The9 Posted 25 April, 2012 Share Posted 25 April, 2012 The thing about Newcastle, who have done amazingly (I always knew Pardew was a good manager....) is can they keep it up for a second season... chances are probably not. There's always one team that has a good one off season (us in 2003?) and sure that would be fun. It's just being in a league were you can automaticly discount finishing in the top 6 is less appealing than being in a league were you have a chance of winning it. The problem with coming in the top 5 is that nowadays it qualifies you to play 10 matches all over Europe in amongst your important matches, so unless you sign another team's worth of players you're going to have some knackered players on your hands. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr Who? Posted 25 April, 2012 Share Posted 25 April, 2012 I really want to go up now we are this close. Last time we were in the championship, it was rubbish! No matter what league you are in, it depends on what place you are t as a club, and at this moment in time were in a good one, and winning helps! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wilf Posted 25 April, 2012 Share Posted 25 April, 2012 It's affordable, it's fun and there is no shame in being in the NPC. I agree, and more than that the quality of football is better than it was in the old first division that I grew up with, it's like the Premier League has been plonked on top of the old 1st Division, and brought a lot of mercenaries, journeymen and outstanding footballers that we would never have seen playing on English grass. But, ignore the Premier League for a second, and the Championship is a great league, with good footballers and big crowds and we also get a reasonable number of live games on TV to enjoy the whole thing. Having said that, I reserve the right to feel seriously elated when we win promotion on Saturday !!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alpine_saint Posted 26 April, 2012 Share Posted 26 April, 2012 Yes, I know that the EPL is the promised land, that it's where we should aim to be, keep all out best players, more exposure etc but, perversely, I'm not bothered about being there. A number of reasons, all selfish but I doubt unique to me. 1) Far too many home games that I can't make, due to non 3pm Saturday KO's, meaning that my season ticket goes. 2) Away games so expensive I can't do as many as I've done with my nipper over the last 4 years. 3) So many day tripper/fair weather plastic fans wanting to do Arsenal, OT etc that tickets become impossible to get for those who put in the hard miles during the dark years. When we win on Saturday, which we will, I'll celebrate like a loon, most likely cry, being a bit soft like that, but will I be looking forward EPL? In a word, No. Feel free to flame away. I understand all these reasons completely, and there are more you could list as well, such as the inevitable price rises at SMS. But the point is, where do we go from here otherwise ? We are lucky we had a rich benefactor/owner, without him we would be struggling for survival along with the other 72 non-PL clubs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stattmeister Posted 26 April, 2012 Share Posted 26 April, 2012 If we were to be promoted, it would cause havoc for my fantasy football team. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chi saint Posted 27 April, 2012 Share Posted 27 April, 2012 Like anyone with a degree of ambition you want to climb a mountain and reach a summit, which in this case is getting into the Premier. However whilst of course I want to see us perform against the best, I can say that these last two years have been enjotable not just the winning, but also the atmosphere and the change in attitude in respect of the team, knowing they can beat anyone of their day. Sadly I think when we get into the EPL, well either buy every over priced mercenary b**tard who wants to secure theyre pension with a final pay day and that well be in a relegation scrap from day one. Or well simply be in a relagation scrap. Having witnessed years of that last day of the season excitment, "we wil stay up or won't we"? There is something to be said for it, but I have a nasty feeling if we don't buy the right type of player, by that I mean those that aren't already millionaires and won't be influenced by Adkins, then were gonna go back down. Adkins needs to be in charge and not have a dressing room of players that have no real allegience to the club, and by that I don't mean geographically, but mentally. Take Ricky for instance, I may be naive, but I would hope he feels a certain sense of loyalty to the club and more importantly to the manager for the progress he has made and on Saturday evening playing in the finest league in the world. Still who knows? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jjsaint Posted 27 April, 2012 Share Posted 27 April, 2012 (edited) For me personally? No. I enjoy the Championship, the more relaxed days out, the more reasonable ticket prices - and the fact that we win quite often. However for the club I would be gutted. The day will come when a lot of clubs will cease to exist. The only way to ensure long-term financial stability is by playing in the Prem (unless you are Pompey in which case you f*ck it up anyway). Sad but true. In addition if we fail to go up, we will lose quite a few of our top players. Replacement would prove difficult. We saw in the summer and January how difficult the transfer market can be even if you have the necesaary funds. How long would NA stay before he was poached by a Prem club? Who would we get in his place? I think that it would be best for SFC to be in the Prem, although obviously this is up for debate. Edited 27 April, 2012 by jjsaint Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
