On the last day for renewing season tickets, it is a good moment to reflect on what Southampton Football Club have achieved over the past few years and look to the future with positivity.
Today see's the final day for the renewal of season tickets and judging by social media there are going to be a fair few who have not renewed and that is their choice.
But the rest of us have to continue the journey without them, just as we had to do when the club was relegated to League One back in 2009.
Many of those who are telling the World why they are bailing out of season ticket renewal tell social media how they supported the club through thick and thin and many describe Markus Liebherr as our saviour and hanker for those halycon days.
But in many respects the legend is a little removed from the actual reality, no one can deny that Markus Liebherr saved Southampton Football Club, indeed perhaps those who are quick to point that out but even quicker to criticise his daughter might wish to reflect on what she has done and how Markus himself would be horrified at the abuse she is receiving now.
But his arrival did not bring a great upsurge in support, an average of 17, 849 watched us slip to administration and relegation to League One, the following season with all the feel good factor only an average of around 3,000 more sat in the stands alongside Markus.
Since then literally every season has been better than the previous, right up to the season just gone, our first season where we haven't improved, although ironically it did offer our first sight of an FA Cup Final in 15 years and only our second FA Cup Semi final in over 30.
But as great as the time has been since our return to the Premier League, every summer since 2014 has seen negativity from the supporters who whilst understandably are not happy about star players leaving, seem unable to grasp the reality of the situation and the difficulty the club have in keeping players in the modern game and indeed keeping the club in the Premier league, the Championship has many clubs who have spent more money than Saints, have better resources but have failed.
Hopefully last season was a blip on the landscape, there can be no real excuses for it, but it was our first poor season in almost a decade and if you call 2016/17 a failure just because you weren't entertained then you need to look back at the history books, top 8 finishes and cup finals haven't exactly been plentiful over the last 133 years, let alone in the same season.
But my main gripe is the fact that we have allowed this mood of negativity to take over, there is barely a story about the club where a large minority of supporters cannot help making sarcastic comments, about Katharina Liebherr, Gao Jisheng, Les Reed or Ralph Krueger.
I don't know what they expect from any of these individuals, Katharina Liebherr has done nothing to harm this football club, her and her family have been it's saviours, but lets get this right, she is Markus's daughter, you cannot praise one and damn the other, she picked up the club in the aftermath of his death and had to revamp it again.
Gao has done nothing wrong except invest a large part of his money into it, a far larger part than it seems some of our own supporters are now willing to, yes he has not said much so far, but the club in no different from Markus's plans for it, he never intended it to be anything other than self suffcient and that is the best way to be.
Gao has the resources to built this club up, but that isn't done by continually propping it up by ploughing money into it, I do not know his intentions any more than anyone, however too many are willing to damn him without any evidence to the contrary, football is littered with owners who talk the talk but end up never walking the walk, the only thing Gao has shown is that he appears to think that the club is well run and at the moment there is no need for big changes, but to evolve it over a period of time.
Les Reed is perhaps the biggest villain to many, yes he has made mistakes and last season was perhaps his biggest in the appointment and then failure to sack Mauricio Pellegrino, but sacking Pellegrino would not have guaranteed survival as the three relegated clubs who did sack their manager found out, hopefully Reed will have learned a hard lesson, the fact that preceding this season we had just watched the longest period of continuous top ten finishes in our history should man that he is given some leeway.
Finally Ralph Krueger, most who slag him off haven't a clue what his job actually is, again he has presided in building the foundations of our commercial success over the last four years, he will have learned lessons as well.
But sorry to digress, all this negativity is dragging us down, it is time to draw a line in the sand and look at the bigger picture, if you don't want to be part of that picture then fine, but let the rest of us get on with it, you don't wan't to be at St Mary's every weekend then fine, talk on social media about your golf or whatever else you are going to do instead, don't keep on about how bad things are, I'm sick to death over the last week of people getting all indignant about Dusan Tadic leaving when for the last three years they have done nothing but complain about him.
For those of us that have renewed our season tickets it is time to create a mood of positivity around the club, an atmosphere where it can succeed, we have been victims of our own success, but that is the way forward for us, we have to embrace it and work with it not against it.
There are many things to be positive about for the coming season, our failure last season can be pinpointed, we have removed and replaced the main issue and we can move on if a section of the fan base will let us.
For those of us who have renewed our season tickets we are not happy clappers, we just support our football club through thick and thin, I speak to many who feel that way, when I write articles of this nature, it usually pricks the conscience of a few people who post a ranting reply, but most of those who go week in week out quietly tell me I am right, they save their voices for the game itself, they don't tell everyone what great supporters they are, they just get on with it, it is what they do, what they have done for years and will continue to do, it defines them, every club has them, supporting the team is not dependent on results, it is about loyalty through thick and thin.
So for those departing from our midst, I understand your reasons for going, or at least why you are saying them, but please let those of us who are going to continue, do so without the negativity of this past season dragging us down, if you have nothing good to say then say nothing.
This is not a story about being a better supporter than anyone else, at times of course all of us have reasons why we can't go to games either regularly or at all, this isn't about those people, but if I have to explain that, then you probably won't understand how I feel about supporting a football team anyway.
So to those who are staying, let's do what we did in 2009, get behind the club, be positive and remember that what it is all about is supporting the club, 45,000 people talk about how they sat at Wembley with Markus Liebherr in 2010, but for a lot of us, those two seasons in League One were more about midweek games against Hartlepool and Dagenham & Redbridge with less than 18,000 in the ground.