By Nick Mabey.
It’s not easy to know when the best time to write this article is. Pre-season is such a fluid period, particularly for a club in transition like Saints. Every day there’s some things definitely happening, some things potentially happening and a whole heap of stuff not happening but being speculated about. I don’t know what to make of it all.
What I do know now is the fixture list for the season and this has got me even more excited about the new season than I already was. First game, home to the Hollywood dazzlers, Wrexham, and their fairy tale rise through the leagues. First away game, away to bookies favourites for promotion, Ipswich. Third home game home to our bitterest of rivals, Portsmouth.
What I also know is the squad is away on tour in Spain and have just continued their unbeaten pre-season run with a hard-fought draw against CD Castellon (who thrashed QPR 6-0 and beat vaunted Valencia in their other pre-season games). Our pre-season games have hardly got the pulse racing, nor given many clues about who is favoured for the first eleven but decades of experience tells me there’s not too much to be learned from these matches in any case.
I know what our new kit looks like. It’s a take on the kit we wore in the season after we won the FA Cup in 1976. For those of us of that vintage – I was 12 and not yet a season ticket holder – it’s similar enough to allow us to bask in the warm glow of nostalgia. In fact that kit lasted four seasons – one thing I’m certain won’t be the case this time round.
As well, I know that I like the way our new manager goes about his media commitments. Will Still is such an unlikely manager in many ways and yet something about him gives me hope. True, I am an eternal optimist always prepared to see the best in others and ignore the downsides, so let’s see how that works out. What I don’t know is how he’ll take to the relentlessness of the Championship.
What I also don’t know is how we will do this season. The bookies have us at a very short-priced (5/1) second favourite to win the league. This seems very optimistic to me, but, as the cliché goes, the bookies are not often wrong. We went straight back up last time we got relegated but that alone can’t be grounds for optimism. We have more stability in the club this time, and a vast squad of players who should be plenty good enough for this division if…
…only I knew who was staying. There’s so much talk about the players we have and who will be still here when the season starts – and equally important when the transfer window closes. It’s a nonsense these two events aren’t on the same date, last time in the Championship we started with Tella and Ward-Prowse, who went on to leave the club after a couple of games. We face similar disruption this time with ‘the big four’ (Ramsdale, Harward-Bellis, Fernandes and Dibling) involved in almost daily ‘will they, wont they be here for the season?’ I’m personally looking forward to the return of Bazunu, Charles and Edozie after season-long loans and am hoping they can all reach their potential with Saints. We’ve made one big signing, a forward called Downs and I’m hoping Ross Stewart will stay fit enough to feel like another new signing. There’s an interesting signing from Japan, Matsuki, who will be worth keeping an eye on, but truthfully there’s a whole lot of players who I’m not sure how to feel about. And don’t get me started on potential signings; it’s a social media nightmare.
The final thing I know is that the start of the season is magical; the absence of form allowing us fans a small window to dream and hope. I’ll be sitting with my oldest friend for the forty-fourth straight season, cheering and groaning, hugging and cursing. We’ll keep turning up no matter what unfolds on the grass in front of us and who is wearing the shirt. Call it loyalty, call it sadness or even madness, this is what we know.
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