Southampton Manager Talking Positively

When Alan Pardew joined Saints we were in a really deep mess. Minus ten points and with a team that was heading only one way, down the tubes.

We were told when he arrived that we were going to be on a five year plan that would hopefully get us back to the Premiership. A plan that also said spending would generally be according to our means.

We strated in August with a draw at home to Millwall. Not too bad but over the next ten games we didn’t fare well enough.

Players were brought in and a few were dropped never to resurface. The team gradually improved and when January came we were hoping that we would still be able to reach the play-offs.

January saw us bring in three good signings and a possible for the future. Fonte and Puncheon have become ever presents while Lee Barnard has chipped in with some good goals for the the team.

Overall, even though we didn’t make the play-offs I am relatively content. JPT winners with the chance to retain it next season, and a high position in the league which shows how far we have come in a year.

Our blue friends down the road beating us after being outplayed for an hour showed us that still more is needed. But beware Pompey for we are going for revenge when we next meet.

Alan Pardew has said that though we can’t go through the games pointing out where we should have received more, we are where we are because this season we were not good enough.

I have to agree. Overall as I said, we have had a very good season. We have beaten Norwich away. We beat Leeds at home and slaughtered Huddersfield. Charlton we edged at home in a very tight game.

This showed that we were capable of beating the best in the league. Only Swindon have beaten us home and away and Millwall and Brighton are the only other teams that we failed to overcome.

Points have been dropped in some games where we may not have been ready to fight for the right to play. Pardew has already gone on record as saying that there will be a lot of player movement this summer.

He has stressed that now the team has to show that it is ready for the next step. That we can challenge for promotion next season. Anything less will be constituted as failure.

He is already making plans for next season and is trying to sort out Michail Antonio’s future. The lad is one loanie that has done exceptionally well for the team this season. He originally came for a stay up till January but we managed to have it extended.

Papa Waigo finishes his loan spell soon and we will look into that situation as well it appears. He is another that has done well at times and disappointed at others.

Alan says that he now has to decide who stays and who goes from the over large squad. He is also on record as saying that we will be bringing in more quality players to boost the squad.

We have to be ready for the off next season and not in a position where we are still trying to add to the squad at the off.

When the next season starts we have got to be ready to start with all guns blazing. We have to be ready to show that we are as good as we think we are.