norwaysaint Posted 27 April, 2012 Share Posted 27 April, 2012 Don't understand how people can somehow separate staying in this league from the dip in the quality of football you could expect to see from saints. If we stayed in this division that would mean we'd have performed poorly enough to not go up. You can't have your cake and eat it, ie play the best football in the division and stay in it. If you want to see the best of saints, you want promotion form. to stay in this division means becoming a mediocre championship side sitting in mid table hoping for the play-offs. Not far off the situation we'd be hoping to be in in the prem, except there we'd hope to be mid-table challenging for a European slot and playing nicer football, and probably attracting and keeping more better quality players. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Window Cleaner Posted 27 April, 2012 Share Posted 27 April, 2012 I'd expect there to be a bit of a spike in the price of junior STs next season, don't know if the free U11s (or is it U8?) will be continued.So the very young supporters who actually go for free now might not be so lucky next season.If their parents can't afford the new rates then they might well regret us being promoted to the PL, yes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SaintSteve Posted 27 April, 2012 Share Posted 27 April, 2012 Don't understand how people can somehow separate staying in this league from the dip in the quality of football you could expect to see from saints. If we stayed in this division that would mean we'd have performed poorly enough to not go up. You can't have your cake and eat it, ie play the best football in the division and stay in it. If you want to see the best of saints, you want promotion form. to stay in this division means becoming a mediocre championship side sitting in mid table hoping for the play-offs. Not far off the situation we'd be hoping to be in in the prem, except there we'd hope to be mid-table challenging for a European slot and playing nicer football, and probably attracting and keeping more better quality players. Exactly, the OP wants a scenario that does not exist.. we don't go up, lose our best players, lose the manager and we are all still happy!! Get a grip.. we HAVE to be promoted and we will be elated and we will enjoy watching Premiership football to see whether we can mirror the other 2 teams that went up last year (who did not fork out millions for greedy players) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pat from Poole Posted 27 April, 2012 Share Posted 27 April, 2012 I want us to go up, as Cheats fans will be incredibly bitter about it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doddisalegend Posted 27 April, 2012 Share Posted 27 April, 2012 Exactly, the OP wants a scenario that does not exist.. we don't go up, lose our best players, lose the manager and we are all still happy!! Get a grip.. we HAVE to be promoted and we will be elated and we will enjoy watching Premiership football to see whether we can mirror the other 2 teams that went up last year (who did not fork out millions for greedy players) Except we wouldn't lose all our players and our manager. It's was a five year plan to get back to the PL and we are in year three. If we don't go up this season NCs not going to go "oh well bollix to it" sell our best players and let Nigel walk away. If, and it's a big if, someone came in with stupid money for Lambert or Lallana, like they did for Oxo last season, NC would probably sell and we have a big load of cash to strengthen the team with. The Idea that if we don't go up this season it's mid table in the championship is a nonesense as Reading have just proved...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Window Cleaner Posted 27 April, 2012 Share Posted 27 April, 2012 Except we wouldn't lose all our players and our manager. It's was a five year plan to get back to the PL and we are in year three. If we don't go up this season NCs not going to go "oh well bollix to it" sell our best players and let Nigel walk away. If, and it's a big if, someone came in with stupid money for Lambert or Lallana, like they did for Oxo last season, NC would probably sell and we have a big load of cash to strengthen the team with. The Idea that if we don't go up this season it's mid table in the championship is a nonesense as Reading have just proved...... Although I suspect somewhat the plan was amended towards the end of last year when we'd been top virtually all season. Promotion this season has always been a target, you only have to check out the player interviews last Summer, they all say the same thing but in their