Excited or Fearful?

[Seaford Saint]

I would say fearful, we continue to play Championship footie and doing this won't work in the Premier League. Giving the ball away cheaply, mis**** passes....even passing to someone marked as opposed to passing te ball to someone who is not.

 

There were plus points....Clyne has been superb, Puncheon has played well and I already prefer Shaw to Fox though there's not much in it. Lallana has been quiet,

[doddisalegend]

I would say fearful, we continue to play Championship footie and doing this won't work in the Premier League. Giving the ball away cheaply, mis**** passes....even passing to someone marked as opposed to passing te ball to someone who is not.

 

There were plus points....Clyne has been superb, Puncheon has played well and I already prefer Shaw to Fox though there's not much in it. Lallana has been quiet,

 

I've only seen one pre-seaon game and that was Ajax when Frank de Boer picked out Adam as our best player. Though from what I can make out from this place (I might be wrong) Adam has been playing a more central role in midfield rather than out on the left as he has done for most of the last three seasons so that might explain why he is looking quiet maybe he is still getting to grips with his new postion?

[Sarnia Saint]

We are going to walk this league

 

As per the last couple of seasons a lot of talk from the powers that be at the club reference ambition,infrastructure,'playing football The right way'...yet we fell short,we got over the line each time,but limped over that line at the final hurdle.

this season is a huge opportunity to push on and establish ourselves as a premier league club,not one of those yo yo ones either.

 

I hope we do not find the premier league one hurdle too many,but I fear for us.

failure could mean huge damage to the club,by failure I mean relegation obviously.

this season will show our real credentials at fulfilling what the fans have have been fed since the new regime took charge.

was it all bluster,or are they serious.

im not overly optimistic,but perhaps reigning in my hopes is a good thing.

 

How exactly did we limp over the line out of division one? How many points did we drop in the last 20 matches that season?? Last year I grant you the team looked tired at the end of the season but again we did not fall short so to say we did is ridiculous. Back to back promotions - yes this year will be hard and we will get some beatings on the way - but if where we are now isnt good enough for you then perhaps you should go support one of the Manchester teams.

[Seaford Saint]

I've only seen one pre-seaon game and that was Ajax when Frank de Boer picked out Adam as our best player. Though from what I can make out from this place (I might be wrong) Adam has been playing a more central role in midfield rather than out on the left as he has done for most of the last three seasons so that might explain why he is looking quiet maybe he is still getting to grips with his new postion?

 

I guess we have come to expect so much from him, he has been our creative outlet. He has been quiet but its relative. He still does things on the pitch that no one else can do but they are not coming off as much. Blimey we are having a reasoned debate....I wonder if others join in!

[Cabrone]

I'm neither.

 

I have realistic expectations and will be happy if we hit them (stay up) but won't be down if we don't (relegated).

 

Whilst I'm braced for a few pumellings I think this season is going to be interesting.

 

If we can stay up then I think we'll consolidate and be much stronger next year so this season is a big one for Nigel and the team.

 

COYR.

[Saint86]

Fonte was a legend 8 months back...... What happened?

 

Portsmouth game for me. Its like someone turned the "do not concentrate" button to overdrive inside his brain!

[MerceSaint28]

I was definitely excited...up to about 3 weeks ago...now im damn right worried.

If anything happens to Fonte or Hoiveld...we are left with Seabourne...an average League 1 defender at best and a guy who has not played in a year...madness

We have had 4 months to get defenders in, so it is not acceptable frankly...

Goalkeeper position we have not signed anyone to push Davis...a 20 year old kid from Gillingham doesn't cut it for me.

Left back is a worry and we only have a 17 year old to cover...and we are lacking any pace and goal threat on the wings..centre mid is still a doubt for me as well...

Cork, Schneiderlin and Hammmond barely scored a goal between them last season...

Up front is the one of the few areas i feel confident about, especially when Lee is fit.

 

Essentially i feel we are horribly under-prepared with 5 days to go until the season starts...

Very worried...talk of Europe was farcical...where is this scouting network??? no continental players have been signed

Sort it out Cortese!!!

[Saint86]

I am loving this and can't wait! Even if we get battered by City and Arsenal (I fancy us against Man Utd).

 

I can see the points made by some that we are underprepared however a lot of you seem to be panicking and it is providing a real insight into your lives and how you see saints. Itsmaking me depressed for you!!

 

We almost didn't exist 3 years ago - stop - let that sink in.

 

Are next four matches are against the 2 wealthiest teams in the world with superstar squads and i fully expect us to give all of them a good bash. Even if we get hammered by city I am still looking forward to this.

