the messiah but he said, he want's to be in the top 10 by January to give us a chance... well.... we are second, so ahead of schedule on that one, so he is delivering above his own expectations at this point.

He now says he wants to win this division... excellent... so do I... I'm behind him because we are STILL very much in that race.

When we are not hitting the targets that Nigel has set for us, then I will be really worried but at this point we are very much on course.

If we end up in the playoffs and fail to get promotion, will I be upset. Very much so! Not because I think we SHOULD get in the automatic places but just because we gave ourselves such a good platform to do so but I don't believe for a second we are THE best team in the division or it is a faliure for us not to get promotion.

Why am I so positive / deluded? - Because nothing has happened that I haven't expected and because of our great start, I honestly still feel we still will get promoted and to the people who boo and I don't know who you are, so it's not personally aimed at anyone... It really does make a difference to the players. Even if it harms performance by 1% that still makes us 1% more likely to perform badly and 1% more likely that we are all going to be shouting at each other on this forum.

 

Good post You might say some people are more positive about things than others & vice versa. COYR's

 

Well said i gotta say i enjoyed reading your reply and it made alot of sense to me, i am deffo not one of the boo boys i would never boo my team and it hearing it going on at the last few games well i've felt embarrased by it.

I have always said i'm 100% behind NA and the team this thread was more aimed at the posters on this site that after every bad result which there have been alot of in the last 2 months come on here and straight away refer to "the 5 year plan" and the in "NA we trust" "get on the bus" "remember where we were a few years ago"
Maybe the deluded term was a bit strong for which i apoligise but we really need to get a new sport cause yeah we are southampton but we're not perfect so lets not pretend we are.

 

Lets get real about Saints current position. I have been watching football for more than 30 years now and rarely have I seen the sort of consistenty shown by our club leading up to December. This is a side which I think has a great future. Even very good sides have dips in their performances and as one contributor has pointed out, we have been lucky to have retained one of the top two positions despite underperforming. I think we have been unlucky in a number of matches, decisions going against us, physical abuse by teams who refuse to play football, injuries at critical times etc Points have been lost.Winning matches breeds confidence. We know that most of the squad are more than capable of beating any side in this league and we know NA understands how to get the best out of the players. To do this week in and week out for a whole season is a great ask. Other sides around us are yet to hit the wall, suspensions, injuries, small squads will play their part. This season is yet to unravel, but by looking at our main rivals I know we are in a very strong position to finish what we started and do what Norwich did last time around!

 

Oh we are far from perfect, Kitch.

I do know what you mean though. Sometimes blind optimism is just as annoying as the doom and gloom mongers. I just wanted you to know there is at least some method to my madness. At least in my head.

 

Here's hoping that it's the blind optimists ( better term than deluded ) that are referring to this thread Saturday evening and giving me what for. I would love to be told see KITCH nothing to worry about the bus is back on track.