own ways,Promotion this season if possible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sheaf Saint Posted 27 April, 2012 Share Posted 27 April, 2012 Since we dropped out of the PL I have become a lot more aware of just how fickle it is and how precious it is to the media in this country. All those years of us beating Man U and then reading a 3-page spread the next day about what a disaster it was for Fergie without a single word of praise for us, I naively thought that we would actually get some plaudits in the press for once. But now having tasted 7 years away I realise that the only reason we even got as much attention as we did was because we were in the PL. When I look through the sports supplements on a sunday to find 4 or 5 full-page spreads about the PL games and maybe about half a page summarising the Championship, I realise that there is something seriously wrong with the way the PL is regarded as the absolute be-all-and-end-all of football in England; my experiences over the last 7 years tell me otherwise. I have had some bloody great away days during that time and really enjoyed some of the football. Going into every game believing - genuinely believing - that we can win every one and should fear nobody is something that I never experienced for the first 20 years of supporting Saints, and it has been a real novelty. So am I not bothered if we don't make it to the PL? No. I'm not bothered from the point of view that we can still enjoy our football and look forward to challenging at the top again, confident in our ability to beat anybody else in the league. I'm not bothered from the point of view that the PL is a ridiculous bubble where the only way you can possibly hope to be truly competitive is if you can attract a multi-billionaire owner who is willing to recruit players on the most obscene wages, and I would never want to see Saints go down that path. But one thing would bother me massively if we don't achieve promotion this year... We have been in the top two, and indeed - top, for most of the season, and to see us f**k that up now would probably be the most sickening blow I have ever suffered as a Saints fan - worse even than the one I suffered almost exactly seven years ago. So come on you f**king reds! Win it for Markus! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jjsaint Posted 27 April, 2012 Share Posted 27 April, 2012 to see us f**k that up now would probably be the most sickening blow I have ever suffered as a Saints fan - worse even than the one I suffered almost exactly seven years ago. How about admin, relegation to League One and being four days away from going out of business in 2009 ? That was pretty sickening. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Legod Third Coming Posted 27 April, 2012 Share Posted 27 April, 2012 I want to see the next five year plan. Champion's League football is my guess. Bring it on! I've never seen competitive football at the Nou Camp, Bernabua, Allianz arena... This is a journey that cannot end badly as long as you enjoy the journey and don't really care about the destination. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doddisalegend Posted 27 April, 2012 Share Posted 27 April, 2012 Although I suspect somewhat the plan was amended towards the end of last year when we'd been top virtually all season. Promotion this season has always been a target, you only have to check out the player interviews last Summer, they all say the same thing but in their own ways,Promotion this season if possible. I imagine the plan was ammended due to us doing better than (most of us) expected this season. Een if we fail to go up this season the plan is still very much on I would guess. I'm pretty sure that NC and NA aren't just going to give up and settle for mid table obscurity if we don't go up this season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sheaf Saint Posted 27 April, 2012 Share Posted 27 April, 2012 How about admin, relegation to League One and being four days away from going out of business in 2009 ? That was pretty sickening. I'm discounting the business-side of things and purely focusing on the football. Besides, the '4-days away' thing always seemed to me like a massive exaggeration in order to hurry up any interested parties, and as it turned out we didn't go out of business so it wasn't really a sucker punch of the kind I'm referring to. When we lost the shootout at Derby in 2007 I felt gutted watching all those smug Derby fans come running over towards us, so that one comes close. But relegation to L1 was inevitable that season we were so dire, so when it eventually happened I was actually a bit "meh" in the end. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harwellsaint Posted 27 April, 2012 Share Posted 27 April, 2012 I think it's just people shielding themselves from the disappointment. I grew up with saints top flight, and they were til I was 24, and I loved it. The championship is a great league, but not a great league to stay in. You can't build, you lose players, financial pressures grow, crowds get frustrated and it's a long, long slog. When people say they enjoy it more, they must believe we'd start next season even stronger, Lallana and Lambert banging in the goals. They wouldn't be here, and it would be almost impossible to start the season as well as this one. Nope, I'm happy to wave goodbye to it forever now. Yes it'll kill our chances of winning a league, but we had our best chances ever last year and this, and blew it. Two 2nds will have to do! In the lower leagues results are all about getting promoted. 