 

It is about a group of players and youngsters that have come up through the depths of the football league and have developed and grown together. I agree that they are very inexperienced at top level, but I also do not feel that this means they will fail. I think we have some real quality players, especially in midfield with Lallana, cork and Morgan (I do not think that Davis is a guaranteed start if we played 4-4-2). We also have Lambert, billygoat and JayRod up front and that is a decent and English attack. We will cause problems going forward. Perhaps not overly against Man City, United and chelsea, but once you remove those teams I really think that the defensive side of the league is not that scary and that we will have no issues scoring.

 

Defensively, the idea of Silva, aguero, nasri and Dzeko playing pretty football through our defence terrifies the life out of me! But that is why we practising the 4-2-3-1 (or 4-3-3) formation. People need to stop panicking. WE ARE NOT GOING TO PLAY IT EVERY GAME - It is to compete with the world class midfield. I don't think the club are that worried by the average teams in the league and fancy us to hold our own with the standard 4-4-2 or even with the new formation.

 

Our weakness is our defence - lets face it - WE HAVE 2 CB's. and one of these has the concentration of a drunk Portuguese squirrel on recent evidence. But they will address this with a new signing and I suspect that Martin can be recalled if required. The other issue for me is GK, we need someone to really push Kelvin. I hope he proves me wrong, but I suspect he will slip us a few goals, and I have nightmares of him trying to dribble round say Torres in the area ';.;' You all know he does this far to much!!!!!

 

But all in all, lets look on the bright side.

 

Worst case from first 4 games - zero points - Over the course of a season, the man utd, arsenal, and man city games would idealy produce 3 points, but zero would be expected. (6pts would be a wigan wonder run with their bags to the wall for survival). Therefore if we get zero from these 3 games it is just mentail negativity and panic that will set in that should be ignored as its just 3 of the hardest games and it is all down hill from there!

 

Mini Disaster - 1point (assumed to be wigan) - if this happens - meh? I will be slightly disappointed.

 

Goal - 3points - the standard points tally i reckon most saints fan will have? As above, the season gets easier once you get past the first 4 games so a bad start isn't going to be a massive disaster.

 

Above average - 4points - fancy us to knick something from Man Utd

 

Dare to dream - 5/6pts? why not, its just 11 vs 11 after all? Reckon we can get something from any of those games on a good day?

 

I get the worries about us not being ready, but frankly, if Wigan beat us at home we are in trouble anyway, and they really are 3 of our toughest matches in the first month. We will be ready for anything after that, in fact, the average teams will probably be refreshingly easier to play against as the players only comparison will be the likes of silva, rooney, van persi etc.

 

Still going to be optimistic and pitch for between 10-15th - I think you forget how many prem teams get knocked out by championship squads in the cups. If we survive I will be happy!

[The9]

Still going to be optimistic and pitch for between 10-15th - I think you forget how many prem teams get knocked out by championship squads in the cups. If we survive I will be happy!

 

I think you forget how many Prem clubs field their reserves in cups.

[SaintDan]

I am excited. To be where we are now compared to two years ago when we lost to Plymouth on the opening day of the season is way way beyond anyone's dreams. I imagine Pompey future following their opening game of the season against Plymouth tonight certainly won't be mirroring ours.

 

I often wonder why we are compared to Norwich and not more Swansea other than the back to back promotions and Lambert/Holt comparisons.

 

The Swansea comparisons seem far more......

 

1) I didn't watch a lot of Swansea's football last season but I saw 25 odd games of ours and the style of football we play is similar to Swansea, pass and move.

2) In Brendan Rodgers they had a young promising manager but untried and unexperienced in the Premier League which is where Adkins sits today

3) All the pundits had Swansea at a 20th place finish in August

4) They didnt have a particularly productive summer bringing in Graham (an promising young forward but untried at Premier League level) - J Rod, Routledge who I wouldnt have said was a key player for them last season, a new unknown goalkeeper (perhaps Vorm is a little bit better than Gazzanigga and I personally think another new keeper is needed), Leroy Lita who wouldnt be wanted here anyway but for comparison purposes we've got Billy Sharp and probably the most significant signing Steven Caulker on loan from Spurs which we are striving to emulate at the moment.

5) The who team was fairly inexperienced at Premier League level

6) They started the season at Man City

 

If we can match Swansea last season this season then I think we can all be happy come May and I really believe we stand a good chance of doing this. What we clearly lack at the moment is cover, mainly in goal, CB and LB/LM, with our right wing options probably not up to scratch unless Guly has been on a decent crash course of English and understands now we boo him because he doesnt put in the effort and not because anyone thinks he isnt any good.

