Saints fans wait with baited breath for the return of Harry Redknapp to St Mary's to receive the same sort of welcome usually reserved for the Pope at Ibrox.
Its fair to say that many things divide Saints fans when they talk about their football club, however perhaps two men in the history of this club do not divide opinion, the first of those is Ian Branfoot and the second Harry Redknapp, in the case of "Arry" as all his friends in the media prefer to call him instead of the using his full name or even just his surname as they do with most players and managers, you wont find many Saints supporters who dont blame him for our relegation in 2004/05.
Arry will like to give the impression that when he arrived at Southampton we were a busted flush, we were the toughest job of his career, the truth though is that when he started on 8th December 2004 we sat 3rd from bottom in the table with 12 points from 16 games, this sounds a low total but to put it into perspective, Blackburn and Palace both sat only 1 point above us and Birmingham 2 points ahead, Fulham in 14th were 5 points, that shows that the task was difficult but achievable, unlike the rest of the strugglers Saints problems were seen as down to the change of managers, Redknapp being the 3rd of the season and the 4th in 2004, in simple terms we had a decent squad it just needed managing in the right way.
Harry will of course claim that he had no money to spend on the squad, whilst that perhaps true in todays terms, in that season as a whole we were something like the 11th biggest spender in the premiership, but more to the point Rednapp was gioven money in the transfer window, Nigel Quashie was signed for £2.1 million not to mention a host of other players were brought in on loan, Olivier Barnard, Henri Camara, Calum Davenport, Jamie Redknapp, all of whom were experienced Premiership players, indeed Redknapps squad for that season contained some 12 players who went on to play Premiership football for other clubs after leaving Saints, around another dozen or so who were proven Premiership players but didnt play in the division again after this season including the likes of Claus Lundekvam as well as three internationals in Van Damme, Jakobsson and Nilsson, in short Redknapp had the squad, he had the quality he just used it badly.
Indeed by the 20th March after beating Middlesbrough away we had pulled out of the bottom four and appeared to be capable of pulling clear, but then Redknapp started to lose the plot, a 3-1 home defeat to runaway Champions Chelsea was probably to be expected, but the capitulation at Blackburn, going into this game we had both Blackburn and Pompey within our sights after it, although we were still not in the bottom four relegation was now only a four horse race, but with seven games to go there was still a long way to go.
Now it all started to unravel and perhaps Aston Villa at home was the day in which the squad lost faith in its managers ability to manage, initially it looked good and Saints rushed into a half time lead, now legend takes over, with Andreas Jakobsson injured and needing to come off Redknapp went into the shower room at St Mary's to consider his options, he decided to put on Danny Higginbotham, but in the meantime Jim Smith had got Calum Davenport stripped off and warming up, Harry didnt overule him, upshot being that Villa scored three times as Saints defence fell apart and lost the game, the final table shows that if we had won that game we would have stayed up, Davenport only played another 12 minutes in the season ultimately the last 12, Higginbotham was a rock and scored the last minute equaliser at Palace that meant we went into the final day with our future in our own hands.
On that final day Harry apparrently couldnt decide what his tactics would be, ultimately they were ones of desperation, Marian Pahars was fit again and rumoured to be the secret weapon albeit off the bench, but perhaps the fact that Pahars wasnt used wasnt the surprise, but the fact that in the place of suspended Peter Crouch, Kevin Phillips wasnt asked to partner Henri Camara up front, but Brett Ormerod was, bear in mind that Ormerod had been out on loan at Wigam since mid January and two goals in that time didnt exactly make him the in form striker, Phillips hadnt scored in the previous three outings, some of which he had been on the bench, but he had scored in the three prior to that, his record of 10 goals from 21(8) games in this season wasnt shoddy.
In the end Saints surrendered on that final day with barely a whimper, but perhaps the biggest surprise was Redknapps failure to even try to rescue the game in the final minutes, at 2-1 down for the final 27 minutes it was clear Saints needed a win, a draw wouldnt be good enough as news from elsewhere came in, what did Redknapp do though ? in truth not a lot because he had no plan B for such situations, Phillips was thrown on with 19 minutes to go, but the other subs were Davenport for Barnard on 78 minutes and Delap for Prutton on 71, with Phillips the only truly attack minded player on the bench we had nothiong to offer in chasing the game, long before the final whistle Saints fans knew the game was up as the team petered out with little heart, the mercenaries in the team like Redknapp werent interested in Southampton Football Club's fate, perhaps the first time that could ever be said about a Saints team.
Redknapp joined Saints for one reason and one reason only, to put two fingers up to Milan Mandaric the Pompey Chairman with whom he had fallen out, speaking just after he had walked out on Saints in December 2005 after being refused permission to talk to Pompey he He told the Sunday Mirror:
"The last year has been the worst of my life and that is no exaggeration.
"I made a monumental mistake walking out of Fratton Park and a day hasn't passed since I left the ground for the last time that I didn't regret my decision.
"Events this season have simply increased my desire to get away and once Portsmouth asked permission to speak to me this week I knew I had to go back."
If Redknapp knew it was a mistake from the very moment he walked out, why didnt he own up to it and leave Saints in January 2004, OK it wouldnt have been great having to change managers so soon, but surely far better to get a man with integrity and honour into the job who would at least show some enthusiasm for keeping the club up, rather than a self centred egotist who only had one aim on his mind and that was to do the best for Harry Redknapp and his bank balance.
In recent years Saints fans havent all sung off the same hymn sheet, indeed with the sacking of Nigel Adkins they were divided again, however perhaps ironically they will be all reconciled on Saturday and opinion will be as one to "welcome" Harry back to perhaps the place he most hates in English football and perhaps the only club with which he is associated of which he doesnt speak with fondness, thats not the fault of Saints fans who in fairness got behind Redknapp in that season, we didnt deserve such a persong over our club, we deserved far better than that, but on Saturday we get the chance to thank him and in doing so perhaps in uniting the supporters in getting behind Saints and roaring them on to three points that pushes us a step closer to safety and Harry a step closer to another relegation, albeit one that once again the supporters of his club dont deserve but that wont worry Arry !