3 points in the bag, move on to the next game. In the top flight I'd celebrate individual wins more, found them more memorable etc., because it wasn't a case of having to win consecutive games all the time, just appreciating a win and savouring it, especially if against a big club. I've missed that. a great, well delivered post, for me the lasting memories are games like the 6-3 vrs united etc , when little old saints cause yet another major upset, i really hope we go up tomorrow as it seems the entire footy world dont want us to, so its set up for us again to prove people wrong, thats why i love and will always love being a saints fan, uts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dig Dig Posted 27 April, 2012 Share Posted 27 April, 2012 a great, well delivered post, for me the lasting memories are games like the 6-3 vrs united etc , when little old saints cause yet another major upset, i really hope we go up tomorrow as it seems the entire footy world dont want us to, so its set up for us again to prove people wrong, thats why i love and will always love being a saints fan, uts. The entire footy world doesn't want us to go up!?? Haven't seen any evidence to back that up at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dalek2003 Posted 27 April, 2012 Share Posted 27 April, 2012 Living in Norwich I can only say this: Been great for the City Canaries fans have loved it Norwich have had a great season. The way to cope is to have few expectations and then anything else is a bonus, hence my prediction of 17th. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
badgerx16 Posted 27 April, 2012 Share Posted 27 April, 2012 (edited) I will be 'bothered'. I will be disappointed. I may even, for a while be gutted. I will get a sh!tload of stick at work, and I would not be confident of the playoffs. But by the end of July I would be looking forward to the new season. ( However, in the real world, by 15:00 on Saturday I will be proudly celebrating promotion ). Edited 27 April, 2012 by badgerx16 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scotty Posted 27 April, 2012 Share Posted 27 April, 2012 Living in Norwich I can only say this: Been great for the City Canaries fans have loved it Norwich have had a great season. The way to cope is to have few expectations and then anything else is a bonus, hence my prediction of 17th. Even from Nursling, I can hear the distant sound of frantic backpedalling in Norwich Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sebastian firefly Posted 27 April, 2012 Share Posted 27 April, 2012 I think its knowing that the PL isnt the be all and end all of football. Having spent the 27 years unbroken in the top division I think we fell into the trap most supporters of the so called big teams do, and that is everything else is crap. Well it aint. In the past three seasons we have had real football fans come to St Marys, we have played some "interesting" teams for various reasons and most of all we have seen our team win a hell of a lot of games. I am desperate for us to win Saturday and go up. But I tell you what, if it only lasted for a season there would be no tears and feeling of doom and gloom from me like there was in 2005 cos there is no fear of life outside the plastic Premiership anymore. COYS absolutely this Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whitey Grandad Posted 27 April, 2012 Share Posted 27 April, 2012 I don't mind not being promoted, it's just that for ever more it would be known as 'doing a Southampton'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aintforever Posted 27 April, 2012 Share Posted 27 April, 2012 I'm not overly bothered, if we fluff it this year I reckon it will only be a matter of time (1 - 2 seasons max) before we get promoted anyway. I think when we go up it will be way different to the Lowe years, we actually have money now so should be a lot more enjoyable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jesus Reigned Posted 27 April, 2012 Share Posted 27 April, 2012 I don't mind not being promoted, it's just that for ever more it would be known as 'doing a Southampton'. Nail. On. Head. Can/Will there ever have been a side that was in the automatic promotion places for 45 games of a 46 game season only to fail in the final game? As for being in the Prem, I'd miss being able to take my 9 year-old for free, and paying anything less than £30 to sit in the Chapel. And I'm not looking forward to the prospect of losing more games than we win again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doddisalegend Posted 30 May, 2014 Share Posted 30 May, 2014 I've changed my mind I don't want promotion........I'd like to time travel back 2011-2012 season please:( Thought in light of the last few days this thread was interesting to re-visit Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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