 

I feel Fonte is being unfairly criticised by a few on here when one of the reasons he has put his foot off the pedal is because he is a guaranteed starter and has probably been one of the first names on the team sheet since the day he signed, he will get better if there is competition for his place.

 

What ever happens this year, lets enjoy it, lets forget about the silly prices and the lack of white stripes and get behind the team, the Premier League is where we wanna be and hopefully will stay for many years to come.

 

In NA and NC we trust, win it for Marcus and do it the Southampton Way!!!!

[The9]

unless Guly has been on a decent crash course of English and understands now we boo him because he doesnt put in the effort and not because anyone thinks he isnt any good.

 

I feel Fonte is being unfairly criticised

 

[toofarnorth]

If the thought of getting relegated scares you then you scare to easily. I have zero expectations for this season and am just looking forward to seeing saints give their all in the premier league. Hopefully we do well.

[Chez]

Excited. Pure and simple. No fear whatsoever.

 

So long as Fonte adjusts his game a fraction, in terms of when and when not to dive in, he will be fine.

 

So long as we keep the ball like we did at the start of last season, we as a side will also be fine.

[doddisalegend]

If the thought of getting relegated scares you then you scare to easily. I have zero expectations for this season and am just looking forward to seeing saints give their all in the premier league. Hopefully we do well.

 

Last time we were relegated from the PL I thought it was a diastaster in fairness I hadn't really known saints before the (div1/PL) so I was a bit ignorant of the lower leagues. Now I realize that, at least for me, the lower leagues can be good fun. I just want to be able to go a watch saints play a decent match of football, for a reasonable cost on a saturday afternoon........so if anything the lower leagues are better in that respect than the PL for me. Still I'm sure it will feel pretty good if we manage to get one over on one of the big boys and if we lose to a big team it probably won't hurt as much as having the double done over us by Rochdale..... Either way I'm probably less bothered about this season than I have been about the last few.

Edited 14 August, 2012 by doddisalegend

[melmacian_saint]

Very excited. The best league in the world is back on our backyards (in my case for the first time ever and who knows how many times more?), only 4 years after it seemed to never come back again during our lifetime.

 

I do agree signings have been underwhelming but it's a clear sign of trust in the ones that took us to the Prem. Whether that's a big risk or not I think come November we'll have a pretty clear idea about how active we'll be in the January window. I'm however not happy that we haven't at least covered the essentials. For example, one CB should've been signed, and relying the substitute keeper role on someone who has a League Two season's worth of experience in Pro football is very risky (and Kelvin really needs some pushing), and we should've got some decent alternative for our left side.

I would appreciate if someone could explain to me why they consider Hooiveld any more reliable than Fonte. To me they are exactly of the same level and offer the same concerns, essentially because they live in the team sheet. If we had signed a third CB, I'm sure both would still be starters but would definitely have improved on their performances (although I honestly feel it was the lack of quality on the wings that let them down at times last year).

 

As for the rest, still think the right wing needs someone else, but apart from that our squad is reliable. I predict a shaky start but hopefully we'll get our feet on the ground and start walking quite soon. Still think we'll probably battle until the last day to ensure survival, but that's really just the Southampton way.

[offix]

We're nowhere near being a top half team or challenging for Europe or any of that guff. And won't be even if we sign 3 or 4 useful new players.

 

The height of my ambition is to avoid relegation - and I think we're about 50-50 to do that.

 

Don't much care about Man City, Man Utd etc.

 

Question is are we better than 3 of Reading, Wigan, West Brom, West Ham, Swansea, Norwich et al over 38 games?

 

Touch and go, I'd say. So, should be exciting. We probably need only about 35 points to stay up - something like W 9 D 8 L 21 . It amazes me that pundits talk of 40 points being needed for safety (very rarely true).

 

I'm annoyed about the CB thing - but not worried. I'd be amazed if we don't sign one or two by end of the transfer window.

 

That pretty much is my feeling too.

[rick1976.4.38]

excited,yes cant wait too see the utds,citys and others week in week out.its going to be a struggle but if we take out the super clubs of the top four then we need to get home wins againts the teams around us and try and get the odd away win but def some draws.

if we are relegated so be it,the prem is all about what the top four can get and f*** eveyone else.

i'll enjoy the ride but not the overpriced ticketing etc.

nothing to fear really,look where we were a few seasons ago,nearly out of business.